Which network card's do I need for my OpenWRT/PFSense box ?

[NaX3R]

Hello,

So, I want to use my old PC as a router (AMD Athlon II X2 250, 2GB Ram and Corsair CX430 PSU) and set-up OpenWRT/PFSense on it so I would get 50Mps Down and 9 Mpbs Up while using VPN. My current router is so crap that I can get maximum of 10 - 15 Mbps and the more people use it, the slower it becomes as well as get's random disconnections like 10 times a day.

The motherboard in this PC is ASUS M4A88T-M which have the following slots:

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
1 x PCI
​

I also need LAN ports as well as Wi-Fi.

Any recommendations or advice when it comes to this set-up ?

 

[System Error Message]

for LAN port it doesnt matter but realteks dont work that great with pfsense and with openwrt, it tends to be bad with some chips (which is why openWRT on some routers freeze).
You cant go wrong with a 2nd hand intel server NIC.

Get 2 single port intel server NICs that will use your PCIe x1 slots for both WAN and LAN. Although with realtek LAN should be fine. Set your bios to disable unnecessary devices (like sound).

For wifi usually USB is recommended but i've tried both asus and netgear USB AC wifi adapters and they seem pretty good but they use usb3 which is a must if you want to make use of more than 480Mb/s of bandwidth (2 channel will use double that). You can get both asus and netgear USB ac wifi adapters and have 2 radios if you want as they're much cheaper than trying to get a triband radio. Both of them have external antennas for better reception (absolutely important).

As for internal cards, the good ones cost way more than the usb wifi cards. However every usb3 wifi adapter i've seen uses realtek usb3 chip inside them so with openwrt it may cause issues but you'll just have to try and see. With pfsense realtek isnt a problem but CPU usage is for WAN and for virtualisation (if running pfsense over vmware for instace) otherwise realtek NICs do work fine in pfsense.

Examples
(£20 + antenna + usb extender)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OT586RQ/?tag=smallncom-21
(£40 + antenna)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GGLL5TC/?tag=smallncom-21
(£50 + dual antenna + extender + 3 channels)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GZ1XRTS/?tag=smallncom-21

Take your pick, i suggest either the netgear for dual channel wifi AC, or the asus for tripple channel wifi AC. Both come with external antennas and extenders so you dont have to place them right next to your desktop and power cablings.

 

[sfx2000]

Get 2 single port intel server NICs that will use your PCIe x1 slots for both WAN and LAN. Although with realtek LAN should be fine. Set your bios to disable unnecessary devices (like sound).

Intel is still the preferred choice with pfSense - it's not pfSense specific, but Intel's BSD support is first rate...

Realtek, like in Linux, depends on the actual Realtek chip used, and even then...

For wifi usually USB is recommended but i've tried both asus and netgear USB AC wifi adapters and they seem pretty good but they use usb3 which is a must if you want to make use of more than 480Mb/s of bandwidth (2 channel will use double that). You can get both asus and netgear USB ac wifi adapters and have 2 radios if you want as they're much cheaper than trying to get a triband radio. Both of them have external antennas for better reception (absolutely important).

I wouldn't recommend any USB NIC for a production AP - just don't do that - get a dedicated AP...

As for internal cards, the good ones cost way more than the usb wifi cards. However every usb3 wifi adapter i've seen uses realtek usb3 chip inside them so with openwrt it may cause issues but you'll just have to try and see. With pfsense realtek isnt a problem but CPU usage is for WAN and for virtualisation (if running pfsense over vmware for instace) otherwise realtek NICs do work fine in pfsense.

For mini-pci cards - pfSense has a list of recommended cards - most are older 802.11n cards - it really comes down the BSD support there. NetBSD/FreeBSD isn't a priority for most WiFi NIC chipset vendors.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...mzdW7mib56dBIAKz30Qpug/edit?hl=en&hl=en#gid=0

pfSense is a great Firewall/Gateway package - WiFi is supported, but it is not their core strength - best to use dedicated AP's for the Wireless side.

 

[System Error Message]

Intel is still the preferred choice with pfSense - it's not pfSense specific, but Intel's BSD support is first rate...

Realtek, like in Linux, depends on the actual Realtek chip used, and even then...



I wouldn't recommend any USB NIC for a production AP - just don't do that - get a dedicated AP...

I assume its for home use.
Realtek definitely works with pfsense but not vmware, this is where a lot of problem happens and why some hardware works better than others for vmware. So if one runs openwrt and pfsense together on the same hardware, using a realtek nic becomes an issue. But if installing the OS natively then its only CPU usage you have to worry about and openwrt usually has issues with a couple of chipsets in terms of freezes but usually after a month.

Overall its definite at that time period that most hardware used realtek. Realtek isnt bad, its great to lower cost and realtek nics have some advantages over other chipsets such as being lower power and less latency (at the cost of CPU use) so this is really just the only thing to worry about. As a LAN port however rather than WAN realtek works totally fine. Even today theres nothing wrong about having realtek chips everywhere, its useful in some areas, mainly depends where.

Intel has been used a lot in datacenters and various places so their NICs are well supported but other such NICs dont work that well in consumer space due to OS and driver restrictions (referring to my SFP+ 2nd hand datacenter NICs that come with infiniband capability and DMA.

 

[sfx2000]

ntel has been used a lot in datacenters and various places so their NICs are well supported but other such NICs dont work that well in consumer space due to OS and driver restrictions (referring to my SFP+ 2nd hand datacenter NICs that come with infiniband capability and DMA.

Intel is really good, and I like Mellanox for 10Gig - be wary picking intel on the secondary market, unless it is a trusted vendor, as there's a fair amount of counterfeit cards out there - but knowing this, with the datacenter replacement cycle going on right now - 10G is getting cheap

 

[Blade Runner]

Hello,

So, I want to use my old PC as a router (AMD Athlon II X2 250, 2GB Ram and Corsair CX430 PSU) and set-up OpenWRT/PFSense on it so I would get 50Mps Down and 9 Mpbs Up while using VPN. My current router is so crap that I can get maximum of 10 - 15 Mbps and the more people use it, the slower it becomes as well as get's random disconnections like 10 times a day.

The motherboard in this PC is ASUS M4A88T-M which have the following slots:

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
1 x PCI
​

I also need LAN ports as well as Wi-Fi.

Any recommendations or advice when it comes to this set-up ?

I suggest reading https://airvpn.org/topic/11422-recommended-specs-for-air-and-pfsense/

Posts are old however accurate about using obsolete/old hardware. Your proposed configuration is OK for testing OpenWRT/pfSense. IMO you will be happier with modern hardware.

The gold standard NIC is Intel for FreeBSD/pfSense. You do not want issues with NIC.