this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Are you asking for new router suggestions? Or you meant bandwidth monitoring for just one device on your network?
That sort of info is best recorded at the router level. pfSense has packages you can install that record bandwidth usage & are useful for that. Not sure about OPNsense but I think (?) that would have something similar.
I'm intending to upgrade to a pfSense router and some other switch in the future. This is just supposed to be a temporary-ish investigation into the potential fuckery coming from my ISP.
I used to use pfSense. It's great.
I recently moved to opnSense... And I think it's better.
Both are good, both are BSD, both have similar settings (tutorials are mostly interchangeable)... But opnSense just does it better, updates more frequently, nicer UI etc.
If you are talking to yours ISP, it's worth getting a bridge modem, and settings details for your own router.
This modem will turn "isp" into ethernet, then your opnSense/pfSense can make the actual connection. This means it gets the public IP directly.
I'm already using my own modem, none of that locked-down rental nonsense from my isp.
What hardware do you use for pf/opnSense? All of the recommended stuff I've seen is almost prohibitively expensive for my home networking budget.
My home network has one of those fanless 4 port doodaas from Amazon/eBay if you search for pfSense.
Never had an issue with it, I'm on 300/100mbit broadband tho.
For another project for 10gbps networking, I used a refubed single-socketed dell r630. Probably massively overkill. Also, never saw traffic anywhere near 10gbps... So can't really comment on that.
Yeah, those little micro units are what I had seen recommended. $300-400 is definitely pushing it for me. Especially when I would also want a bigger switch to accompany it.
Guess I need to stop eating avocado toast.
Edit: how is the stability/uptime for those little machines? Historically, I've always had problems with my routers needing to be rebooted at least once a month after they've been in service for 18-24 months. Even my current "business class" cisco router is crapping out on me every month.
My home box ran for a few years with no issues, until I started having DNS issues. I'm fairly certain that was unbound and the blocklists I had selected, tho.
I set up a Cron job to update the block lists every night, and give unbound service a restart.
It's been solid since then, and my DNS issues have disappeared.
Now, I am checking for updates and installing those every few months. So it gets a restart when that happens.
You could get a refurbished SFF computer that has a low profile PCIe slot, and put an Intel 4 port network card in it.
Would probably cost $150 tops. And its a solid entry! Certainly, that's what I used before I bought one of the fanless network appliance type things.
I have my old Athlon fx lying around. Needs a case, psu, and the nic... Hmmmm
Might be a little old? Not sure, you would have to research it.
I'm not well versed in what pfSense/opnSense needs, which is why I threw r630s at a project that mattered.
Some cheapo refubed i3 with an Intel NIC card would do. I just suggested the SFF refurb because a lot of people like low power (and SFFs are generally low power)