Net4801 Replacement

[Brian Callahan]

On 1/22/2014 6:58 PM, George Rosamond wrote:
> Charles Sprickman:
>> On Jan 22, 2014, at 3:27 PM, Pete Wright wrote:
>>
>>> I recently replaced my Net4801 with a pc-engines ALIX board.  been very
>>> happy with it so far.  it has been out performing my Net4801 which isn't
>>> too much of a shocker due to the more performant CPU.
>>>
>>> I purchased it from netgate.com - this is pretty much the kit i bought:
>>>
>>> http://store.netgate.com/ALIX2D3-2D13-Kit-Black-Unassembled-P172.aspx
>>
>> I keep being tempted by small units like this $100 PC:
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119081
>>
>> Of course, other than USB, no way to get more ethernet ports.  I do
>> wonder if USB support in FreeBSD/pfSense is good enough to rely on
>> for sub-100Mb/s WAN-side connections.
>>
>> This one has dual ethernet, so that would cover my LAN plus the
>> cable connection, and I could relegate the DSL backup to a USB
>> ethernet adapter.  The specs also claim a PCI-e slot, but I'm not
>> clear on how you'd jam a network card in there:
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205007
>> http://www.oemproduction.com/products/2700L2D-MxPC.asp
>>
>> Many of those cheap-o boxes have bad reviews, but it's mostly people
>> complaining that an old Atom can't do 1080p or run Minecraft
>> properly (derp).
>

FYI: these have an unsupported PowerVR GPU (Intel GMA3650). Might not be 
a concern for people on this list, but something to keep in mind.

> LOL... yeah, I know.   Hard to get through the reviews.  'one star'
> since it didn't include a power adapter.  If Soekris or Alix boards were
> on Amazon, they'd be full of one-star review.
>
>>
>> I'm still relying on a Dell GX-110 with a P-III 600MHz.  It's OK,
>> but if if OOL bumps the speed much beyond what they have now, that
>> box is going to be a chokepoint.
>>
>> Is ARM on FreeBSD progressing at a pace where we might one day be
>> able to load pfSense up on a routerboard?  For reasons too
>> complicated to explain at the moment, I have four of these on the
>> workbench, and the hardware is cool.  iptables though is making me
>> want to murder things though.
>>
>> http://routerboard.com/RB2011UiAS-RM (5x GigE, 5x FastE, $120)
>>
>> http://routerboard.com/RB1100AHx2 (13 GigE, $350)
>>
>
> I thought routerboard is PPC.. not ARM...
>

The RB2011UiAS-RM is a MIPS machine (MIPS32 74k specifically in this 
one), as are the majority of RouterBoard machines. Some are PPC but you 
have to check.

> (PPC.. .yeah, that architecture people have been telling OpenBSD to drop
> to save power costs....)
>
> And the ARM stuff is moving along... lots of boards mostly supported,
> but there's issues on and off.  Nothing seems quite there just yet,
> AFAIK.  Not sure if any have more than one NIC.
>
> GJB (onlist) is looking at producing an official image for the RPi based
> on 10-RELEASE.
>
> I had heard pfSense was looking at ARM carefully, but it's been a while.
>
> Next daycon on "beyond x86"?
>
> g