What is the best budget friendly pfsense box out there right now on ebay?

  • NC1HM@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Please elaborate. What do you expect your box to do? And how many ports do you need?

    Assuming you’re not planning for anything computationally intensive such as VPN or deep packet inspection, you can take a look at the four-port Sophos SG 105 / XG 105 (will require one change in BIOS settings for pfSense to install and run) or a five-port Barracuda F12 (doesn’t have video output and therefore will require a console cable for installation). Occasionally, the six-port Check Point T-110 pops up at low prices. Very occasionally, someone lists for cheap a Lanner unit with anywhere between two and six ports. Four-port Sophos UTM 110/120 units still pop up occasionally, but those are REALLY old (went out of support in 2018).

    You may happen upon a three-port APU or a rebrand thereof (SimpleWAN or even Netgate; they used to sell pfSense Plus preinstalled on APUs), but those are extremely configurable and sometimes come with stock OS installed on a CF card, so you may need to buy an mPCIe SSD separately.

    And, of course, oodles of dual-RJ-45 mini-PCs, new and used. Potential problem with those is, the cheaper they are, the more likely they are to come with Realtek NICs (and those NICs used to have a big stigma in the pfSense community due to poor drivers; more recently, things have improved, but many people still don’t want to deal with Realtek). Also, if the seller doesn’t know or doesn’t say what the NICs are, they are probably Realtek.