DIY router
DIY router
PFSense offers strong performance while remaining user-friendly. It serves as a smooth transition between business and personal networks. A modest branch office can benefit from PFSense in industrial settings without issues. Its advanced features include load balancing, SSL offloading via relayd, failover multi-router support, and multi-WAN capabilities. For home environments those aspects are less critical but the network expansion potential remains solid. FreeBSD provides a notably swift network stack compared to most operating systems, making kernel-based routing more efficient. With certain modifications, it can handle high throughput—up to 100 gigabits per second with SSL support. A minor concern is the version differences between FreeBSD and other platforms; OpenBSD’s syntax changes and newer versions have improved usability, especially in NAT rules. Illumos is working on integrating PF, which could enhance its future viability as a strong platform. For PFSense itself, adapting it to FreeBSD might require significant effort. I’m not certain about long-term support for PFSense on FreeBSD. Mac OS also supports it, though specifics there are unclear—I suspect it’s based on FreeBSD porting.
I might have missed the point... The article shows TS using Linux servers instead of Pfsense. In theory, Ars technoca just built a server for routing. That doesn’t really matter because many people use servers as routers (including me). My concern is what you aim to achieve. Have you thought about the costs involved? Do you possess the necessary skills to manage it? And do you truly need it? One certainty is that such a router will consume about ten times more power than your current setup. It doesn’t automatically support WiFi. A bare-metal device like the one described would demand Linux server expertise. Ideally, solutions like Pfsense or IPfire would be better. But these questions remain relevant.