I finally decided to buy a mini PC to make it as a pfsense router and I was wondering witch option is more suitable for my needs

First I was thinking of doing with proxmox so I could install pi-hole and wireguard in it but looking more into pfsense I see that there is PfblockerNG and also a Wireguard package that could be installed inside.

What does everybody in here use? I’m curious to know if thinkering in proxmox to run pfsense is more efficient than just installing bare-metal.

Thank you

Conclusion: will go with sole pfsense since I never used it in the first place, once accustomed will switch to proxmox, thank you everyone I hope there will be more posts like this in this platform

  • Petri
    1•1 year ago

    Thank you @coffelov for your timely post - I was going to post a very similar question myself today. What sort of hardware are you considering to use for your pfsense server?

    There are a lot of possible solutions that could be suitable, wondering what sort of hardware you were thinking about.

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•1 year ago

      I bought the Intel Celeron n5105 from some vendor called wooyi store on AliExpress, from what a saw on yt that CPU is a little overkill for a router and it uses too much idle power, but I think it was a good purchase for me bc I don’t plan to switch this router soom. Edit: I’m also thinking between using the onboard wifi card or just buying an wifi AP to use at home, do you have some recommendations?

      • Petri
        1•1 year ago

        Yeah the n5105 looks like a nice little processor. I also liked that those boards come with the i226-V 2.5GbE controller.

        For myself, I really wanted wifi 6e and something able to mesh (for the happy wife factor) so I recently purchased the TP Link Deco. It should arrive in a week or so.

        Personally, I would have preferred to setup OpenWRT for a nice mesh but for some reason there are no Wifi 6 ones yet let alone 6e.

        • Petri
          2•1 year ago

          Have had the TP Link Deco units installed for a few days now.

          They are pretty good. I’m basically able to suck up the entire bandwidth of my 500/500 fiber line directly over the wifi.

          On top of that, the mesh support has been good, connecting me to the best node and passing mobile devices between nodes well.

          They also have two modes BTW - normal gateway mode and just AP mode - for those who want to park them behind a pfsense router.

          The janky things about them are their setup encourages you to setup via their app with an account, which many here will find at best distasteful.

        • @[email protected]OP
          2•1 year ago

          Mmm that device is a little too expensive where I live, I think I will buy an older version of that if I decide to go that route, thank you for replying!

          • Petri
            0•1 year ago

            Yes. And the devices also should be able to pass you between nodes for optimal reception.

            This can be done by openwrt too, with the right hardware.

            • @[email protected]
              1•1 year ago

              Hmm, you can use openwrt as an “dumb” mesh access point? I tried to set it up as a router once, but wasn’t happy with how things work there. Might give it a chance again. Any hardware recommendations?

              • Petri
                1•1 year ago

                I’m not sure what you mean. It’s true often setting up openwrt on some hardware can be difficult. Some though are not as hard, I had ok luck with some Asus routers; there is a list of hardware and features on openwrt website.

                Unfortunately, as I said, there are no wifi 6 routers supported by openwrt. So I’m not using it anymore.