New Member With A Ton Of Questions

[timlab55]

Hello everyone and thank you for letting me join.  I have several questions about this software, what it can be run on, and setup.  Yes, I've done my research on it, but still unsure about if it will help me out.  My current set up is as follows:  My Gateway is an ATT BG320-500, which I would have to give it a 5 out of 10.  It's better than the BGW290 that I had before. 
Yes, I do have fibre Opc (1GB) and love it.  Then I have a switch that goes to my barn, my office (which has my full time PC) and 2 Raspberry Pi's 4, and then to my Smart TV and finally I have an NVR.  Then going out to my barn, I have a varies of camera's (33 of them) as I live on 6 acres of a horse farm.  My office CP is an I9, with lots of power, so I'm not going to go into that.  About 1 month ago, I put my ATT Gateway into IP Passthrough as I wanted a router that could handle at least 50 connections.  Well, the Netgear router that I purchase (RS300), did the trick and I was happy as a lark until last week.  I walked into my office and nothing worked.  I called ATT and they put me in the right direction, but they offer the wrong stuff.  They said I had my Gateway and router to close to each other.  But that wasn't the problem, as I called Netgear and explain everything to them, and came to find out that their new policy is any router that they sell, is it comes with a security patch, that a trial patch.  So either I give them $300 for 6 months or $500 for a life time, and I said no thank you, and hung up. 
Their software that came with it had something that I really enjoy and actually feel safe being on line now.  It was called "Netgear Armour" or the other name was "Bitdefender".  I wanted something that would block and scan at the router level and not the computer level.  I chose Bitdefender because of the VPN and the ad blocking.  So after I sent the Negear router back, I purchase Bitdefender myself, but I'm not feeling to happy now.  Why?  Because bitdefender was also inside the router and not loaded on every computer on my network.  So now this is where OPNsense comes in as I'm sort of understanding it, but still have a ton of questions.  Questions, like, I know a Raspberry Pi will run it, but it's slow as it only has one port.  So the new computer that I will be getting is an mini PC, but not sure what kind would work.  Then this mini PC should have wifi because of all the devices I have connected to Wifi now (camera's, wife's PC, tablet, phones).  So this is where I"m lost and now I need some help in getting the right stuff for my network. 
I also noticed that I have 3 IP address in my table that I have no clue where they are found on the BG 320-500.  Can't figure out how to delete them and block them for life.  I'm sure OPNSense can do this.  So is anyone right to help out a newbie?
The first question I have, is what type of hardware do I need? 
Thanks.

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Please break that into lines and paragraphs so it is actually readable - which currently it isn't. Thank you.

[timlab55]

Done

[meyergru]

Not to sound rude, but:

Lots of misunderstanding here, the first being that OpnSense can be run on a Raspberry Pi. While there have been experiments to port OpnSense to that platform, it is not officially supported.

Guessing from what you tell, you are a newbie at the core features of OpnSense, which is networking, you have way to go to get anywhere with OpnSense.

For example:

- a router/firewall has little to do with an anti-virus product like Bitdefender or their likes.
- you cannot "delete" IP adresses.

At this point, I am hesitant to give any tips for suitable hardware. For a start, I can point you to this posting of mine: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=42985.0, but still, I guess it would be a long, tough and stressful ride for you (and others) to make OpnSense work.

You have to understand: this is a professional product that needs more networking knowledge than an average consumer has - otherwise, you will be disappointed by its lack of usability and also, security may be diminished instead of raised. Actually, you may fare better by using a consumer router unless you have special requirements that those cannot fulfill. OpnSense sure is no shiny toy that you can put on a shelf and give it "9 out of 10" because it is the best thing money can buy and all the youtubers recommend it.

Maybe you were better off telling what your current network topology looks like and what you are trying to achieve by using OpnSense instead of a mainstream product that is easier to setup and maintain?

[EricPerl]

Using Wi-Fi on OPNsense is discouraged. You'd need to buy a separate Wi-Fi access point.
Meyergru's "signature" features his HW specs...

Given the mishaps outlined in the OP, I predict a steep learning curve.

[OPNenthu]

The AT&T gateway you mention does have built-in WiFi, according to: https://usermanual.wiki/Humax/BGW320-4522445.pdf

Was there a reason why this WiFi didn't work for you, that led you to look into the Netgear router in the first place?

You mention needing something that can handle 50 connections.  Can you talk more about that- why do you feel that the original gateway was insufficient?

I was happy as a lark until last week.  I walked into my office and nothing worked.

The Netgear was working for a while and then suddenly stopped.  Not clear to us why, without more details. 

However since your AT&T gateway and the Netgear both have WiFi, you will want to make sure to disable the AT&T WiFi so that those radios don't interfere with the Netgear.  Perhaps that's what AT&T support meant when they told you the Netgear was "too close" to the AT&T gateway?

[EricPerl]

Apparently, this Netgear router came with a trial of "Netgear Armor", some security suite "powered by BitDefender" on top of the core router/firewall product.
Who knows how it behaves when the trial expired... The OP didn't want to subscribe.
He probably still had default router/firewall functionality though. It no longer matters because the router was returned.

Then the OP bought BitDefender, not realizing he'd end up with some endpoint software...

[OPNenthu]

I just noticed he said "BG320-500" and not "BGW320-500".  I can't find a spec sheet on the former, so not sure if that's a typo or if there's a similar model without WiFi.

Anyhow, that "Netgear Armor" service seems to include a privacy VPN.  It's possible that a killswitch got triggered when the VPN connection dropped, in which case he might have had to go into settings and manually disable it to get normal routing back.  Anyway moot point now, as you said.

I'm sorry that the Bitdefender product you purchased isn't what you expected, @timlab55.  OPNsense won't run that.

[cookiemonster]

It seems like the OP got sent a consumer router but one of those new types that combine a few switched ports and is also a Wifi AP, but that bundle the type of "advanced features" aka "differentiators/value-added" like VPN server, "ad blocker", etc.
OP, with the exception of the WiFi from the same box, OPN can do it all but is not turnkey. If you are prepared to read and learn, you can use OPN with, at high level:
- a suitable PC or mini PC for OPN to do router/firewall + most of those add on services like ad blocker, VPN client.
  -- Suitable means minimum 2 network interfaces, not based on Realtek, at least XYZ (to be confirmed) cpu performance.
- a separate device(s) to do your WiFi.
- at least one switch. Cheap and cheerful is fine.

Just trying to give you something to consider if you're still reading.