I was getting tired of the current routers I had and also the lack of firewall.  Looking around for a good stable solution, I found a Supermicro Atom D525 1U Rackmount Server, SYS-5015A-EHF-D525
For the operating system, I chose pfSense .  “pfSense is a free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD tailored for use as a firewall and router.”  Super simple to install. Here is a pretty good guide on how to install pfSense from CDROM.  This is an older version, but should be quite helpful.
I have been running this as our router/firewall and am incredibly happy with it.  It is rock solid.  I also have had other uses with it as well.  For instance, I installed OpenVPN.  I can use my home i-net connection as a personal VPN.  This also allows me to connect to my home network as if it was a local area network. Some things I don’t want to be open to the outside world, and this allows me to access and control these things from the outside world securely.
If you are on the fence, you should stop thinking and just do it.
Here are some pictures of the server:
2 comments
Why did you put the fan in there? My research showed this ran at around 30 decibels and the Atom processor can’t be putting out that much heat. Secondly, what did you use for a wireless access point?
Thank you
I put the fan in there because the CPU was getting to hot and I was dropping packets. That is at least the conclusion I came too before I put the fan in. Then I put the fan in, and never had an issue again. I also put tape on some of the openings to the case to try and direct the air coming in to come across the motherboard. I used a Unifi UAP-AC-PRO for the access point. Also note, I just got Google Fiber recently and this can’t handle full gigabit. It hasn’t forced me to get something that can yet. I’m still getting ~600mbit up/down. Hope this helps.