Was looking around for a weekend project at work and came across this guy in the server room. Boss said we no longer needed it and I could have it. I’m borrowing a USB console cable from a buddy tomorrow and I found a YouTube video on how to put pfSense on it. This model has 2gb of ram and a e3400 CPU
Have any of you done this? How well does it run? Once the LCD package is installed what shows up on the screen? Any advice?
why does every WatchGuard look like it was made in the early 2000s? 
seriously though you should be able to install pfsense on it, just of course make sure to get the serial download instead of vga
lcdproc should make you a happy camper, though you should consider upgrading the memory, just makes things run better especially if you start tacking on packages like suricata or pfblocker-ng
These XTM5’s are awesome little machines. I have had one I got from work thats been running PFsense and been my primary router for the last 5 years. It’s a bit foggy since it’s been so long, but I remember following a guide and it being pretty straightforward. I abandoned the idea of using the Flash card pretty early on and used a spare hdd I had laying around, upgraded the celeron to a core2duo E8400, and upgraded from 1 to 2 gigs of ram. Also, pull the VPN accelerator card, it won’t serve a purpose and cant be used by pfsense.
The pfsense forum was an amazing resource during the process, there are some guys on there who know a lot about the xtm platform.
*edit: I did the CPU upgrade because I was having issues getting the full speeds from my gig Fios connection. When I had 250/250 for the first 2 years, the celeron e3400 did just fine, never had any problems.
I have the XTM 5 with the same E3400 CPU, a little bit more ram and a small SSD as my pfSense drive, with that and LCDProc using the Firebox driver it seems to provide somewhat useful infomation.
for my configuration with two servers and 3 people, 2 of which stream content a lot. My system has been holding up pretty well.
I don’t know what else I can tell you, I’m still wrapping my head around pfSense being on my home network since I’ve only done it before in virtual machines with IPs on a Dedicated Server as a NAT solution but. For what I do, I really do like my XTM 5, its been a solid machine.
Hello, how loud is the watchguard 505? Would it be fine to run in a living room in a corner? i’ve been thinking of picking one up for my house
The XTM models always looked like that… those are EOL though the newer models are slicker (and the table series that has built in WiFi doesn’t have external antennae for clients to remove XP)
Lol, they haven’t changed the look in forever.
Do you have a preferred image burner? I have Rufus.
Lcdproc is that a package built in or something I have to install by ssh?
A buddy has a couple of 4gb modules I’m gonna snag, I just hope they are compatible.
Awesome! Are you using any plugins? How much ram is used up?
That’s awesome! That next day I succeeded in installing pfSense on 160 GB SSD installed internally. I also was able to import the config from my other pfSense box so I didn’t have to worry about redoing my config. After getting LCDproc installed and accidentally restarting my router three different times trying to use the buttons I finally figured out which buttons do what. And made some labels for it. this unit draws 10 to 15 watts less than my previous ITX build. I picked up some noctua fans to quiet it down a little bit which I’m hopefully going to be installing this weekend.
Very loud. If you want to have it in a commen space you’ll want to noctua swap the housing and psu to make it quiet.
Rufus does the job
lcdproc is in the package list, so no manual install
Currently the only plugins I’m using are iPerf for testing network speeds and lcdproc to make the screen say more than just “WGBios”. I had some IPS/IDS plugins installed at one point, but I am far from proficient when it comes to networking and routing, and Suricata ended up blocking stuff on my network that was needed (plex) and I could never get it to work right for me. Early on i also had pfblocker I think, but that greatly lowered the Spousal Approval Rating because it blocked stuff on Facebook as well as Network Television shows that wouldn’t let you watch without forcing ads on you whenever you started, stopped, fast forward etc.
All that said, my RAM usage is therefore pretty low, only at 9% of the 2Gb. I noticed the usage goes up with heavy network load, and for the short time I had Suricata installed (with only 1Gb mind) the ram was pretty much always at 90%.
Great! I should be just fine with the way it’s set up now with the 2 gigs and the e3400.
What does the LCD display after you install that package?
Bunch of different screens regarding status, e.g. ram usage, cpu usage, interface statistics. The buttons can cycle through the different screens.
Another note- I’m not sure if it’s still a big deal, but at some point the XTM5 series wont be able to get updates for pfsense due to the lack of AES-NI.
Perfect!
Yeah I’ve been using pfSense on a small ITX computer for my router for the last 6-7 years. It sounds like they push that off for quite a while. Once they get to the point of requiring the encryption protocol on the CPU I’m hoping to be able to buy a netgate appliance. 
