Starting pfsense for New Users

[TanKianW]

From another link.

Other than the network adapter, spec seems to be similar. Price is a bit higher but with two more ports. 8GB/128GB is at RMB1330, but need to add GST and Shipment.

Spec looks good. CPU is faster and supports higher memory capacity. Good buy.

 

[xiaofan]

Try this guide.
https://medium.com/@jefferytay/adve...1-setting-up-internet-and-mio-tv-8474af46edcc

Take note guide is for Singtel ONT users. It is not applicable SingTel ONR users.

xiaofan’s guide configure the pfsense VLANs to work with miotv. This should work.

Another way is to connect the miotv and digital phone line str to the (bridged) Huawei ONR. I am using this method. It works too.

Good point, for ONR users, you need to connect SingTel TV box to the ONR. And to effectively use a pfsense router, the user needs to request SingTel to bridge the ONR.

pfsense router -- ONR bridged port
SingTel TV box (up to 3 boxes) -- ONR unbridged port

 

[-Grift-]

Spec looks good. CPU is faster and supports higher memory capacity. Good buy.

Would the 2C4T and higher freq and lesser cache perform better than the 4C4T with more cache for this purpose?

 

[TanKianW]

Would the 2C4T and higher freq and lesser cache perform better than the 4C4T with more cache for this purpose?

I might be wrong, but I think both will be pretty close for this purpose.

But if I am using Suricata which support multi-threaded, I will likely choose more physical cores.

 

[xiaofan]

Spec looks good. CPU is faster and supports higher memory capacity. Good buy.

Would the 2C4T and higher freq and lesser cache perform better than the 4C4T with more cache for this purpose?

I might be wrong, but I think both will be pretty close for this purpose.

But if I am using Suricata which support multi-threaded, I will likely choose more physical cores.

I was also wondering which one is better for pfsense if we keep the memory as 8GB only.

As a mini PC, Pentium 4415U should be faster than Celeron J4105. But J4105 seems to be much more popular for router build in Taobao.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-4415U-vs-Intel-Celeron-J4105/m267685vsm444211

 

[Henry Ng]

Yo! Any guide on how to setup SingTel MIO TV settings on the pfsense?

How much is that router and which model?

 

[Henry Ng]

From another link.

Other than the network adapter, spec seems to be similar. Price is a bit higher but with two more ports. 8GB/128GB is at RMB1330, but need to add GST and Shipment.

What security does it came with?

 

[xiaofan]

What security does it came with?

Read the earlier posts. You have to set up the security staff by your own in this case.

 

[Henry Ng]

Read the earlier posts. You have to set up the security staff by your own in this case.

I see so it is just a DIY thing. The good about this router is the much higher specs as compared to home use router. I am also considering it. The draw back is no bundled anti-malware.

 

[toyota]

From another link.

Other than the network adapter, spec seems to be similar. Price is a bit higher but with two more ports. 8GB/128GB is at RMB1330, but need to add GST and Shipment.

Ordered this similar model but with 3865U as chip 8G/128G but it came with 3867U processor instead.

 

[xiaofan]

Ordered this similar model but with 3865U as chip 8G/128G but it came with 3867U processor instead.

How do you like it with the 3867U CPU? Have you installed pfsense?

This paticular Taobao Vedio Talk shop has quite some different product for router and NAS, based on different CPUs, like Pentium 4415U, Celeron 3965U/3867U, Core i5-7200U, i5-7500U, etc.
https://vediotalk.world.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3.23494b30J7HO0n

 

[TanKianW]

I see so it is just a DIY thing. The good about this router is the much higher specs as compared to home use router. I am also considering it. The draw back is no bundled anti-malware.

The thing is...you need to know if that bundled "anti-malware" with your router is actually effective... or just an IP/DNS filter & basic scanning with marketing which gives a false sense of security.

pfsense is a different league on its own. Where an enterprise can put their trust on.

