Firewall Motherboard

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lmarangue88

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Jan 22, 2014
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15
Hi guys, I'm hoping someone will know where to look a bit better than I do for this. I'm currently trying to build a new firewall box and I need to find a motherboard with 4xPCI slots to handle all the interfaces I'll need. I'm having a bit of a hard time sourcing it locally.

Ideally I'd like to save as much as I can on it, so it really doesn't need to be a high-performance board, just something simple. It's just going to be a firewall afterall.

Thanks in advance for any help! :D
 
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Pada

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Feb 18, 2009
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8,189
Can't you just get like a MikroTik Routerboard / Router that supports OpenWRT/DD-WRT/Tomato and use that as a Firewall?

Or won't a PC with dual-gigabit LAN suffice for just firewalling LAN from WAN?
 
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MickZA

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Jan 19, 2007
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lmarangue88 said:
Ideally I'd like to save as much as I can on it, so it really doesn't need to be a high-performance board, just something simple. It's just going to be a firewall afterall.
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Actually, even back in the day, 4 PCI slots was pushing it. Digging in my "emergency spares" box (junk in other words) all I could find was a Intel D945GNT ATX board (LGA775) with SATA support.

I'm guessing you're putting together a pfSense or ClearOS box?
 
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lmarangue88

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Jan 22, 2014
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Well thanks for the responses so far. Yeah I'm going to put together a pfSense box and I'm needing 5 ethernet interfaces at this point in time. The LAN-to-WAN option is still on the table for me, but it just seems like a messy / unelegant solution. Maybe that's just me being a snob. ;) I am by not means a pro when it comes to this end of networking, so feel free to correct me on any points. ;)

Also Mikrotik is a name I haven't heard in a while, good idea. I am worried, just how much control will I have over it's interfaces? I'm Currently running PfSense and needing most of the routing and interface functionality as well as DHCP through it, so I don't want to sacrifice any of it if I can help it. I'm not sure if I'll manage to get the same done.

Also NICs are something I'm looking at, but found them for just shy of R4000.00 locally, and I am worried, if one of the slots go, I'll probably have to replace the whole thing. Whereas with 4 individual cards, I was thinking I could just pull the card in questions and R100-R150 later for a new Ethernet card and I'm back up and running.

I have found some speciality motherboards but nothing local. "Industrial motherboards" they're calling them and normally made by independent motherboard manufacturers. This is looking like less of an option though.
 
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DrJohnZoidberg

DrJohnZoidberg

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Jul 24, 2006
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23,999
I've got a pfSense box running at our office, it has 4 gigabit ports: 1 onboard, 2 x PCI-e, 1 x PCI.

Have two modems connected, the other 2 are for the LAN. Works fine.
 
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lmarangue88

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
15
I COULD use ebay, but I always worry about shipping issues arising, so local sourcing would work best. I have done some of my own research, and I have found that I could get the desired setup with my current firewall setup and just adding 2x2-port or 1x4-port NIC. I saw some 2-ports on wantitall for just under R1000, which makes the search for a board with 2 PCI-E slots a much easier one.

Again thanks for the suggestions folks! :D
 
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MickZA

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lmarangue88 said:
... I have found that I could get the desired setup with my current firewall setup and just adding 2x2-port or 1x4-port NIC. I saw some 2-ports on wantitall for just under R1000, which makes the search for a board with 2 PCI-E slots a much easier one.
Click to expand...
Just confirm on the pfSense forum that the NIC chipsets are supported before buying.
 
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