5
votes

I have been using PFSense on a PC for about 4 years now for my home network, and it works perfect. I love all of its features and I really cannot complain.

Recently though I have been getting tired of maintaining the PC that it runs on, having to reinstall it every time a major part goes wrong such as motherboard or hard drive etc..

I'd like to know if any of you here can recommend a reasonably priced router box that could replace my PFSense running on this PC.

Here are the features that I currently use in PFSense that I would also like to use in the replacement:

  • Traffic Shaping based on protocols and ports
  • Port Forwarding
  • Firewall rules
  • DNS server (Preferably standalone, but forwarding is fine too)
  • DHCP server
  • Traffic monitoring
  • OpenVPN or IPSec VPN server
2
  • Wat is your budget?
    – Zypher
    Sep 2, 2009 at 20:52
  • Buget is $500 max..
    – 7wp
    Sep 2, 2009 at 21:01

3 Answers 3

11
votes

If you're comfortable and satisfied with PFSense, why not just invest in some newer, more reliable hardware for it? Something small based around a mini-itx or micro-atx board, maybe. Get one of those CF cards that plugs into the IDE port, RAM and a case, and you're golden as long as the board has 2 network ports. Low power and should be pretty reliable if you get quality components.

There's also the boards from Soekris that i've heard people putting monowall on, but i have no personal experience with them.

For a Cisco hardware, you could go with the ASA 5505, which runs about $350 without a support contract. It should do everything on your list, except the DNS.

3
  • nice idea I hadn't thought of looking at changing the hardware I'm running it on to something more stable.
    – 7wp
    Sep 2, 2009 at 21:00
  • 4
    I agree with brad.lane, I have had nothing but good experiences with pfsense on my Alix 2d3 pcengines.ch/alix2d3.htm Sep 2, 2009 at 21:29
  • I run a FreeBSD gateway on a Via C7 board that I bought for $60 from ClubIT when they were still in business. Runs perfectly, and has been stable for the last two years!
    – X-Istence
    Sep 3, 2009 at 5:23
12
votes

Check out ALIX hardware, only draws 3 watts, generates very little heat, has no moving parts (to fail and make noise), and you can just restore your existing pfSense configuration right onto it.

several options here: http://www.netgate.com/index.php?cPath=60_85

1
  • 2
    +1 I've been very pleased with pfSense running on ALIX hardware (all 2d3 boards in my case). I have around 5 of them deployed around the country, and none of them have ever given me any problems. Like others have suggested, if you're comfortable with pfSense, why move to something else? Seems silly to me.
    – EEAA
    Nov 21, 2009 at 7:18
-1
votes

Have you considered Ideco gateway ? It has all of the functionality you mentioned and more

Very simple and stable firewall.

1
  • I just looked at that. But that is just another software package. Basically a replacement for PFSense. But I'm looking for a hardware solution. Besides, PFSense is free and IDECO is not.
    – 7wp
    Sep 3, 2009 at 16:32

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