USB 3.0 NIC Adapter – The cheapest (but likely not the most reliable) way to add a second NIC is to buy the USB 3 to Gigabit NIC adapter such as AmazonBasics USB 3.0 to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Internet Adapter which costs around 20 dollars and can be plugged into USB 3.0 port on Intel NUC:Ģ. I found the following options to accomplish the task.ġ. Intel NUC only comes with a single Network Interface Card (NIC), but we will need a second NIC in order to have one dedicated to the incoming WAN traffic from the provider’s router and another one for the outgoing LAN traffic going to WI-FI router. Option #1 – Add a Second Network Interface
SETUP PFSENSE IN VIRTUALBOX HOW TO
There are essentially two options for how to go about the job of converting Intel NUC into pfSense, both of which I’ll outline below.
I prefer this solution because it allows me to keep using Intel NUC for other purposes and given I have 16GB of RAM available to me, I can easily dedicate 4-8 GBs to pfSense virtual router. So, instead, I’ve decided to install Oracle VirtualBox on Windows 10 that is already running on this box and then install pfSense as a virtual router. I am currently using this device as a Windows media server and it’d be a waste of resources to turn the entire Intel Nuc mini-PC ($400 device) into a dedicated pfSense router. I own an older model 5 – Intel® NUC Kit NUC5i5RYH with the following configuration: 240GB OCZ-Agility4 SSD, 16 GB of RAM and Intel Core i5-5250U CPU 1.60GH, which is running Windows 10 Professional.
SETUP PFSENSE IN VIRTUALBOX FOR FREE
My goal is to introduce a pfSense device in front of my Wireless access point allowing me to completely control my network and make use of many options that come for free when using open-sourced pfSense solution, such as run it as a state of the art Firewall and VPN device:Ĭonverting Intel mini-PC into PfSense Router It essentially allows anyone to turn an old PC into a network device that would otherwise cost serious money. It can be configured and upgraded through a web-based interface and requires no knowledge of the underlying OS system to manage. What is pfSense? pfSense can be installed on a physical computer or a virtual machine to essentially create a dedicated firewall/router network device.
This is my current network config that I’ll be putting behind a pfSense firewall. In this post, I discuss the process of converting an older Intel® NUC Kit NUC5i3RYH mini-PC into a virtualized pfSense router.
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