5 ms·

You’re interested in advanced home networking, a dual nic nuc running pfsense is going to give you a ton more options while at the same time teaching you real n

You’re interested in advanced home networking, a dual nic nuc running pfsense is going to give you a ton more options while at the same time teaching you real networking.

SteveNuts 9y ago
Are there dual NIC Intel NUCs now? Last time I looked I couldn't find one.
- tjoff 9y ago
  You can hook up an extra nic on the miniPCI-e slot. But that is a bit hacky. You can also use one NIC and VLANs.
  - insertnickname 9y ago
    Are there any disadvantages to using a single NIC with VLANs rather than two NICs for a router?
    - SteveNuts 9y ago
      Mostly just bandwidth, if you have a dedicated storage device it's pretty easily to saturate a 1Gbe NIC.
    - paulfurtado 9y ago
      My one complaint is the lack of plug sensing: if you unplug a cable modem and plug it back in, that typically does things like triggering a DHCP request, which doesn't happen when the cable modem is plugged into a switch port on a vlan.
    - azdle 9y ago
      It's also easier for misconfigurations to lead to security issues since your switch resetting to default means your network is now connected directly to the internet. I had this happen after the power went out last time, luckily I'm on a PPPoE connection so it wasn't really connected to the net. Replaced my NUC + managed switch setup after that.
- graystevens 9y ago
  Nope but there are certainly some articles discussing the use of USB NICs, and their performance. http://www.virten.net/2016/06/additional-usb-nic-for-intel-nucs/ http://www.virten.net/2016/06/additional-usb-nic-for-intel-n...
- PascLeRasc 9y ago
  Zotac makes ZBoxes with two NICs, they're about the same price.
  - KaiserPro 9y ago
    I have one of these, they have the advantage over the NUC being that are silent and cheaper. The only NUCs that are worth it are the i5/i7s but they are rather warm and need a fan. (I have a first gen i5, its fucking awesome though.)
- Skunkleton 9y ago
  I run a NUC as my router, with only one NIC. I use tagged vlans to separate the networks, and have a cheapo switch that understands tagged vlans. Unless you have a really nice external network connection, you don't really need multiple NICs for your router.
graystevens 9y ago
This is the route I’ve just started down - a NUC with as much memory I can shove into it. Doesn’t cost a fortune to run, and as basically silent. Love it.
nickysielicki 9y ago
Jessie Frazelle is not somebody just getting started, I am all but certain that she knows about pfsense and chose to not use it. There are a lot of reasons to not use pfsense. Basically no SQM (eg: fq_codel), everything is a giant php script running as root, tons of simple features (eg: backup) have to be implemented as plugins unless you pay for the commercial support, and the most important of all: because it's not a normal freebsd system, you don't know exactly where to look when something breaks; you don't just have to find the broken config file, you have to find the script responsible for generating that broken config file. I am not a fan of pfsense. It's more likely that she'd go with a simple linux system considering the projects she's worked on, but I think it's cool that she didn't do that, either. There's something to be said for not having a bunch of different systems to maintain. Ubiquiti equipment is a bargain. You pay a one-time fee for equipment that is probably twice marked up from what it costs to make, and in result you get immediate patching of things like that recent WPA2 bug, great throughput via hardware acceleration, advanced features, etc., for a very long time. Set it and forget it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

You’re interested in advanced home networking, a dual nic nuc running pfsense is going to give you a ton more options while at the same time teaching you real networking.

SteveNuts 9y ago

Are there dual NIC Intel NUCs now? Last time I looked I couldn't find one.

tjoff 9y ago
You can hook up an extra nic on the miniPCI-e slot. But that is a bit hacky. You can also use one NIC and VLANs.
- insertnickname 9y ago
  Are there any disadvantages to using a single NIC with VLANs rather than two NICs for a router?
  - SteveNuts 9y ago
    Mostly just bandwidth, if you have a dedicated storage device it's pretty easily to saturate a 1Gbe NIC.
  - paulfurtado 9y ago
    My one complaint is the lack of plug sensing: if you unplug a cable modem and plug it back in, that typically does things like triggering a DHCP request, which doesn't happen when the cable modem is plugged into a switch port on a vlan.
  - azdle 9y ago
    It's also easier for misconfigurations to lead to security issues since your switch resetting to default means your network is now connected directly to the internet. I had this happen after the power went out last time, luckily I'm on a PPPoE connection so it wasn't really connected to the net. Replaced my NUC + managed switch setup after that.
graystevens 9y ago
Nope but there are certainly some articles discussing the use of USB NICs, and their performance. http://www.virten.net/2016/06/additional-usb-nic-for-intel-nucs/ http://www.virten.net/2016/06/additional-usb-nic-for-intel-n...
PascLeRasc 9y ago
Zotac makes ZBoxes with two NICs, they're about the same price.
- KaiserPro 9y ago
  I have one of these, they have the advantage over the NUC being that are silent and cheaper. The only NUCs that are worth it are the i5/i7s but they are rather warm and need a fan. (I have a first gen i5, its fucking awesome though.)
Skunkleton 9y ago
I run a NUC as my router, with only one NIC. I use tagged vlans to separate the networks, and have a cheapo switch that understands tagged vlans. Unless you have a really nice external network connection, you don't really need multiple NICs for your router.

graystevens 9y ago

This is the route I’ve just started down - a NUC with as much memory I can shove into it. Doesn’t cost a fortune to run, and as basically silent. Love it.

nickysielicki 9y ago

Jessie Frazelle is not somebody just getting started, I am all but certain that she knows about pfsense and chose to not use it. There are a lot of reasons to not use pfsense. Basically no SQM (eg: fq_codel), everything is a giant php script running as root, tons of simple features (eg: backup) have to be implemented as plugins unless you pay for the commercial support, and the most important of all: because it's not a normal freebsd system, you don't know exactly where to look when something breaks; you don't just have to find the broken config file, you have to find the script responsible for generating that broken config file. I am not a fan of pfsense. It's more likely that she'd go with a simple linux system considering the projects she's worked on, but I think it's cool that she didn't do that, either. There's something to be said for not having a bunch of different systems to maintain. Ubiquiti equipment is a bargain. You pay a one-time fee for equipment that is probably twice marked up from what it costs to make, and in result you get immediate patching of things like that recent WPA2 bug, great throughput via hardware acceleration, advanced features, etc., for a very long time. Set it and forget it.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]