I loved my SG-1100, but you're right about the choking. Mine topped out at 300-400mbps. I've since upgraded to a second hand super micro pfsense server from ebay. Way overkill for my home lab, but with the 6 x 10GB ports, can't complain.
Great Video! You mentioned the limitations of the 1100's WAN port but not the WAN specs for the 2100. We Don't want to assume this will handle our 10G ISP handoff. The manufacture site shows (1) 1 GbE (RJ45/SFP combo) which is disappointing not to have at least 2.5G ports for the combo.
Just got my Netgate 2100 for the office and used a Dell 7010 at home with pfSense. Setting it up to seperate IOT, Open VPN and sorts. Excited to go play.
I was using a UniFi Edgerouter before, but thought it was quite unintuitive to configure. I switched to pfSense running as a virtual machine, and it's simply a joy compared to UniFi. The documentation and community surrounding pfSense is AWESOME.
If my SG-1000 has taught me anything, it's not to expect "future drivers" for the cryto chip to ever be released. That product went through the entire product lifecycle, and it now EOL and the promised driver for the cryto chip was never released. If the SG-2100 doesn't have it enabled now, don't expect it ever will be.
Gov't pressure? Sure makes you wonder why so little hardware support practical openvpn. You gotta buy the chinese junk lol or pay ridiculous prices even by commercial standards that noone in their right mind would pay. when it comes to cheap consumer routers the asus ac86u is all there is, but be prepared if you run openvpn on it, the router will die prematurely while you get tons of stability and software errors in the meantime lol.
I love how I literally just got I got my order about a month ago and there's a new product thankfully I'm happy with the ones I got once I get them configured... And the configuration working... Overly complicated? Last week I went to the site and saw that they had the new model in between the two and I went what did I just miss did I get the wrong thing..... I'm upgrading from A system using an Old Dell that I built to Dedicated low-power Hardware I'm excited once I get it working. Oh and PS thanks for the VLAN tutorials!!!!
I was planning to buy the Unifi UDM Pro, when saw this vid. The SG-2100 seems to be a great product, the only thing I worry about is reliability. A LOT of people complain about the Netgate hardware issues after some time in operation, typically when warranty is out.
I wish netgate brings ZFS to the arm devices so I don't need to worry about power failure corrupting the OS that's why I went with protectli, i'm deploying them in remote locations so it's an important feature
Currently have a USG but looking into pfsense. The more videos I watch of yours on the topic, the more I am thinking the 2100 would suit me very well. I currently have 400/400mbps that might be upgraded to 600/600. I am frustrated by what I've seen of the UDM line of products, I really just wanted an updated USG but I think I will bite the bullet and try the netgate - I have limited space and it'll take the place of the USG nicely.
You've got a great channel with lots of useful information and tutorials. The downside for me is, that you share so much information about so many devices that sometimes I get a little confused. For now I'm looking to upgrade my own network. Still working with a Netgear R7000 (as replacement of my ISP Fritzbox) on a fiber 500/500 connection. I want to get a device to replace my Netgear and act as a router and firewall. But my problem is ... I really don't know what is better for me. I've watched a lot of your videos, I've read tons of reviews and still can't make a solid choice between: - Ubiquiti EdgeRouter 10X - Dreammachine Pro - PFSense (on a Netgate or on my ESXi server) My needs: - Separate networks for my internal network (4 PC's / 1 Server / 1 laptop) / guest network / IOT devices (20+) / TV traffic (3 TV's) - Be able to secure everything and block unwanted connections - Optional: Setup a VPN connection so I'm able to connect to my home network when I'm on a public WiFI I don't trust Can you point me in the right direction here? I really don't know what's best. Besides this..keep doing what you do! Really helpful and interesting..I'm a big fan!
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Okay..great! How's the learning curve of a PFSense config? I'm not that experienced with networking but eager to learn. And do I go with a VM with PFSense on it or a Netgate device? And isn't Untangle a good alternative?
