Mat Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 My home connection is rated at 100mbps down, 5mbps up. Moving to 120mbps down when the provider gets its act together and upgrades the headend. I currently have the docsis3 modem connected to an old desktop computer running pfsense, and it has a server grade dual port 100mbps network card in it. The upgrade will mean that the download speed of the WAN is faster than the wirespeed of the LAN ! Everything else is connected to a small gigabit switch, but if I want to get the most from the connection, I'll need to two gigabit cards to the pfsense machine. Before I do so, is there any other options? Are there any low power devices capable of running at these speeds, what's the lowest cost solution? here's a speedtest result from a moment ago, over wifi :) http://www.speedtest.net/result/2523055951.png Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Here is the thing, how many computers do you have on this network? The download speed is awesome, the upload is crap. But the reason I ask is that if it is only 2 computers the disk I/O will not allow you to use all of that speed to begin with. You would need a large group of computers to fully use up the bandwidth and that is after your upgrades to your network. So I suppose it will come down to how many machines you have to be worth the upgrade and extra money spent on this high speed download bandwidth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 That's a very good point actually. Two computers and a handful of mobile devices really, the standard for a single guy :) The main computer has a decent SSD with a sustained write speed over 200mbps though, so I've a bit of room yet! Don't get me wrong, 120 down is way overkill for most things, but if it's there, it will be nice to use it! Oh, and 5mb up is the fastest domestic speed possible in the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Here is another angle. Good luck finding any 1 server to send you files that fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 The internet is a little faster than it used to be. CDN's easily offer those speeds. But I digress. What router hardware is used by anyone here with a decent internet connection and and without Cisco money? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 pfsense with a couple gigabit network cards will work. Otherwise you'll probably have to go with a Cisco device. Most consumer routers start to crap out just a bit faster than 50Mbps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telot Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Mind if I ask how much a 100mb connection goes for per month in the UK? Of course we haven't speeds anywhere near that available in the states (save for google fiber) and I'm very curious on what the rates are like. On to your question, a friend of mine does just what barry suggested - pfsense and 2 nice gigabit nics and it runs great. Good luck Mat! telot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 Looks like I'll just upgrade the cards in the current pfsense box then. That's a fine solution I was just interested in options. As for prices, £35 per month will get you a 100/5 line, and those speeds are pretty solid, not a fictional "up to" speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexophrenic Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Some of the lower end Fortinet offerings will meet your needs. Check the Fortigate 40C, 60C/D and 80C. I know they support gigabit on the WAN side. They are more than consumer gear, though, but offer a lot of bang for the buck. BTW, I am struggling how to see that even a slow drive running on a SATA interface will be saturated with a 120mbit link. Running single spindles between two machines I can easily get 900mbit between two machines. You will NOT be limited by disk I/O at 120mbit. 120mbyte might become an issue, but not 120mbit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telot Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 So around $60-$70US per month - thats what I pay for 25mb down and 10 up...cursed monopolistic US cable companies! telot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 802.11ac router with a PC that has USB 3.0 and 802.11ac USB 3.0 adapters, will triple your wireless speeds. Faster than N and 10/100. Most 802.11ac routers are gigibit routers though too, so you'd get 10/100/1000 + AC speeds on wireless. OS and wifi cards and router will make difference, but if the modem and ISP is the bottlneck, LAN will be fast while WAN will be throttled by ISP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Mind if I ask how much a 100mb connection goes for per month in the UK? Of course we haven't speeds anywhere near that available in the states (save for google fiber) and I'm very curious on what the rates are like. On to your question, a friend of mine does just what barry suggested - pfsense and 2 nice gigabit nics and it runs great. Good luck Mat! telot Just a couple states south of us... http://chattanoogagig.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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