pfsense

[lixxus]

recently come across this piece of software. and i am contemplating whether i should implement it in my setup. i am currently running dd-wrt with bridged modem. there is a lot of downloading and streaming that goes on in the house. with up to 6 devices connected wireless at any given time. the load on the dd-wrt is always sky high which worries me and sometimes lags the network if other ppl are battering the connection.

is pfsense the solution i need and what hardware would be appropiate to use. ive come across the alix systems and mini itx . the problem with freebsd is that wireless N isnt supported and i would be restricted to 54g speed wireless.

ideally i would like cheapest solution possible for under £100,

 

[lay-z-boy]

I've used pfsense, m0n0wall, dd-wrt x86 and untangle. Out of them i found dd-wrt x86 was the most reliable, worked with the most hardware and had the most working features.

I had a few problems with pfsense, some of the features just wouldn't work, or didn't work properly so i tried dd-wrt x86 after a month of pfsense.
My current router is an old desktop from years ago and it's been working flawlessly since i set it up with dd.

A64 2800+, 512mb, biostar 6100 matx board & 2 pci-e network cards for wan/lan/dmz going into a wag354g setup as a modem.
I use a wrt54g, 2x dir655 and a wrt610n all setup as access points for wireless around the house.

Hardware wise, it depends on how big you can go. Bigger hardware is usually cheaper/faster than the compact stuff.

You can pick up an intel atom board + 2nd pci nic with a case, flash drive and psu for under £100 if you look through google.

Also you can choose the net48xx or net55xx range from soekris and the ALIX platform from PC Engines. aenterprise might be worth a check for prebuilt stuff.

I really would leave wireless to wireless ap's though, much easier way of going about things and usually a lot faster.