BSD Router Project

B

balanga

I remember someone mentioning the BSD Router Project on here a few years ago

BSD Router Project: Open Source Router Distribution [BSD Router Project]

bsdrp.net bsdrp.net

I had a look, but couldn't really make anything of it, and wondered if it was a rival to pfSense. After just looking at their site, it seems that there hasn't been an update in over a year, so can't work out if it has been abandoned or not.
Just looking at the include pkg list makes me feel extremely ignorant about routing, since I don't even recognise 80% of the contents.
Who is this system aimed at? Is it a system that provides similar functionality to OpenWrt?

Just asking...
 
From there F.A.Q. page.

https://bsdrp.net/documentation/faq

What's the difference between BSDRP and OPNsense or pfSense ?​

  1. The main goal of BSDRP is not firewalling but routing. If you are looking for a firewall, or for sharing your Internet access, don't use BSDRP but use pfSense, OPNsense, SmallWall or t1n1wall, instead.
  2. BSDRP doesn't have a Web GUI: It's to be configured from a CLI only (like Cisco/Juniper), or by an API (like netconf) [planned feature]
  3. BSDRP is not intended for home use but for company use (small ISP as example).
Click to expand...

As I read it, it is not intended for edge networks or home networks like pfsense or opnsense. Intended more towards better performance routing. Also no use of firewalling or NATing.

jda
 
Its built on Nanobsd and there is no prescribed hardware.
Just like FreeBSD.
I would say it excels with server hardware but anything will work.
Look at some of the ports included. Its more like Juniper class controller.
You need BGP?
 
Not specific to the BSD router project but: I used to run appliances like pfSense, FreeNAS and all that stuff in the past. I moved away from all of that in favor of just installing FreeBSD and configuring it myself since. I haven't looked back. The knowledge you gain from setting things up yourself is invaluable in the long run for maintaining the system vs. clicking around in a web GUI not knowing what is happening behind the scenes and potentially ending up with a broken or non-working system you have no clue how to debug.
 
jbo said:
Not specific to the BSD router project but: I used to run appliances like pfSense, FreeNAS and all that stuff in the past. I moved away from all of that in favor of just installing FreeBSD and configuring it myself since. I haven't looked back. The knowledge you gain from setting things up yourself is invaluable in the long run for maintaining the system vs. clicking around in a web GUI not knowing what is happening behind the scenes and potentially ending up with a broken or non-working system you have no clue how to debug.
Click to expand...
It has always been disappointing that pfSense/OPNsense and FreeNAS/TrueNAS Core cannot be installed on existing FreeBSD systems, nor can be used if one edits the underlying configuration files directly. There are a great many systems where one can move back and forth seamlessly between a GUI and the underlying files without any problem. GUIs are great for things one does very infrequently, while directly editing the files can be much faster (and sometimes can enable items that are not directly brought out in the GUI). FreeBSD's lack of a good admin GUI is something that definitely makes it more difficult for new users to adopt.
 
balanga said:
After just looking at their site, it seems that there hasn't been an update in over a year, so can't work out if it has been abandoned or not.
Click to expand...
They seem to do an update around once or twice a year (from looking at their history). Their most recent development build was in July. Hard to get a sense as to what is happening with it. They do have a set of mailing lists if you wanted to ask them if there is still active work. :cool:
 
majortom said:
It has always been disappointing that pfSense/OPNsense and FreeNAS/TrueNAS Core cannot be installed on existing FreeBSD systems, nor can be used if one edits the underlying configuration files directly. There are a great many systems where one can move back and forth seamlessly between a GUI and the underlying files without any problem. GUIs are great for things one does very infrequently, while directly editing the files can be much faster (and sometimes can enable items that are not directly brought out in the GUI). FreeBSD's lack of a good admin GUI is something that definitely makes it more difficult for new users to adopt.
Click to expand...
Well, FreeBSD does have sysutils/webmin.

Sometimes, a specialized device/appliance is not a bad idea. Separating firewall duties from routing duties from server duties is the point. I used to work in a small shop where one single server did nearly everything, including company's email AND customer database. In that case, receiving emails actually brought down the database - everything was running on the same box. I put in a LOT of effort, and moved email to a different box - that made a HUGE difference. Imagine trying to run pf, routed (with a decently complicated setup) and security/snort on the same box - that will bring even a Threadripper to its knees.

A commercial project needs to have some kind of control over the secret sauce that they're milking for cash...
 
majortom said:
They seem to do an update around once or twice a year (from looking at their history). Their most recent development build was in July. Hard to get a sense as to what is happening with it. They do have a set of mailing lists if you wanted to ask them if there is still active work. :cool:
Click to expand...
The work to convert from nanobsd to poudriere-image (the framework to generate the image) takes longer time than expected.
 
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