IPFW In-Kernel NAT vs PF NAT Performance

[Neel Chauhan]

Hi freebsd-net@ mailing list,

Right now, my firewall is a HP T730 thin client (with a Dell Broadcom 
5720 PCIe NIC) running FreeBSD 12.1 and IPFW's In-Kernel NAT. My ISP is 
"Wave G" in the Seattle area, and I have the Gigabit plan.

Speedtests usually give me 700 Mbps down/900 Mbps up, and 250-400 Mbps 
down/800 Mbps up during the Coronavirus crisis. However, I'm having 
problems with an application (Tor relays) where I am not able to use a 
lot of bandwidth for Tor, Coronavirus-related telecommuting or not. My 
Tor server is separate from my firewall.

Which firewall gives better performance, IPFW's In-Kernel NAT or PF NAT? 
I am dealing with 1000s of concurrent connections but 
browsing-level-bandwidth at once with Tor.

Also, I hope you all stay safe and healthy during the Coronavirus 
crisis.

-Neel

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https://www.neelc.org/