I’ve been getting repeated emails from my ISP about “exceeding my bandwidth cap” and they feel very incorrect.
My current router is a Cisco RV260, and it doesn’t have a great way of tracking traffic. (There’s a port traffic screen that does give tx/rx bytes, but no way to see any date ranges).
Is there anything out there that can give an accurate account of Internet traffic? It would be nice if I could see destination domain/IPs, just for kicks and giggles, but an overall traffic count is all I really need.
Thanks!
I’m already using my own modem, none of that locked-down rental nonsense from my isp.
What hardware do you use for pf/opnSense? All of the recommended stuff I’ve seen is almost prohibitively expensive for my home networking budget.
My home network has one of those fanless 4 port doodaas from Amazon/eBay if you search for pfSense.
Never had an issue with it, I’m on 300/100mbit broadband tho.
For another project for 10gbps networking, I used a refubed single-socketed dell r630. Probably massively overkill. Also, never saw traffic anywhere near 10gbps… So can’t really comment on that.
Yeah, those little micro units are what I had seen recommended. $300-400 is definitely pushing it for me. Especially when I would also want a bigger switch to accompany it.
Guess I need to stop eating avocado toast.
Edit: how is the stability/uptime for those little machines? Historically, I’ve always had problems with my routers needing to be rebooted at least once a month after they’ve been in service for 18-24 months. Even my current “business class” cisco router is crapping out on me every month.
My home box ran for a few years with no issues, until I started having DNS issues. I’m fairly certain that was unbound and the blocklists I had selected, tho.
I set up a Cron job to update the block lists every night, and give unbound service a restart.
It’s been solid since then, and my DNS issues have disappeared.
Now, I am checking for updates and installing those every few months. So it gets a restart when that happens.
You could get a refurbished SFF computer that has a low profile PCIe slot, and put an Intel 4 port network card in it.
Would probably cost $150 tops. And its a solid entry! Certainly, that’s what I used before I bought one of the fanless network appliance type things.
I have my old Athlon fx lying around. Needs a case, psu, and the nic… Hmmmm
Might be a little old? Not sure, you would have to research it.
I’m not well versed in what pfSense/opnSense needs, which is why I threw r630s at a project that mattered.
Some cheapo refubed i3 with an Intel NIC card would do. I just suggested the SFF refurb because a lot of people like low power (and SFFs are generally low power)