Edgerouter vs PFSense box?

TechMinerUK · 18 Mar 2016 at 08:23

Hi everyone, since I have been looking at my network recently I was wondering which of these soloutions would be better for my network if I needed to upgrade my trusty TP-Link in the future.

So which one is the better option as since I will be using a switch ethernet ports on the router aren't a big concern but power efficiency is (Don't particularly want a big powerbill increase)

Steveocee · 18 Mar 2016 at 09:17

Edgerouter IMO
PFsense is great and good but it's just software so you need to build something to house it. By the time you're done you won't get anything small and power efficient enough to come anywhere near the ER.

Plus the ER has very nice pretty colourful graphs as well.

Sin_Chase · 18 Mar 2016 at 16:42

I migrated from pfSense appliance (Running an a desktop SFF PC) to an EdgeRouter Lite. Best move ever, highly recommended.

Steveocee · 18 Mar 2016 at 16:44

If I had to pick now I'd probably go Edgerouter. I regret the day I bought my RB3011 due to it's ridiculous firmware issues which have been ongoing for weeks now.

Caged · 18 Mar 2016 at 17:02

If you just want a router with ACL support then get the EdgeRouter. And to be fair stuff like caching proxies that you can do with pfSense are less and less relevant now that everything is HTTPS.

faxfan · 18 Mar 2016 at 17:04

Are you guys recommending any particular Edge Router or just an Edge Router? Because I'm thinking of going the other way.

I'm looking for VPN / proxy services (spend a lot of time travelling with work) and want the best solution. Also I run a server that requires 24x7 access which works fine with my Draytek 2820n - the server is super stable as well.

Caged · 18 Mar 2016 at 17:06

Sophos XG virtual appliance is free for home use, that might fit the bill.

TechMinerUK · 18 Mar 2016 at 17:12

Steveocee said:
If I had to pick now I'd probably go Edgerouter. I regret the day I bought my RB3011 due to it's ridiculous firmware issues which have been ongoing for weeks now.

Caged said:
If you just want a router with ACL support then get the EdgeRouter. And to be fair stuff like caching proxies that you can do with pfSense are less and less relevant now that everything is HTTPS.

Steveocee said:
Edgerouter IMO
PFsense is great and good but it's just software so you need to build something to house it. By the time you're done you won't get anything small and power efficient enough to come anywhere near the ER.
Plus the ER has very nice pretty colourful graphs as well.

Well then, it looks like it's the Edgerouter for me then

Is there any particular model I should look to buy or could I get by using the ER-X model?

Steveocee · 18 Mar 2016 at 18:37

Lite or above, the X and XSfp are specced down.

Caged · 18 Mar 2016 at 18:49

How fast is your internet? I would be surprised if opting for the X limited you.

TechMinerUK · 18 Mar 2016 at 20:11

Caged said:
How fast is your internet? I would be surprised if opting for the X limited you.

37 Down /4 Up with possible upgrade to 80/5 in the future

Steveocee · 18 Mar 2016 at 21:12

X will easily handle that. The ERL is better for very high throughput (like gigabit) but it wouldn't hurt to go for it now. The X models got a lot of slating on the UBNT forums as they don't perform as well as the lite but £v£ the X is probably going to suit you better.

TechMinerUK · 18 Mar 2016 at 21:40

Steveocee said:
X will easily handle that. The ERL is better for very high throughput (like gigabit) but it wouldn't hurt to go for it now. The X models got a lot of slating on the UBNT forums as they don't perform as well as the lite but £v£ the X is probably going to suit you better.

Excellent news, at least I can save a bit of cash there then as by the time my area gets gigabit the router will be out of date

bledd · 21 Mar 2016 at 08:49

I'd just go for the ERL. Fantastic piece of kit

thenewoc · 21 Mar 2016 at 10:29

Don't forget the edgerouter lite is just a router and has no wireless interface. According to small net builder there's also a fair few that have a higher throughput too.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/75-lan-to-wan

Still a good idea though to separate out the router and wireless access point devices if the router isn't closest to where you'd use wireless access.

Mikrotik might be worth a look too, eg hEX (RB750Gr2) for a comparable to the edgerouter lite or the new hAP ac (RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT) if you want router + wireless ac device.

Steveocee · 21 Mar 2016 at 11:31

thenewoc said:
Mikrotik might be worth a look too, eg hEX (RB750Gr2) for a comparable to the edgerouter lite or the new hAP ac (RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT) if you want router + wireless ac device.

I currently have a hAP AC on test and it isn't all that great IMO

drakioned · 21 Mar 2016 at 16:07

Caged said:
Sophos XG virtual appliance is free for home use, that might fit the bill.

Ooh. Haven't seen this, thanks for the heads up.

Caged · 21 Mar 2016 at 16:13

Mikrotik do point-to-point Wi-Fi reasonably well, but their 'providing Wi-Fi to laptops' radios are terrible.

Sin_Chase · 21 Mar 2016 at 20:39

Just get an ERL3 and be done with it

faxfan said:
Are you guys recommending any particular Edge Router or just an Edge Router? Because I'm thinking of going the other way.

I'm looking for VPN / proxy services (spend a lot of time travelling with work) and want the best solution. Also I run a server that requires 24x7 access which works fine with my Draytek 2820n - the server is super stable as well.

ERL3 supports OpenVPN and I use it without any issues. Cert based auth etc etc