pfSense Machine Recommendation

[Deleted member 83050]

Recently i have been doing a bit of digging on the internet about pfSense Firewall and planning to set it up in my home network. I have figured out the basics on how to get it working on a machine. Just had a few questions related to it and looking forward for some advice.

1. Since i am just starting out, i don't want to spend a lot of money initally. Was thinking of getting a old small form factor PC like Lenovo Mini PC or Dell Optiplex and flash pfSense on this. As per my research i have to buy a Dual/Quad Port 1GbE or 10GbE NIC PCIe card because i need minimum of 2 ports. What are the options available in the market? I am a little hesitant to import these products from China via AliExpress. Can i get it somewhere in India Itself, like LT Store?

2. Another option is to get an industrial PC something like this but this seems a bit expensive. Are there any cheaper industrial PCs available?

3. Another option which comes to my mind is to build a custom PC under a certain budget like 15-20k(with NIC) and flash pfSense on it. A noob question - Does AMD work fine with pfSense or i need to buy intel CPU only?

I am also a little worried about power consumption. What are the ways to minimize it?

My requirements:
1. I am currently on the 200 Mbps Plan but i might move to a higher plan maybe 500 Mbps with some other ISP. What things i need to keep in mind in order to remain future proof? Is it safe to get a 2.5 GbE ONU?
2. I may also want to setup two ISPs(dual wan) in failover or load balancing. What kind of NIC do i need then?

 

[ishanjain28]

pfsense is not worth that price.
opnsense is buggy and so is vyos(but then I currently use vyos, least buggy with all the features I need so far)
I liked routeros except they are taking a lot of time implementing some features

 

[WieldyBinkie]

I am stuck on 23.09 RC. I think they aren't gonna release stable version for Home/Lab NDIs. Once 2.8.0 is out, I'll move to CE or go back to the good old openwrt.

If anyone is interested in TAC lite, you can use promo code: TACLITE for $20 off

 

[Chip]

Even that $20 off isn't good enough. if they had priced it at $50 or less many, many people would have jumped on it but frankly paying up for what is an an open source software at it's heart doesn't make sense to me.

And I've never needed help from Netgate, just look around on the net and you'll find all the help you want from basic to advanced configuration steps and troubleshooting too. These guys are greedy. Their appliances are ridiculously priced as well for the hardware they offer. And the killer (for me) was your SSD wears out and you need to buy a new appliance according to Netgate. No user replaceable parts...WTF man! Of course people found work arounds but then patronising a company with low or questionable ethics is rather stupid IMHO. I went with Protectli and so far so good.

 

[WieldyBinkie]

100% agreed.