My $300 pfSense Firewall Appliance – Part 1: Unboxing

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Hi @rogerash0

Thanks for the feedback! Welcome to our Linux forums :handshake:

No regrets on this firewall hardware. It runs great. My home office runs without the AC on 95% of the time, and the temps of the N100 is very :cool_button:

If running in an AC-cooled room, I would 100% recommend unplugging and removing the fan, it’s pointless. Quiet, but a complete waste, as the N100 is very cool-running CPU.

I prefer NordVPN, I’ve been using OpenVPN because NordVPN does not support WireGuard, only their NordLynx. However, I’m getting full ~480 to 500 Mbps symmetric speeds using OpenVPN, so I really don’t see any need to switch. Just be sure to enable
AES-NI CPU-based Acceleration for OpenVPN (best performance):

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You can see my config details and settings here:

I still recommend the N100 because of its performance-to-heat ratio.

For my setup, cooling is important. I have not played with many firewall CPUs, so that’s really the only CPU I can recommend. I used this website to assist in my research:

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