On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 05:47:02PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote: > By gateway, I mean router/firewall/whatever box that sits between your > LAN and the internet. > > Reasonable choices: > > - ISP-provided / sanctioned device (combo wireless router and modem) > > - ISP modem + user provided wireless router > > + possibly running custom firmware like CeroWRT or OpenWRT
I currently use a WRT1900ACv2 running LEDE. Plenty powerful for the job. > - ISP modem + PC acting as router > > + lots of possible software (pfsense, debian, whatever) > > For a variety of reasons I've always used PCs. But which PCs are best > for this? I stopped using a PC for routing at home years ago. Probably around the time I wanted wifi and it made sense to have that be the box doing it. > Here's an interesting pair of articles on using little PCs as > gateways: > <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-building-a-linux-router-from-scratch/> > <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/the-router-rumble-ars-diy-build-faces-better-tests-tougher-competition/> > > My previous gateways were SFF business PCs from a previous millenium. > Built like tanks. Reliable. Running full Red Hat Linux, so quite > familiar, versatile, and powerful. But they eat more electricity than > they should. And they are not silent. > > My next generation, years in the making, is here. > > I've chosen to use two different Zotac Zbox tiny PCs. > > - the CI321 is a fanless box with two ethernet ports (two is the > minimum for a pleasant router). I see it uses intel wifi. From what I have seen, running as as an AP only works in 2.4GHz mode, they don't allow AP operation in 5GHz bands. That's pretty inconvinient. > - the RI323 has a fan and two ethernet ports. It is more > fully-featured and I got it cheap. It even has two 2.5" drive bays. > > Both these us low power Haswell processors: The Celeron 2961Y. This > means no AES-NI instructions :-( > > Both use Realtek chips for the ethernet ports. I understand that they > have a mediocre record. Yeah they do. > There are a lot of nice-looking candidate PCs that you can order from > China. Some with 4 ethernet ports. Unfortunately, the affordable one > all use Baytrail or newer Atom cores (eg. J1900). This is what the > newer Ars article recommends. But I would not use that processor > because Intel has left a bug in the power management / clocking code > of the Linux kernel for a couple of years. Who wants an unreliable > gateway? > > <https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109051> > > I'm prompted to write this by a current sale and rebate on the Zboxes > (rebate offer ends with this month). > > <http://www.ncix.com/detail/zotac-zbox-ri323-barebone-mini-38-130690.htm> > <http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=26671130690&vpn=ZBOX-RI323-U&manufacture=Zotac> > > <http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=DH8888119815> > > <http://www.mirhelp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Oct-Mail-In-Rebate-Form-F-MIR1016-NCIX.pdf> > > Summary: > > - about $170 - $20 rebate for the RI323 > > - about $185 - $15 rebate for the CI321 > > Each needs a disk and RAM added. Hmm, for that price I think I will stick with my WRT (although it was only down in that price range because I got it on sale I suppose). -- Len Sorensen --- Talk Mailing List [email protected] https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