 

[bert64]

The thing is...you need to know if that bundled "anti-malware" with your router is actually effective... or just an IP/DNS filter & basic scanning with marketing which gives a false sense of security.

pfsense is a different league on its own. Where an enterprise can put their trust on.

Yes.. The so called "anti malware" in most routers is pretty useless and ineffective. Most of the traffic passing over the router will be encrypted so it can't inspect the contents anyway. so you're largely just listed to address/dns blacklists.
Many routers also receive extremely limited updates/support, so at some point the blacklists could stop being updated.

With pfsense you can do this too, but you have more control over it.

You can also setup an ssl intercepting proxy, which will be able to inspect traffic from encrypted sites. As this is also entirely under your control, the usual concerns about ssl interception are not an issue.

 

[milanmania2004]

Own a pfsense box in Esxi VM, on a i5 3470t ,16gb ram and SSD ,by reuse a Lenovo tiny pc M92P.
Stable and fast on m1 500mbps plan..cpu utilisation no more than 10% with suricata and pfblocker turned on.

For bro who looking to diy pfsense box, i suggest those tiny/slim PC from reputable vendor like Lenovo, HP, Dell etc is another good avenue to explore..just need add additional gigabit lan to enable 2xlan, utilize pcie or m.2. I get it from taobao 100rmb.
Cheers.

Sent from HUAWEI LIO-L29 using GAGT

 

[-Grift-]

Own a pfsense box in Esxi VM, on a i5 3470t ,16gb ram and SSD ,by reuse a Lenovo tiny pc M92P.
Stable and fast on m1 500mbps plan..cpu utilisation no more than 10% with suricata and pfblocker turned on.

For bro who looking to diy pfsense box, i suggest those tiny/slim PC from reputable vendor like Lenovo, HP, Dell etc is another good avenue to explore..just need add additional gigabit lan to enable 2xlan, utilize pcie or m.2. I get it from taobao 100rmb.
Cheers.

Sent from HUAWEI LIO-L29 using GAGT

Tiny form factor has PCIE expansion? Would love to see your setup!

 

[xiaofan]

Tiny form factor has PCIE expansion? Would love to see your setup!

M92p/M93p have PCIE. They seem to be pretty popular as the base for DIY router.
https://support.lenovo.com/do/en/solutions/pd024422
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/so...ns-for-thinkcentre-m93-m93p-small-form-factor

 

[milanmania2004]

Before

After 2lan, Intel i210

Sent from HUAWEI LIO-L29 using GAGT

 

[-Grift-]

M92p/M93p have PCIE. They seem to be pretty popular as the base for DIY router.
https://support.lenovo.com/do/en/solutions/pd024422
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/so...ns-for-thinkcentre-m93-m93p-small-form-factor

He was referring to tiny form factor as shown in his pictures, dint know modding it like that was a thing

Edit: Its a whole other rabbit hole
https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...wall-build-with-aftermarket-4-port-nic.14793/

 

[Henry Ng]

The thing is...you need to know if that bundled "anti-malware" with your router is actually effective... or just an IP/DNS filter & basic scanning with marketing which gives a false sense of security.

pfsense is a different league on its own. Where an enterprise can put their trust on.

Actually i like the specs of the router, quite high end so it can handle much more compared to home use router. For wifi can always use those wifi mesh. Quite a good router and the price is ok too.

 

[toyota]

How do you like it with the 3867U CPU? Have you installed pfsense?

This paticular Taobao Vedio Talk shop has quite some different product for router and NAS, based on different CPUs, like Pentium 4415U, Celeron 3965U/3867U, Core i5-7200U, i5-7500U, etc.
https://vediotalk.world.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3.23494b30J7HO0n

I didn't have another low power always on PC to compare but like the fact that it is fanless and low power. I thought would be just nice to use for pfsense which I am learning.

Ran win10 on it for a while before finally getting pfsense into this box.

The only other low power computing device would be the NAS but that is an even lower end CPU, J1900 and would have to use pfsense on a VM which I thought shouldn't put all eggs in 1 basket.