pfSense Web Filtering Hardware

As I figure out how to make a pfsesnse box that can filter web content I am confronted with the fact that the ‘no moving parts’ CF Flash based ‘appliance’ routers I’ve made for a few years cannot run the optional squid/squidguard packages. This is because squid (proxy/cache) needs to write to disk frequently and that will not work with flash based storage. I’m not keen on installing HDD, the obvious solution, as it introduces what is a ready and frequent point of failure.

Other options? Install on CF but use a HDD for the caching?

Or perhaps as this post refers to do webfiltering without the cache option: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=57064.0

This post uses nanbsd but the squid cache writes to an external USB stick: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=34116.0;prev_next=next

Follow up (Oct 2017): bought an Igel H820C for this – it’s 64bitamd so will work with pfsense > 2.4. I combined with a cable to allow a 2.5hdd to be plugged onto the SATA/power connector where the Disk on Chip module was originally. This thin client has a PCI-E expansion slot so this goes in there: Dual Port PCI-EX1 OEM Intel 82575EB E1G42ET/EF/E1G44ET Gigabit Server Adapter. It brings up two ‘igbX’ interfaces which are vlan capable. The onboard gb NIC is an ‘re0’.

See “pfSense Web Filtering Software” for the pfsense setup.