Thanks vbhoj74 and Vivek for your replies. This is what I was looking for
- Direct connection to wall wart (No UPS)
-Readonly file system on storage. I don't care about logs. Everything should be run from memory
- Failover to 3g
-Low power
- Snort will be good.
Any recommendations for hardware?
My present openwrt router sees multiple power curt every but been going strong for a few years.
However, remember it will keep the data connection active and use a couple of MBs daily to check link
This is a deal breaker and something which was requested in pfsense 4 years ago (https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1388)
Paying for a continuous 3g connection to keep as a failover device will rack up the bill.
Yes, but TINA (unless some sort of dialup hack is achieved - which is also possible). Also, from what I see, the total usage will hardly cross about 100 MB in a month. You want enterprise class features, you pay for it
What sort of hack are you talking about?
I don't see any mobile data plan for long term with low volume data. What this means one has to shell out for gigabytes of data which will not be used. So it is not question of the data being used rather finding a plan for long term usage.
At the moment whenever my BSNL craps out i refill my data plan to get through a day and costs me 100 rupees.
Well, actually the hack would be to use a 3G data card with a device like TP Link 3020 and do double NAT. The TP link should be configured to switch on the device when internet traffic is detected - aka idle timeout option should be selected.
pfSense will be monitoring the link with the tplink on the IP of the tplink box. Make it less weighted so that it is not used when the main line is back.
I have always thought of this, but never ever put it in practise. So, if it does not work, sorry!
LAN <---> pfSense Box <<-Dual WAN->>
WAN#1 - Main ISP
WAN#2 - TP Link 3020 with 3G dongle in idle timeout mode. You may want to setup DMZ and DDNS on the TPLink box.
Also, you do have plans which have 1GB/month for 1 year @ 1300 from MTNL - guess BSNL should have a similar plan.
This is an interesting suggestion. How will the tplink router find out when the main routers network is down?
I am looking for a data limited plan with no time restrictions like 1GB/year @1300. With your quoted plan one has to shell out 1300 every month I think.
Isn't there a scripting support on pfsense? Say, your script could unshut the 3G port when it detects the primary WAN has failed?