Hardware for Nix Firewall

M

Met-AL

Supreme [H]ardness
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How big of a network are you planning on securing, and what do you plan to run?
 
If your just looking to run a firewall and not a UTM gateway like Untangle I'd suggest an ALIX setup.

http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm

It will run M0n0wall or PFSense like a champ, costs about $200 for a complete kit and uses very little power and is silent. And since it doesn't have a fan and uses a CF card for storage you have no moving parts. I've been running one for 2 years now with zero issues.
 
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10685272

Just recently purchased this little list for my Untangle box here at the house - sweet little setup; fast and stable. The onboard NIC has some issues with *NIX (the same with many Atom boards), hence the two intel NICs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856107046

The above link uses the same motherboard you linked -- but comes with an enclosure and power brick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856107048

This is the same as the above but with a 1.5Ghz C7 instead of the 1.2GHz Eden.

I would however recommend the Atom over the VIA solutions. It may use a few watts more power but also offers a great deal more computing power and supports up to 2GB memory (i.e. more sessions/more UTM features enabled).
 
shabazkilla said:
If your just looking to run a firewall and not a UTM gateway like Untangle I'd suggest an ALIX setup.

http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm

It will run M0n0wall or PFSense like a champ, costs about $200 for a complete kit and uses very little power and is silent. And since it doesn't have a fan and uses a CF card for storage you have no moving parts. I've been running one for 2 years now with zero issues.
Click to expand...

m0n0wall or PFSense is what I am interested in.

This looks nice.

http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=60_84&products_id=492
 
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Orinthical said:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10685272

Just recently purchased this little list for my Untangle box here at the house - sweet little setup; fast and stable. The onboard NIC has some issues with *NIX (the same with many Atom boards), hence the two intel NICs.
Click to expand...

Unless I'm mistaken that board only has one PCI slot so how are you connecting the second card?


Two boards I've been interested in are:
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9830
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832
 
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novadude said:
Unless I'm mistaken that board only has one PCI slot so how are you connecting the second card?
Click to expand...
It has one PCI onboard but all of the links I posted, including the one I just purchased for myself (the wishlist) have a PCI riser, giving you two PCI slots. Like I said, it works well. :)
 
Just some food for thought....I've been running PFSense on an old IBM Thinkpad T41...was using a T22 before that but it gave up the ghost.

What's nice about laptops..
*small
*Quiet compared to a PC
*Low energy consumption compared to a PC
*Built in keyboard 'n monitor..so you can have console right up on screen
*Built in battery backup.

I use a PCMCIA NIC as my 2nd NIC.

You can pickup old Thinkpads for a hundge or two on fleabay or other sources, so comparable price to something from Netgate....even less.
 
I just found a old small form desktop form factor Compaq K6 300mhz PC in my basement that I forgot all about.

I also have a slick little 15" LCD. Is there one of these distro's that would display a nifty output to that monitor? Something like bandwidth usage, etc?
 
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