I’m near Nashville TN, my only real concern is the dew point on overnights causing condensation. It gets cold, but doesn’t stay that way. It gets hot, but not too crazy.
Small firewall recommendations
- Thread starter cadamwil
- Start date
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I feel like you *exactly* described the Mikrotik Hex with your requirements. I just checked and it has been tested -40C to 60C.
mikrotik.com
hEX | MikroTik
5x Gigabit Ethernet, Dual Core 880MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, USB, microSD, RouterOS L4
mikrotik.com
The downside to a lot of MikroTik stuff (including the hex) is MMIPS architecture, it's basically a security hole you cannot patch since almost no low-end MIPS cores have basic things like NX. Other than that, like their RB450Gx4 there are good options there, and that one even has POE-in + POE-out (and -40°C to 70°C rating). Case is cheap as well so overall you get a reasonable $150 package. You can opt to use their RouterOS but OpenWRT runs on it as well. It also has IPSec acceleration.
Supermicro fanboy here. They have some interesting embedded options and good support. E302?
I've seen the -9A go for ~$500. Which ones did you have in mind?I love those. If only they weren't between $1k and $2k...
I’d love to go supermicro, but they are too big for the space I have.
Ah, I see your earlier reply about the small space already being 70% occupied. I suppose the E302 at 11.6" x 3" x 8.1" wouldn't fit.
There's also the SC101F @ 1.7" x 7.6" x 8.9" but not sure how that would do in that environment.
I’ll look into the Mikrotik, it does seem like it would fit well.I feel like you *exactly* described the Mikrotik Hex with your requirements. I just checked and it has been tested -40C to 60C.
hEX | MikroTik
5x Gigabit Ethernet, Dual Core 880MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, USB, microSD, RouterOS L4
pfSense is using a very recent base for the version that is supposed to be released soon. Personally, as long as my hardware is supported and their aren't any outstanding vulnerabilities that will affect pfSense/OPNSense, I don't really care what version of the base OS they use. That's like with a recent version of Sophos XG I was on the console of this morning. It's running a 4.something (4.14?) version of the Linux kernel. That's not really recent either, but I don't think many people are bothered by it because they're going for the overall package, not the kernel or OS it's running on.
As far as hardware compatibility goes, this is for a firewall, not a gaming system. It's very easy to get bog-standard hardware that's well-supported by pfSense or OPNSense. All it takes is a little research prior to purchasing.
The issue with base OS versions and kernel versions was mostly for 2.5G network interfaces, and 5G in some cases. Classic speeds (1G/10G) are pretty well supported for quite a while, but those 'in between' speeds are a bit more recent making a lot of older distributions not work with them.pfSense is using a very recent base for the version that is supposed to be released soon. Personally, as long as my hardware is supported and their aren't any outstanding vulnerabilities that will affect pfSense/OPNSense, I don't really care what version of the base OS they use. That's like with a recent version of Sophos XG I was on the console of this morning. It's running a 4.something (4.14?) version of the Linux kernel. That's not really recent either, but I don't think many people are bothered by it because they're going for the overall package, not the kernel or OS it's running on.
As far as hardware compatibility goes, this is for a firewall, not a gaming system. It's very easy to get bog-standard hardware that's well-supported by pfSense or OPNSense. All it takes is a little research prior to purchasing.
If this is within your budget, go for it! That will definitely work. And since it has a WDT on both the OS side and the NMI-SMM side, any lockups will self-resolve.