After trying several routers, the only router that I could find that could almost handle my gigabit Internet connection was the ASUS RT-N66U. Still, though, I lose about 50Mbps on my Speedtests and, more importantly, as soon as I try DD-WRT or Tomato, the throughput drops precipitously (to around 200-300Mbps).
I do, however, have a Mid-2011 Mac Mini (Core i5, 16GB RAM, Thunderbolt port). Is there any way I can run pfsense on my Mac Mini, using the built-in NIC and the gigabit Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, and get full throughput? I tried running pfsense in virtualization on the Mini, both in Virtualbox and VMware, but could only get about 250Mbps out of the former and about 350Mbps out of the latter. I noticed that Virtualbox was using tons of CPU when running a speedtest, suggesting that the NIC virtualization was too CPU intensive and maybe causing the problem, but VMware only performed a little better and did not show signs of excessive CPU use, either in Activity Monitor on the Mac or inside the VM according to top.
Does anyone have any ideas as to whether I might be able to get the Mac Mini to work as a gateway with full throughput? Any way I can get it working with suitable performance in virtualization? If I run pfsense natively on the hardware, is there any way to recognize that Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter? Alternatively, is there anything I can run natively in OSX (10.8) that could do what I want (while still providing a decent interface--I don't really want to have to dig into a config file every time I want to forward a port)?
While I do have a spare computer that runs pfsense flawlessly, the Mac Mini uses much less power and has a much smaller footprint, making it more suitable for leaving it permanently running in my living room. My behemoth of a spare machine is a very last resort.
Edit: I did try using the simple, almost inconfigurable Internet Sharing, and did get the full throughput. The built-in sharing is woefully inadequate for what I want (if I wanted that, I'd just keep using my RT-N66U), but it demonstrates that the network interfaces can handle the throughput.
I do, however, have a Mid-2011 Mac Mini (Core i5, 16GB RAM, Thunderbolt port). Is there any way I can run pfsense on my Mac Mini, using the built-in NIC and the gigabit Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, and get full throughput? I tried running pfsense in virtualization on the Mini, both in Virtualbox and VMware, but could only get about 250Mbps out of the former and about 350Mbps out of the latter. I noticed that Virtualbox was using tons of CPU when running a speedtest, suggesting that the NIC virtualization was too CPU intensive and maybe causing the problem, but VMware only performed a little better and did not show signs of excessive CPU use, either in Activity Monitor on the Mac or inside the VM according to top.
Does anyone have any ideas as to whether I might be able to get the Mac Mini to work as a gateway with full throughput? Any way I can get it working with suitable performance in virtualization? If I run pfsense natively on the hardware, is there any way to recognize that Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter? Alternatively, is there anything I can run natively in OSX (10.8) that could do what I want (while still providing a decent interface--I don't really want to have to dig into a config file every time I want to forward a port)?
While I do have a spare computer that runs pfsense flawlessly, the Mac Mini uses much less power and has a much smaller footprint, making it more suitable for leaving it permanently running in my living room. My behemoth of a spare machine is a very last resort.
Edit: I did try using the simple, almost inconfigurable Internet Sharing, and did get the full throughput. The built-in sharing is woefully inadequate for what I want (if I wanted that, I'd just keep using my RT-N66U), but it demonstrates that the network interfaces can handle the throughput.
