4 ms·
Why are you dedicating a full power desktop computer as a firewall?
by lonelappde 7y ago
Why are you dedicating a full power desktop computer as a firewall?
- ac29 7y agoMost of us here wouldn't want to use an Atom processor from 2013 for our "full power desktops"... More seriously though, there are lots of tasks that can go on a home router that take it past a simple firewall. IPS/IDS systems, Advanced QoS, OpenVPN -- all these things can require fairly significant hardware resources to run anywhere close to the 100-1000Mbps speeds on internet connections that are reasonably widespread and affordable in many countries now.
- jaytaylor 7y agoAll true. It's also worth noting that with the recent arrival of Gigabit FTTH throughout the Bay Area (Peninsula and even down to Sunnyvale), typical consumer-grade routers can be the new bottleneck when attached to a real 1Gbps fiber line (for example, even though for the previous cable modem connection it worked great).
- leeoniya 7y agoOPNSense requires AES-NI, which is an intel feature so you're stuck with an Intel CPU. Atoms are one of the more efficient intel options if you want passive cooling. as a sibling comment mentions, another option is an odroid-h2. either way, i'd rather over-provision for an extra $150 than discover i need all new hardware when my requirements change.