Are there any plans to have centralized management for PFsense, yes, there are some third party tools... referring to something sanctioned by them, kind of how WatchGuard or other brands do it
there is a ansible module github.com/opoplawski/ansible-pfsense if you want an example i am working on a ansible playbook for my own use github.com/habbis/pfsense_ansible
I enjoyed your video on the SG-2100, I have the then Max 32 GB but I think I will increase the Storage. My big issue is it currently will not upgrade to 24.03
How did you hook the ISP fiber optic cable to the pfSense box ? Where did you get the SFP transceiver module ? I bought a pfSense Netgate 2100, however, my problem is connecting the ISP fiber optic cable directly to the pfSense box. How do I do that ?
Hope you could get your hands on the UniFi UXG-Pro (the USG-Pro replacement) and do a comparison with netgate and pfsense. Waiting patiently for that video!
@@sitte24 True. While I’m a big fan of Unifi products, I really think Unifi routers shouldn’t be compared with firewalls like pfsense, untangle, Sonicwall, etc. Unifi routers are very limited in their feature set. Perfectly fine for some use cases. Pfsense is in a while other league of capabilities.
@tedoyle61, can you share with us the maximum throughput that you get with firewall turn-on for pfSense CE as I have the intention to utilize a mini-pc to run this firewall. I need a 1000 Mbps.
Feel like this was a really needed device to fill that gap that existed. Now just need to easily get this in Australia :( Until then i guess I keep running pfsense on old desktops.
I was looking on Netgate website and it looks like they only offer software support. Do they do any extended hardware warranty? The Sophos firewalls I purchase include 3 year support which is nice.
Hi, i have a SG-2100 and I want to setup a dual wan, the documentation from the Netgate is confusing, it only shows VLANS for LAN and not for creating a WAN. Thank you
So if I want to replace my old WiFi router can I use the SG2100 with a smart switch and create a fast network? I’m browsing net, games, streaming media, VoIP, etc. I figured the SG2100 would fit my needs I have a 500 mbps but upgrading to up to 1000 mbps. Looking at Using TL-SG108E for my switch since smaller network mixed wired/WiFi.
I work for a fibre isp and these will be great for our advanced/business customers. Are the sfps limited to any particular vendor? We use Nokia GPON sfps
What are your thoughts for a pfsense box using SG-3100/2100 vs Protectli 4/6 Port vs Building ITX-i3/Zen 3 ? (6 core home server things, suracata/snort openVPN, enough power for the "fun stuff")
I was hoping that you would review this device. The office is looking to me to purchase a new firewall. I was going to go with a Fitlet2, the same as I have at home, but this device is actually cheaper than the fitlet as I configured it.
Tom, I have an old server that I wanted to integrate PF onto and wanted to get your take on it. Have you used pf for a while outside of the prefab boxes and seen a difference in performance using bigger hardware?
I had an IT consulting business for about 10 years and my goto was to buy the cheapest used 1U dell server I could find locally, add an intel 2 x 1gbps NIC (because pfsense always seemed to not like broadcom as much) and then install pfsense to an ssd. Never had one fail, stellar performance everywhere, even with 1gbps/1gbps fiber isp connections.
Noob here, does anyone know why netgate is soldout/backordered for almost everything on their site? Has it been like this for long? Should I expect to wait a couple weeks for restock or buy something else? I need to get started asap.
FYI the little rubber feet don't stay on. And can anybody give me suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with configuring rules on Bridges? I'm barely getting DHCP I think I'm able to pass traffic on to the local network on the other side not really getting web pages and when I try to use it nothing got an IP address even though some devices did. I have a couple of weird requirements which has me setting these devices up fresh with filtering on bridging both because I think filtering will be easier and I need to bridge some ports and vlans within one box.
50 Usd costs thin client + dual 1000mbps intel net card (on ebay). FREE pfsence + 20 min to setup it (ok + 20 more min look the video how to setup it) So why do i need this OVERPRICED boxes ?!?
