Jim, If you're looking to run pfSense I've found it doesn't work so well anymore on a net4801, you need something beefier to get anywhere with it. pfSense is less designed for embedded hardware than it is for full-blown PCs, while m0n0wall is still aimed at the smaller devices (and even that is starting to have trouble with less-powerful machines like the 4801).
I'd really recommend a net5501 for any new projects, despite the added cost, size, and no doubt power consumption... Chris Jim Arnold wrote: > Thanks in advance for humoring me with my unimportant story and > questions... > > For the last few years a FreeBSD box running IPF has been protecting > my little home cable modem network. Back then I was having fun hacking > around teaching myself Unix. Once I finally migrated to OSX from > System 9 I stopped playing around with Unix except for my little > firewall and occasional peeks under OS X's hood. > > A recent storm took out my power supply on that firewall box. > Unfortunately it was a proprietary power supply. I liberated a FreeBSD > box out of the closet loaded with FreeBSD 4.11 and tried to duplicate > my old firewall. Despite extensive documentation of my old system > files I could not get this new box to work as my firewall. > > While searching around for a solutions I came across m0n0wall and > PFSense. Getting them to install and work was very simple, especially > PFSense, which was installed on a hard drive. Next I read about using > a CF card instead of a hard drive. A few days later my IDE/CF adapter > arrived and in minutes I had PFSense running off the compactflash > card. My old Geek Hacker self was re-emerging. :) > > Then I read about the Soekris boxes. > > My router/firewall is in the basement so noise is not an issue. Now > that I have the CF installed a power supply failure is the only weak > link in the box. But since this was a home-built box it has a standard > PS which will be easy to replace if necessary. > > The only reason I can come up with to plunk down $243 for a 4801, > power supply and shipping, is to save power. I calculated my current > router/firewall expends about 200 watts to run. That costs me $110 a > year to power If my calculations are correct. If the 4801 takes 10 > watts to power that would cost $5.50 a year. > > Is this a good enough rationalization? > > What is a reasonable lifespan of a Soekris box? > _______________________________________________ > Soekris-tech mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech > _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
