Need inexpensive Untangle or pfSense build rec's please

M

MinPins

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 30, 2007
Messages
368
My D-Link NAT router is beginning to show it's age. After years of reliable service I have had to reboot (unplug) it 3 times in the last few weeks to get it working. I am looking for build recommendations for an inexpensive but capable and reasonably fast router/firewall/AV solution.

I have an old desktop case and PSU that I can probably use for the build and I also have a few DIMMs that might be compatible as well. I have been looking at a few micro ATX boards with built-in dual Intel NICs, seems like these have been used by a number of members for their builds.

Your help an advice for a budget build would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
How many users/devices do you have? Is this just at home? Untangle and PfSense both have their pros and cons but for the most part Untangle has higher system requirements. You may want Untangle because of it's features.. plenty of people will be chiming in so let us know some more about your network needs.
 
For ultimate low cost I would probably troll craigslist or ebay for a used Dell Optiplex 275 or 755 for less then $200, this shouldn't be hard to find at all (my first pfSense box was an Opti 275 with 2GB of RAM for $45 including the shipping off ebay). The reason I suggest these two models is I know for sure that they will come with a Broadcom or Intel network card, and have at least 2 PCI slots (get the full tower version not the slimline).

After you acquire your cheap dell get yourself 2 Intel Pro1000 PCI adapters (even if you pay retail these are $30 from newegg, I bought a box of 10 off ebay about 2 years ago for that price).

Finally storage. If you are running pfSense then slap a 8 or 16GB USB or CF-SATA drive in that puppy and let it go (you can also now pick up 8 and 16GB SSDs for about the same price). Lower power draw and quieter then a spinning HDD. If you are running Untangle you will want at least a 40GB HDD (if you are installing a bunch of the paid packages and also plan to log locally, if not then again a 8 or 16GB flash drive is fine).

This will end up giving you a system capable of handling anything you can throw at it from a home use standpoint all for under $250 (if you spent more then that you are doing it very wrong).
 
This will be for my home network.
Diagram is a tad out-of-date but close.
Primarily 1 user with the occasional guest(s).
Failing router is a D-Link DGL-4100 (I had to reboot it again today).

Numerous network devices including:

2 PCs
1 laptop
1 ReadyNAS Pro (I use remote access often)
1 iPad
5 IP cameras (part of home security system)
2 satellite receivers (only using 1 currently, other is "suspended")
1 WD TV Live Hub (Netflix, etc. streaming)
3 audio streaming devices
HP 1810G-24 switch
2 WIFI G APs

In case you are wondering, all of the these devices were purchased prior to my budget getting slammed by a huge home repair bill, hence my fairly tight budget for a new router/firewall/AV/Malware box. I don't need to go uber-cheap on the build, but I have been very cost conscious for the last 6 months as I try to pay down the repair bill debt as fast as I can. Putting off much needed PC upgrades until that bill is fully paid, even sold my DLP PJ to help pay the bill.
 
Last edited:
Probably need to budget for a switch and Access Point as well.

Edit: Nevermind, I see you have those in your list of parts already
 
maw said:
Probably need to budget for a switch and Access Point as well.

Edit: Nevermind, I see you have those in your list of parts already
Click to expand...

He has a switch, see the diagram..

Do you have a budget ?
 
What do you think of these components:

-SuperMicro Mini-ITX Atom D510 MOBO w/dual Intel Gigabit LAN & onboard graphics for $188
-InWin Mini-ITX case w/200W PSU for ~$50 delivered

I already have spare 120GB SATA drive and two 2GB DIMMS that should be compatible in my spare parts box.

Total cost ~$250.
 
Honestly what I did and I think this is your best bet is look for an old laptop with a card bus/expansion port. An old thinkpad (t42, t43 t40) would work fantastic. My last pfsense box was a dell laptop from 2002 (just died a week ago) and now its a t43 from 2005. They use much less power than those old p4 machines and work just as good. You should be able to find one for <$100 on craigslist/ebay. If you want to get cheaper look for one with a broken monitor as you only actually need one for about 3 minutes to setup the router.
 
MinPins said:
What do you think of these components:

-SuperMicro Mini-ITX Atom D510 MOBO w/dual Intel Gigabit LAN & onboard graphics for $188
-InWin Mini-ITX case w/200W PSU for ~$50 delivered

I already have spare 120GB SATA drive and two 2GB DIMMS that should be compatible in my spare parts box.

Total cost ~$250.
Click to expand...

I thought I read on here not too long ago that someone was going with an I3 setup over atom because at idle the power draw is negligible. If you do plan to use untangle instead of pfsense is rather have the I3

http://m.tomshardware.com/reviews/d510mo-intel-atom,2616-11.html

Dug that up. It's interesting at idle its so close. Obviously under heavy usage the I3 consumes much more power. But a router/firewall isn't going to stress it very much at all.

What might max out an atom CPU might only need 25% of an i3 (that's a guess). What is power usage like then on the same tasks.

I'd be interested in seeing power usage stats over a week of the two.

Depending on the numbers is rather not use an atom. You have no upgrade path to CPUs in the future. I3s also have onboard video that is factored in when displaying their power consumption numbers. No need for extra video card or even onboard video which will consume more power overall.

Interesting things to consider overall. One day I might take my nettop with a usb nic and put it against my current c2d system and see how it does in power consumption over the course of a week with a kill-a-watt.
 
Last edited:
I got an Atom D510 board for ~$85 and popped that into an old case I had lying around from a dead computer at work. I had the RAM and HDD already as well as a PSU. I bought a dual port gigabit intel card from eBay for 30 bucks. 2 GB of RAM and an Atom D510 runs Untangle real well. I have a 25/2 DSL connection, and I get full speed.
 
I run pfSense on PowerEdge 1650/1750s, mostly for the redundnat features of the chassis. I run LoadBalanced dual WANS (10/2 and 10/0.75) for 10 moderate users + Heavy exchange trafic for approximately 20 mailboxes. also VoIP traffic for 0-4 simultaneous calls
4 VLANS
The PE1750 I use is Dual 3GHz, 2GB memory, 2 U320 36GB drives in RAID1
CPU usage is 2%
Memory usage is 3%
SWAP usage is 0%
Disk usage is 1%
pfSense 2.0 Release

If this old dinosaur is absolute overkill for the detailed network, an Atom can easily power your network. 2GB is more than enough.
I'll be setting up multiple VPN tunnels in the next month, I'll let you know if the resource usage breaks 10%
8GB of memory for pfSense is absoluetly frivolous
 
Thanks for the input guys.
I think I'm going to start scouring Craig's List and see what kind of gear I can come up with.
Might try to see how cheaply I can build a competent and energy efficient box.
Reloaded the FW on my current router yesterday, hoping it survives a bit longer.
 
RocketTech said:
If this old dinosaur is absolute overkill for the detailed network, an Atom can easily power your network. 2GB is more than enough.
I'll be setting up multiple VPN tunnels in the next month, I'll let you know if the resource usage breaks 10%
8GB of memory for pfSense is absoluetly frivolous
Click to expand...

We know the Atom can power it, but for the price you can get something much better that you can upgrade/ use for another purpose down the road. I'm sure the new Ivy bridge at 22nm will use even less idle power. I also know it doesn't need 4-8GB of memory, but the same principal applies there as well. The best deals on memory are in those 2 categories, you could use it again elsewhere, and it is what most would have sitting around as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top