New OPNsense install - do's and don'ts! tips and tricks!

[gupott]

Hi there,

I managed to install OPNsense yesterday for the first time, on a second hand HP280 (i3-6100) - (I saw one of these recommended on a thread here), with 8gb ram, a 240 gb SSD, and an Intel I350-T4 Quad NIC.

Installation took a while, mostly due (or completely!!) to my ineptitude, but I finally managed to get it working. I only have an 80meg line, and I am seeing around 69 - 70 which feels right.

I have been looking through the various options, and I am a bit bemused to be honest as there are so many more options than I am used to with a commerical router (coming from an Netgear Orbi router).

I set up the intrusion detection last night, which seemed to go ok. I tried to get my protonVPN running, but I ran into a few issues, so I have emailed them directly.

I have put a post on the OPNsense forums, but wanted to check in here too.

Other than that, what should I do first, or avoid? I have read lots of stuff on the internet, but are there any good quality guides, or similar, that I should aim to read?

Thank you.

 

[ChrisD.]

You really don't need IDS on a home router and it can often cause more issues than it solves.

 

[Armageus]

Other than that, what should I do first, or avoid? I have read lots of stuff on the internet, but are there any good quality guides, or similar, that I should aim to read?

Depends why you installed OPNSense? What problem were you trying to solve?

I have been looking through the various options, and I am a bit bemused to be honest as there are so many more options than I am used to with a commerical router (coming from an Netgear Orbi router).

And 90% of them are probably irrelevant to home users, hence why you don't find them on "commercial" routers

I managed to install OPNsense yesterday for the first time, on a second hand HP280 (i3-6100) - (I saw one of these recommended on a thread here), with 8gb ram, a 240 gb SSD, and an Intel I350-T4 Quad NIC.

Is this solely for running a router? Likely a bit power hungry and overkill if so (as I guess it's a Mini tower or at best a SFF)

You'd be better installing a hypervisor (ESXi, Proxmox etc) on it, virtualising OPNSense, and running some other VM's/Dockers etc (pihole etc) on the machine to justify it's power usage versus a "commercial" router

 

[gupott]

Thanks for the replies.

Depends why you installed OPNSense? What problem were you trying to solve?

Mainly to have a bit of a play, to try and understand home networking a bit more, to utilise open source kit vs proprietary. Also to protion off smart devices onto a seperate network and also to run a VPN wide network solution. And probably some other stuff I have forgotten. Mainly though to have a play with a bit more control.

Is this solely for running a router? Likely a bit power hungry and overkill if so (as I guess it's a Mini tower or at best a SFF)

Yes, its a mini tower. My thinking was not to jump on one of the small, fanless solitions which seemed to be coming in around £300 or so, without have a bit of a play first. If I don't like it, I can move the HP back to general usage, it even came with win10 pro.

You'd be better installing a hypervisor (ESXi, Proxmox etc) on it, virtualising OPNSense, and running some other VM's/Dockers etc (pihole etc) on the machine to justify it's power usage versus a "commercial" router

That is a good shout. I liked the idea of building an Unraid server at some point in the future, initially to replace my Synology NAS. I had a quick look at proxmox then I think, I need to read up a bit more.