recommendation for cheap mini-itx board for pfsense

[Jannis Jacobsen]

Need recommendations for mini-itx board

Considering getting a proper pfsense firewall again.
Would be nice to do it on a small budget.
need intel nic (1 is enough, have pcie intel nic to add)

Has to be able to route my 500/500 (preferably enough to handle 1000/1000).

Want to fit it in a slim mini-itx case.
Thanks!

-Jannis

 

[Patrick]

I have had the X11SBA-LN4F running fairly well for very light duties. I heard there is a new BIOS/ rev to make them work better with pfSense but I have not had issues with mine after doing the normal tweaks for Intel NICs (e.g. MBUF).

Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F Review - Sweet!

 

[Evan]

I figure if your going to spend ~215-230 on an SM boards like x11sba (not that there is anything wrong with it all) you may as well go to using the 2nd smallest netgate board @250.
Netgate RCC-VE 2440 Intel Rangeley C2358 Dual Core Board

If you need more power than that then step up to Avoton/Rangely boards from SM.

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

would the rce-ve 2440 manage 500/500 without issues?
ids/ids would also be good to use

-Jannis

 

[Evan]

Pfsense says they a good for full 1g throughput.
I don't know with what extra IDS switched on though but at least firewall your good.

Make a span port and throw IDS into a separate VM would be an option depending on your IDS load.

 

[Patrick]

Pfsense says they a good for full 1g throughput.
I don't know with what extra IDS switched on though but at least firewall your good.

Make a span port and throw IDS into a separate VM would be an option depending on your IDS load.

I would probably look to the 4 core version if you are going to run more IDS.

 

[Evan]

Yeah the 4-core Newgate version comes to ~406 which is s fair bit more, starts to look like the SM boards make a bit more sense.

SM you get full IPMI
Netgate/pfSense you get serial.

On the other hand the netgate is only consuming ~7 watt

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

The SM c2758 looks very interesting.
Too bad it costs $600+ here in Norway, before case, psu and memory

-J

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

Maybe I should use my ubiquiti edgerouter lite again, and configure my Netgear R7000 as AP.

 

[Evan]

I use an ERL and a small switch and I just use an AirPort Extreme as my wifi access point.
Simple and works well.

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

I use an ERL and a small switch and I just use an AirPort Extreme as my wifi access point.
Simple and works well.

Sounds like a plan.
Just need to read up on ERL and vpn config.
Hopefully it supports openvpn for ios devices

-Jannis

 

[Evan]

IPSec / L2TP
OpenVPN not as far as I know...

Some speed tests may interest you...
ERL Performance Testing (with IPSec VPN) - Ubiquiti Networks Community

 

[Evan]

How to config it...
EdgeMAX - L2TP Server

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

Thanks!

Going to try this

-J

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

ERL + R7000 in AP-Mode works like a charm
Vpn works perfectly from my iphone as well, so it's all good.
220Mbit+ on wifi, 500Mbit on cabled up and down.

It's all good

-J

 

[ttabbal]

Any reason not to use the ASRock J1900D2Y?

ASRock J1900D2Y Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 DDR3 1333 / 1066 - Newegg.com

$160ish, decent cpu, dual Intel NICs, and IPMI w/KVM. Perhaps not as quick for VPN as it lacks the crypto acceleration features. The WAN connection is 150/15, which seems doable with this board.

 

[jjoyceiv]

Any reason not to use the ASRock J1900D2Y?

ASRock J1900D2Y Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 DDR3 1333 / 1066 - Newegg.com

$160ish, decent cpu, dual Intel NICs, and IPMI w/KVM. Perhaps not as quick for VPN as it lacks the crypto acceleration features. The WAN connection is 150/15, which seems doable with this board.

I recommended this board in another thread. You should be able to push 15mbit with the VPN, and otherwise run your link full-speed. Go for it.

 

[cesmith9999]

Then there is this thread.

APU2 pfSense box 'on the cheap'

Chris

 

[whitey]

Any reason not to use the ASRock J1900D2Y?

ASRock J1900D2Y Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 DDR3 1333 / 1066 - Newegg.com

$160ish, decent cpu, dual Intel NICs, and IPMI w/KVM. Perhaps not as quick for VPN as it lacks the crypto acceleration features. The WAN connection is 150/15, which seems doable with this board.

Listing says realtek nics. Just sayin' not a showstopper but the pc-engines APU2 'may' be a better fit w/ 3x Intel i211 nics.

 

[jjoyceiv]

Listing says realtek nics. Just sayin' not a showstopper but the pc-engines APU2 'may' be a better fit w/ 3x Intel i211 nics.

Not quite.

The ASRock Rack website says "Supports Intel Dual GLAN (2 x Intel i210 )"

There's lots of cheaper mITX boards that use Realtek NICs, but I'd never recommend or use one that's not Intell all the way.