We’ve been running it our environment(s) for several years and its just rock solid and reliable. Tip: in most applications, this box will perform just as well as the more expensive versions.If you follow The Geek Pub regularly, then you know we are a huge fan of pfSense.

This is the cheapest pfSense router we sell but don't be deceived it's a very capable firewall for a home or small office. APU2, APU3 and APU4 routers are the most popular hardware firewalls we sell at TekLager. pfSense firewall appliance recommendationsĪPU is a well-known, reliable hardware manufactured by the Swiss company PC Engines. There are a lot of routers sold online that claim to be pfSense compatible and don't support AES-NI. AES-NI was developed by Intel, but most modern AMD CPUs also support it now. What is AES-NI?ĪES-NI (AES New Instructions) is a new encryption instruction set baked right into the CPU that dramatically speeds up cryptography tasks such as encryption/decryption for VPN or SSL. If you must use older VPN technology, such as OpenVPN or IPSec, you will want a CPU with AES-NI support to improve cryptography performance. If you plan on using WiFi, make sure you get the right adapter. WiFi - pfSense supports a minimal number of WiFi adapters.pfSense still doesn't perform great with Realtec Network Interfaces. NICs - LAN ports should be coming from Intel.RAM - you must have enough for the packages you want to run.CPU must be powerful enough to route your internet traffic.Not everyone is the same, but there are some common requirements that any hardware must fulfil. If you need to use IDS (Intrusion Detection) or IPS (Intrusion Prevention), such as Snort or Suricata, you will want to have more memory. On the other hand, if you need to run your traffic through a VPN tunnel, the CPU needs to be able to handle it. For example, your hardware needs are lower if you are using pfSense 'just' as a router or firewall without more advanced packages. The hardware recommendation will depend on your needs. The question we often get is, 'What hardware should I get for pfSense?'. Most of our customers are fans of pfSense, the most popular open-source operating system for routers. We sell quite a lot of open-source hardware.

This article was last updated on December 29, 2022 What hardware to buy for pfSense router in 2023

Pfsense router hardware