Pros/Cons of preloaded Netgate appliance vs. installing on own hardware?

[sfx2000]

And if you'd like to see some proper benchmarking methodology...

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6985.txt

https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/NFV-TST/001_099/009/03.01.01_60/gs_nfv-tst009v030101p.pdf

And here's a great presentation from Aerohive for WLAN

https://d2cpnw0u24fjm4.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/SettingWLANPerformanceExpectations.pdf

enjoy!

 

[Tech9]

I would rather buy one GL-MT2500A thingy, plug it in and see what it does. This is what I did with GL-AR750S before.

 

[ForkWNY]

Intel N5105-based mini PC's are priced very reasonably from a number of vendors, loaded up with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB+ of SSD storage. I've seen them priced lower in some cases than Pi 4b's (which are now difficult to find, and fetching prices well above their original $59 MSRP). Does anyone know off-hand how much bandwidth these x86 multi-2.5Gbe NIC mini-PC's (N5105 CPU, for example) can handle WAN -> LAN, presuming they have sufficient memory and storage space? I just think they're the best deals going right now for personal pfSense/OPNsense router/firewall options, especially since many of them have built-in Intel 2.5Gbe NICs (from 2 through 7 or 8 NIC ports). For home use I can't think of a better option as far as price/performance.

 

[Tech9]

I would rather buy one GL-MT2500A thingy, plug it in and see what it does.

Got the device, @sfx2000. Will take a closer look at it later (tax season), but so far it powers up and offers many easy to use VPN options for non-tech people. One thing is a headscratcher and if the device wasn't so cheap I would never buy one. I hate false advertising and the model number plus 2.5GbE port suggest the device is 2.5Gbps capable. Where is 2.5GbE going on a device with single Gigabit LAN port? It's up to Gigabit capable box...

 

[sfx2000]

Got the device, @sfx2000. Will take a closer look at it later (tax season), but so far it powers up and offers many easy to use VPN options for non-tech people. One thing is a headscratcher and if the device wasn't so cheap I would never buy one. I hate false advertising and the model number plus 2.5GbE port suggest the device is 2.5Gbps capable. Where is 2.5GbE going on a device with single Gigabit LAN port? It's up to Gigabit capable box...

Yeah - was thinking the same thing as well..

But hey - how many other routers have that since 2.5Gb port - marketing I'll tell you...

Upside it that the chipset has strong support inside OpenWRT directly - so you can use GL-Inet stock, or build your own off OpenWRT master which is likely more current...

 

[sfx2000]

offers many easy to use VPN options for non-tech people.

GL-Inet's firmware is particularly strong there - and very accessible...

 

[Tech9]

But hey - how many other routers have that since 2.5Gb port - marketing I'll tell you...

Wi-Fi routers have >1 interface out. You can see some aggregate throughput >Gigabit. This device has single Gigabit LAN port out.

Got it for a little over $100 with the more fancier metal housing - it's cheaper than RPi kit. For the price - no complaints. I like the UI.

 

[ForkWNY]

I wound up ordering one as well to test it...don't forget to clip the $32 coupon for the aluminum model on Amazon...brings the total price to about $80 after tax (depending on your State).

 

[Tech9]

Yes, there was some discount coupon. I'm in Canada and our Amazon is a little different. Ordering from GL.iNet directly was about the same price. There is 13% sales tax on top here in Ontario as well. The total was about $120. Still cheap though and so far I like it especially with built-in AdGuard Home.

 

[sfx2000]

Got it for a little over $100 with the more fancier metal housing - it's cheaper than RPi kit. For the price - no complaints. I like the UI.

if you open it up - you'll notice there is no heat path out to the metal housing...

That little stub doesn't actully touch anything...

That being said - the SoC is power efficient at what it does - Brume1 on Marvell did need some heat relief there...

 

[coxhaus]

I would think you could take an old PC and try pfsense to see if you like it before buying a Netgate router.

Pfsense is lagging Opensense in the software level of FreeBSD. Pfsense seems to have resources behind them now to where they are making some better changes moving forward. They say they are going to skip version 13 in FreeBSD and go straight to version 14. This will be a good thing as you will get the latest security patches for FreeBSD. Right now, Opensense is already on version 13 and moving forward so they are ahead. If pfsense catches up, then I might take another look at them. It probably won't be this year as pfsense does not have an announcement date.

 

[Tech9]

if you open it up

Of course I'm going to open it up...

 

[sfx2000]

Of course I'm going to open it up...

Take pictures

 

[Tech9]

Someone else already did:

GL.iNet GL-MT2500A security gateway review - Part 1: Unboxing and teardown - CNX Software

The Brume 2 security gateway/router is powered by a MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz and is available as the GL-MT2500A with a

www.cnx-software.com

If you have connections at GL.iNet - tell them we don't need unusable 2.5GbE port, but VLAN support. Then this thing can take some of ER-X, ER605, hEX market share as inexpensive Internet gateway. One PoE switch, few PoE access points - more people will be interested in this device.