I noticed on the Netgate site (I think) that it has a mini PCIe expansion slot for wifi. Does anyone know if Netgate will be offering this with wifi bundled in at some point?
Having all of the systems I manage in one cloud-based platform has me spoiled and lazy. Is there a cloud portal where I would be able to see all of the pfsence units I deploy, similar to Peplink, UniFi, or Untangle?
I wish I could trust the specs Netgate shows. Owning an SG-3100 it just has never performed as advertised. The SG-3100 is discontinued for a reason. Hopefully the SG-2100 is not as bad.
So the SG1100 tops out at approx a 400mbps connection. Can the SG2100 handle a 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home connection? How much can it route max? The specs aren't clear on that.
I discussed speed, VPN, routing abilites and even made a timestamp index mark so viewers could skip right to that. It's even titled "Netgate pfsense SG-2100 VPN & Routing Speed Comparison" I wish RU-vid made people watch the video before commenting. 🙂
Lawrence Systems / PC Pickup I actually did watch the entire video first. I’m confused by the difference between the speed rating for routing and for firewall. I’m not sure what the difference is exactly. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. I definitely appreciated the video and have even used your company’s services in the past.
I was not trying to be offensive, I just spend a lot of time trying do reply to comments as I want to engage with my audience, but SO MAN of the comments are people asking what I covered in the video. "L3 Forwarding VS Firewall" speed is a comparison to it's raw L3 power (not a particularly useful number) and the speed at which it can route while parsing firewall rules (more realistic). Netgate does this test with a lot of rules applied.
I like pfsense but have had issues properly configuring the built-in switch to function as individual ports with these prebuilt systems, any feedback on that?
Yeah, the crazy ports and vlan config... I have to look at an existing setup every time to get the order correct. Seems I configure 4-5 and go a few months and forget the tricks. Google usually helps, but looking at another installed switch helps be every time.
It is cheaper for them to use that Marvel switch chip than having 4 independent NICs. At least you can easily do VLANs on them. Remember that this is priced low when factoring in the support for pfsense development that is baked into the price. You pay for the software as well as the hardware. There are alternatives if you are not willing to do that.
@@NicolaiSyvertsen It makes sense at a basic level, but I bought the 1U 7100 version for a business install... Either I really don't understand the way they tied the switch in properly or it is way too hard to configure properly. $1000+ is too much to spend on something with a cheap switch, I would have settled for 4 discrete NICs over what I have, or even just two... I didn't understand that there wasn't properly dedicated NICs until after I bought the thing. It shouldn't really take an hour-long video tutorial to explain the switch configuration...
These don't really work with WAN (Internet) connections over 500Mbps. They just can't keep up overly well above that. Read the docs / specs for details. I think they're in need of a hardware refresh on the 2100.
I thought you were making Guitar Pickups, Oy Vey! I am old and cannot see very good. I also smoke lots of Marihuana to keeo my Blood Pressure normal, without last week it was 210/107 !!! After I reloaded my stash it is down to 118/69. I live in California, and am interested in pfsense Firewall, will it work on Ubuntu Linux ? Does it block Advertizements?
How are these things so expensive? There are close to phone prices. Is it because not many company make them so they are able to charge ridiculous prices?
Im thinking of building all in one build nas, pfsense and windows vm using unraid. Does pfsense run well in this configuration assuming I have enough hardware resources ?
If you assumed like me that a 2 year old tech product would either be updated or see it's price drop you are wrong, price went from $299 to now $350... That inflation is ridiculous
Yeah it would be neat somebody made a little module for that. I remember seeing while ago floating around that you could upgrade the modem in some of the older the airport access points for ISDN support and I'm like that's kind of a neat idea. That's one of the reasons I bought my airport was the built-in modem subsequently by the time I got it I no longer had dial-up, although restarting on every configuration change was what brought me to m0n0wall so I wouldn't be with pfSense?
