Small PCs

[ewx]

I'm planning to get a Soekris net5501 to the be the house router (so: IP routing, NAT, DHCP client/server, secnet VPN, DNS). Before I do, are there any similar devices I should consider as possible alternatives?

What I need is:

• Silent or at least very quiet
• At least three ethernet ports (house LAN, house wireless, upstream)
• Must be able to run Linux without undue hassle

Nice to have but not necessarily essential:

• Serial console (but I can faff around with a keyboard and monitor if it comes to it)
• Compact flash storage (I have a spare 2GB card, which is unrealistically small for my camera)
• x86 architecture (my plan is to transplant an existing lenny install onto it)

Comments

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

Do you have any particular reason not to use something like a Linksys WRT54GL (or a more modern equivalent)?

Advantages:

• Silent
• Wireless built in
• Five ethernet ports; they are all on the built-in switch but can be presented as separate VLANs
• Filesystem is JFFS2; deals with unexpected power interruptions with no hassle.

Disadvantages:

• Not a complete Linux distribution
• Somewhat steep learning curve
• Not very much storage; you didn't mention needing any, but it might put you off

I've put one of these boxes into a non-technical colleague's house; it's running secnet so he can see the company internal network from home. Since it's been installed it's been no hassle at all.

Also, if you don't want to do this, I have an earlier Soekris system which I'm not using; I can give it to you if you like. It's a net4501 with a wireless card; you will need to supply your own compact flash card and power adapter. It's been a while since I've used it; I think one of the case screws is stuck and will require drilling, but apart from that it's fine.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The 4501 would certainly be worth a go - yes please!

Re your other comments:

I'd not previously considered a WRT and looking at the details on Wikipedia they look incredibly cramped - with a Soekris (or similar) I can just copy my existing system (which a PC with several network cards, and OTT for its purpose) onto a flash card and (possibly after a bit of grief with boot loaders), carry on as if nothing had changed. I'm not long on spare time at the moment so that's actually quite an advantage.

Wireless built in isn't much of an advantage to me since I already have a perfectly good WAP.

[simont]

Bootloaders: I use a net4501 as my house router+firewall+DNS+secnet+etc machine (though I installed Debian from scratch on it rather than porting an existing installation, since my previous setup was that my main desktop machine was doubling as the firewall and I wanted to separate the roles), and I found to my annoyance that GRUB just doesn't run on it for some reason. It's therefore the only machine on which I run LILO.

I mention this partly in case you want to take the opportunity not to waste time on GRUB, but also so that if you do decide to try GRUB and get it to work you can tell me how you did it ;-)

Also, I can look up the Maplin ID of the right power supply this evening, if that's any help to you. (I think I managed to buy the wrong one first time round...)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I'll try Grub but not spend too much time on it. A PSU ID would be handy, thanks.

[simont]

L49BR.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Ta.

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

I will bring it along with me next time I'm passing through Cambridge. I'm sure I'll be able to find a way to get it to you!

SGT is right about the problem with GRUB. LILO works fine.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Thanks in advance!

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm appears to do about that at a substantially lower price than the Soekris. I've no experience of the boards though.

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

Googling for "Soekris Alix" also lead me to:
http://www.routerboard.com/prices.html

Again, no recommendation, but potentially more options.

[xanna.livejournal.com]

We're puzzling similar questions ourselves atm (or rather Jacob is). Do let us know success/failure/wisdom when your quest ends.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

No ideas (I've liked the look of soekris myself), but interested in reports of how you do with it.

Well, there's always one of the various permutations of mini-itx/nano-itx/whatever they're calling it these days.

[nunfetishist.livejournal.com]

Snap. We're currently using a product my employer designed as our router. It's great in that we have the schematics and are responsible for the Linux port, but sucks in that it really isn't designed for the workload we put on it.

[james-r.livejournal.com]

I have a 5501-70 for home, running ubuntu. I'd recommend getting the SATA bracket for it if you might want to fit a HDD (I used my old laptop one for squid cache and osx netinstall stuff)..