From my understanding a basic PFSense install doesn’t require much hardware to run, but I’m not sure how the hardware requirements grow once you start doing more than firewall and routing. I’d prefer to not let most of the hardware sit unused (unless that’s actually preferable).
Specs:
- CPU i5 2500 @3.30GHz (Should support AES) https://ark.intel.com/products/52209/Intel-Core-i5-2500-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz
- RAM 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 @665MHZ 9-9-9-24
- 500gb Samsung ssd
- 3tb 5200rpm hdd
- NIC HP NC364T PCIe 4Pt Gigabit https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P0NX3G
Network speed is typically 50Mbps down, 10 Mbps up
I believe I have to still go through ATT’s box. https://www.arris.com/products/5268ac-xdsl-voice-gateway/
Things I’d like to do:
- Route all traffic through a vpn such as PIA (I’ve had issues with ATT in the past that disappeared as soon as I opened a vpn connection)
- Ability to vpn back into my home network from outside
- Possibly network wide adblocking
- Some sort of traffic monitoring
- Maybe some sort of caching service (I’m not sure if this would be that beneficial to me)
I’m interested in hearing critiques on the setup I posted above, and other ideas to use more of the hardware. Also any pertinent guides would be welcomed 