Asking for a friend of course. 😉😉😉 I live oversea and want to secure my network more. I have a Unifi setup and use to have a USG until it died. One thing I want to do is setup an SSID that is routed through a VPN all the time and one that isn't. You can't do that with Unifi, at least out of the box and I'm not interested in playing with the files. Could I do this with a PFSense box as my firewall for my Unifi system?
Can you talk about how the routers handle the IP6 features? A friend just discovered that his ISP modem has his ip4 firewalled by NAT but the IP6 traffic is wide open. He discovered it when I logged into his computer from my place and took control of it during a skype call! I am going to set him up with an SG-2100 but want to know a bit more about IPv6 features for a home network with a couple of fixed IP servers and NAS Units.
The same firewall is in front of both ipv4 and 6 adresses (router and LAN clients) IPv6 can be annoying to set up if your ISP is being a pain (requiring funny special params to get an IPv6 address etc)
Would you mind explaining why should I pay $299 not to mention $399+…. If there is an option to buy a Fanless mini PC, same sized as SG-2100 industrial computer rocking Intel i5 8th gen 16GB RAM 6xLAN Intel NICs able to run any virtualizations you like with PF or OPNsense on top for $299 from AliExpress?
Hi Tom, I'm comparing Fortigate 40F and Netgate SG-2100. I researched but could not the answer to this question: can the USB port access a 4G modem and be considered as a backup internet connection and there could be bond to WAN1? If this model is not capable of doing this, does Netgate have a model that could do this?
I love Pfsense ran for ever but never could get my plex port & a cuple of game ports open (i ran pfblock & Snort,Watch dog ,Agian the only way i could get plex & my games to work right was to stop useing PfSense And as bad as i hated to i did..I am a avid gamer/tech Enthusiast/Nerd & Love to Tweek & Tinker But like i said i got to have plex working right & im just not smart enough to figure it out ! i have Run Freenas for years also n still do but my main 2 i went to UnRaid...So Much Easier to set up & use Now More Than Ever With that new permissions BS(imho) for the home/average joe they take something good & fix it till it breaks..from a plain home /average home user any way ! ! I Miss the speed so so bad That i had to throw another box together just for freenas an just let my 2 Dual Xeon servers stay on unraid..I Love but so very Slow even with 10gb..
Before you buy any firewall from netgate, checkout the "Protectli Vault" line of firewalls. In my opinion, a much better and less expensive alternative.
@@Noodles.FreeUkraine - For starters, they use a proprietary netgate image that you can't even download without opening a support ticket and supplying a serial number (so make sure you keep a database of all your customers S/N). Also, instead of individual network interfaces, the use a convoluted VLAN switch. For the price you are paying, they are slow and have minimal RAM and storage. Also, several models have hardware encryption onboard but it's not currently supported by pfSense! Some people really love them but as you can probably tell I'm not one of those folks!
@@Noodles.FreeUkraine The Protectli will absolutely trounce the performance of the Netgate. The reason people buy Netgate is to support the people that make and maintain pfsense. I have both at customers sites and the SG3100 struggles with complex Suricata, PFblockerNG, and VPN configs while the price comparable protectli will run it without even breaking a sweat. Here's the clincher, If you have to pay for technical from Netgate on your Protectli, you could have bought a much better Netgate and had support. So if you might ever need technical support, buy the Netgate. If you know you will never need support, get the Protectli. BTW the Netgate support is superb. Ironically the only PFsense box i ever had that failed was the Netgate due to a bad load from the factory, and they were excellent to work with.
@@Noodles.FreeUkraine - Yes. Also, I originally bought several netgate units knowing they were overpriced but I wanted to support netgate as they were developing pfSense but I then realized how inferior and overpriced their product was.
It's a consumer devices that uses a phone app for control and seems very limited when it comes to doing anything more advanced, not something we would use so not something I plan on reviewing.
