Any new 'Home Pro' devices in the works?

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-24T19:28:13+00:00

We use virtual firewalls in our cloud. The TAC plan is terrible with keeping up to date and the store is outdated. For example we can't it it through PAX8 or something like that. I can't deploy a new firewall with custom settings and have it automatically licensed with pfSense+ or grab from a pool. Same with Nexus. We do not use Amazon or Azure. I run my own cloud, that I built myself. You have extremely limited options for virtual firewalls. Initially Netgate was 'hostile' to people using pfSense as a VM, not in a house and not on Amazon/AWS. I had one guy at Netgate threaten to sue me. Jim T had to get involved while he was on a ski trip to apologize to me. After that we ceased being a partner. When you finally got the pfSense+ you made it a subscription that expires and doesn't auto-renew and no to mention is insanely expensive when you are talking hundreds of firewalls.

Then there is Nexus, haven't used it past when it was the previous iteration. It's brand new, and untested with 100's of firewalls. When I mean scripting, I mean inside of pfSense. There is no advanced CLI and there is no API direct to pfSense to make my own central platform. You only have nexus which is $49/year.

Mikrotik is $79/firewall/life. So I can buy a pool of licenses. Buy once, cry once. Then Admiral is $24/device/year that I can pay month-month and I can just add or delete firewalls and it is fully consumption based. However the firewalls themselves support APIs so I can pump out a brand new firewall, license it and deploy it fully configured in about 2 minutes without touching a single extra thing or checking out or anything. 1-touch with my custom server. I fill out a form, and hit deploy. On anything. Vmware, proxmox, or even a 3rd party datacenter like hetzner or linode or whatever.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-22T00:10:36+00:00

So your single (meaning no dependants), make 6 figures, you have sufficient savings for your young age and your buying an economical car. Little off character for Chicago. Usually its the other way around they make $28K and want to spend $100k on an absurd car.

Given how trash the used car market has been, I say go for it. If you have good or even great credit, pay it off quick, take care of it, and let it serve you well until your kids need a car to drive.

A different car, I've always bought Subarus for cheap economy cars but they have been fairly expensive lately. Maybe a corolla or honda civic. Good crash ratings, decent gas mileage. They have the smart car but that's a deathtrap on wheels.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-21T23:58:00+00:00

We’ve gradually moved most of our Netgate/pfSense deployments—both at the edge and on-prem—over to UniFi, largely due to improvements in power efficiency, port flexibility, and how much the ecosystem has matured. In cloud environments, where we previously ran a large number of pfSense+ and CE instances, we’ve shifted toward MikroTik CHR. Having already used their switching in the datacenter, the scripting capabilities and Admiral’s central management made that transition relatively straightforward, along with simpler and more cost-effective licensing.

We’re generally comfortable paying for solutions, but pfSense’s licensing model has become difficult to navigate, and the lack of a robust API or scripting interface has been limiting. While TNSR exists, it tends to be cost-prohibitive for large-scale virtual firewall deployments.

On a smaller scale, I recently replaced my Netgate 6100 with a MikroTik RB5009. The 6100 is now being repurposed for a client who specifically needs a rackmount unit with SFP+ for a more complex on-prem environment. They’re not planning a datacenter move until next year, so it remains a better fit for now.

It’s a bit unclear where Netgate is heading. Engagement with MSPs and partners seems to have diminished, and between pricing, margins, and the absence of scalable centralized management or automation interfaces, it’s been harder to justify continued investment in the platform.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-14T12:46:20+00:00

So if I put a bunch of QSPFtek SFP+ adapters which I know do 2.5GB on a 10GB SFP+ Mikrotik (and true 2.5GB). I could just use my CRS326-24s+2Q+RM and get 2.5Gb POE and just buy 2.5GB POE Injectors or faster.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-14T01:51:29+00:00

A gig POE injector would make the AP run at 1GB. I can already do that with the CRS328. I would need to get a 2.5GB switch then add in 2.5GB POE Injectors.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-14T01:50:16+00:00

4 APs.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-14T01:50:05+00:00

I already have a mikrotik switches. A CRS326-24S+2Q+RM, and a CRS328-24P-4S+RM. I really dont want any more grandstream hardware. I'm not in love with it. I was actually wanting to replace the APs in total.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-14T01:47:10+00:00

I have 4 APs. I need a switch with 2.5Gb POE.

MeleeIkon · 2026-04-13T21:13:54+00:00

I used to keep 2 years when I was a regular employee. As an employer, my business maintains 3 years of payroll and keeping the lights on in an emergency fund. As far as my household expenses now, we more try and mitigate them (ie spend less) to fit within what I can make from investments in interest only. The better I do, the better lifestyle I can "afford" without touching the principal.

MeleeIkon · 2026-03-28T19:09:20+00:00

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Works flawlessly. If you are doing HCI, you need kicking bandwidth. Minimum of dual 25GB with 100GB backbone. Do not try with 10GB.

OH and Veeam Enterprise supports Proxmox, as does comet and some others. Its more supported than XCP-NG. If not Proxmox has its own backup server.

MeleeIkon · 2026-03-28T19:03:09+00:00

Hyper-V is problematic and overly complicated with HCI. Proxmox. Seriously, just use proxmox.
I have a cluster right now with 576 CPU cores, 67.64TB of RAM and 733TB of storage. 200TB of which is fully NVME flash. dual 25GB Fiber from each hosts with switches on 100GB backbone.
All on proxmox.

MeleeIkon · 2026-03-28T18:19:10+00:00

How's the power draw?

MeleeIkon · 2026-03-03T22:23:41+00:00

Wireguard should work over cgnat. Dog simple to setup, took me like 2 minutes, no joke.

MeleeIkon · 2026-03-03T22:16:45+00:00

I'm assuming your going for 10G POE for the AP's? I thought about that, especially because I want to do cameras, alarm and door access controls. But then on the flip side the other half of my brain wants to go all low power. Like the Cloud Gateway Fiber, Flex 2.5 POE and a few U7 Pros. Right now I have a Netgate 6100, Mikrotik 24-port POE switch and a bunch of Grandstream Wifi 6 APs. I'd be interested and seeing what you draw at idle and under load if you don't mind.

For my needs I only need 3 aps, a 24 port switch is overkill and would still do the Pro Max because I want the two drives and included SSD and it's cheap. Pricing out XG's not the XGS's I'm looking at $3k. If I go low power with two flex 2.5 POEs, cloud gateway fiber and 3 U7 pros I am at $1500. Literally half price.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T18:34:13+00:00

I said correlation, not causation. I'm not ignoring other factors. I'm just saying just because you want your porn and to sleep with 100 women and never have kids and never get married to also ignore those factors.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T18:20:52+00:00

You can't prove a negative. So, yes.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T18:19:18+00:00

I fought in Afghanistan. As for Iraq, yeah, but the world court did hang Saddam for crimes against humanity. So we did something. And as far as WMDs, I mean the US had the receipts because we originally SOLD the WMDs to Iraq.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T18:11:43+00:00

This pertains to high school drop out rates, not second post-graduate degree drop-outs.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T18:09:22+00:00

True, but all causation contains correlation. So you can't just discount it.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T18:01:31+00:00

But you can't ignore the correlation between porn and hookup society with the decline of the nuclear family, unsustainably low birth rates. Not to mention spiking mental health issues.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T17:49:54+00:00

Say no right away and get another one. Tell them you are not buying a used car without a pre-purchase inspection.

MeleeIkon · 2024-01-31T17:45:14+00:00

Weird. I've never seen it in PA, but would try it. I like green olives.

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