Post your Smoothie/ipcop/etc. specs

i installed pfsense over the weekend and it's functioning MUCH better. after checking out some of the smoothwall screenshots i may give that a shot for giggles.
 
I'm looking to build my first low power mini firewall and have specced up a few parts in case anyone is interested in the same and I wouldnt mind some assistance :)
This looks to be a good compromise for cost, size, power consumption, features and CPU power.
It also needs 1GB DDR2 and a case which doesnt matter for now.
Prices are inc vat (UK)

Intel Little Falls 2 with Integrated Intel Atom 330 Processor i945GC onboard VGA 6 channel audio mini-ITX Motherboard, 2xSATA
(1.6GHz Dual core @ 8W, board itself uses 32W peak I believe)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152176
£73.95

Western Digital WD1200BEVS 120GB 2.5" SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM 8MB Cache
(new higher data density)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/110273
£37.60

ITX-Warehouse ITU-110W-KIT
(110W power brick + 12V DC-DC) - useful if I convert to a car PC anytime :)
http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=801
£52.36

Netgear 10/100 Mbps PCI Fast Ethernet Adaptor
(Low height network card to complement the onboard network adaptor)
http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=393
£12.04


I've toyed with using a 1U 200W (or thereabouts) rackmount PSU which will cost less than the power brick+ DC-DC converter and probably will have less power loss too.
The build is designed to be future proof by having SATA and a lot of CPU power but still remains very low power consumption.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this build, could I choose better?
 
do you really need a 120gb hdd?
you could go for a 1-8gb CF to IDE/SATA adapter for about the same or a bit more and get no noise and no moving parts to fail, faster boot times, and much smaller size as well as less heat.

What software will be on it? I'd throw an intel NIC on there instead of a netgear. Intel NICs are pretty much the best nics out there.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
do you really need a 120gb hdd?
you could go for a 1-8gb CF to IDE/SATA adapter for about the same or a bit more and get no noise and no moving parts to fail, faster boot times, and much smaller size as well as less heat.

What software will be on it? I'd throw an intel NIC on there instead of a netgear. Intel NICs are pretty much the best nics out there.
Click to expand...
Heat wont be a problem while it is used as a firewall as it will be mounted in a nice looking Micro ATX case.

I had a quick look at CF drives but couldnt find anything decent around that price in the UK.
Only the latest CF cards appeal to me due to better reliability and speed.
If I cant find a decent CF solution now, its not a problem as I can add one in a year or so when they have evolved more.

I'm undecided what firewall to use.
It has to be able to block IPs using a list (which I update from my home PC) so I am looking at IPCop.
Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for the info on the NIC, I'll follow your suggestion.
 
Nenu said:
I'm looking to build my first low power mini firewall and have specced up a few parts in case anyone is interested in the same and I wouldnt mind some assistance :)
This looks to be a good compromise for cost, size, power consumption, features and CPU power.
It also needs 1GB DDR2 and a case which doesnt matter for now.
Prices are inc vat (UK)

Intel Little Falls 2 with Integrated Intel Atom 330 Processor i945GC onboard VGA 6 channel audio mini-ITX Motherboard, 2xSATA
(1.6GHz Dual core @ 8W, board itself uses 32W peak I believe)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152176
£73.95

Western Digital WD1200BEVS 120GB 2.5" SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM 8MB Cache
(new higher data density)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/110273
£37.60

ITX-Warehouse ITU-110W-KIT
(110W power brick + 12V DC-DC) - useful if I convert to a car PC anytime :)
http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=801
£52.36

Netgear 10/100 Mbps PCI Fast Ethernet Adaptor
(Low height network card to complement the onboard network adaptor)
http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=393
£12.04


I've toyed with using a 1U 200W (or thereabouts) rackmount PSU which will cost less than the power brick+ DC-DC converter and probably will have less power loss too.
The build is designed to be future proof by having SATA and a lot of CPU power but still remains very low power consumption.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this build, could I choose better?
Click to expand...
Depending on what firewall software you are using, I would suggest either getting a hdd with 60GB-80GB.
 
k Pics are here... took me a while since unexpected work came up....

IMG_0135.jpg
 
AMD_RULES said:
iGamer, looks good
Click to expand...

rofl I got quite a chuckle out of his picture.
Its a scutty old AMD badged PC case with a pair of nailclippers and gloves on an untidy desk.
Nothing is aligned and there are wires everywhere.
Nowhere can the hardware in question be seen and there are supposed to be pictures but there is only one :)
 
I setup my IPCop box this past weekend. Let me know what you guys think.

Dell P4 1.6ghz
512 Ram
20 GB HDD

And I have a quick question about IPCop. I installed the add-on web filter. Whenever I edit the web filter such as adding a new domain to block, the changes won't take effect unless I reboot the IPCop machine. Is there a way to make changes and have it work without a reboot?

IMG_0995.jpg


IMG_0996.jpg


IMG_0997.jpg
 
Nenu said:
rofl I got quite a chuckle out of his picture.
Its a scutty old AMD badged PC case with a pair of nailclippers and gloves on an untidy desk.
Nothing is aligned and there are wires everywhere.
Nowhere can the hardware in question be seen and there are supposed to be pictures but there is only one :)
Click to expand...

Yea at the time of the pic, it was very messy....


Unfortunatley the wires I can do nothing about... got too much stuff and not enough space.... I'll try to post a new pic tomorrow.....or soon anyways.... funny how you accumulate stuff over time..... I wish there were wireless Power Cords, would get rid of 70% of the mess.
 
Dell GX100
Celeron 566Mhz
384MB RAM
1GB CF
3com 3c905
Intel PRO/1000 MT
EnGenius EPI-3601S (Wifi)
pfSense 1.2.2
 
And my PFsense box just killed itself... again. Corrupt config.xml file, going to try to cmd restore a backup. Remember folks if you dont want to tweak with it, dont do it.
 
Well my post from a few days ago (#214) is now outdated. I just picked up a gateway 300se for $2 and has a celeron 1.2ghz, 128mb ram, no hard drive but will be upgrading to 512mb ram and 80gb hard drive.
 
WAS:
VIA C3 800MHz 256MB RAM (2x 100mbit Ethernet) ThinClient

NOW:
P4 3.2 GHz
1GB RAM
20GB HDD
2X 100Mbit Ethernet
 
Tried Devil Linux and although the options were plenty, I tried SmoothWall 3 and I'm smitten :D

Did it all with a Duron 800MHz
256MB PC133
Quantum Fireball 40GB
2Nic setup: Green=Realtek 1GB to Netgear GS108
Red=Netgear FA311 to 7/1Mbps Verizon DSL

The webGUI for SW3 is excellent and I'm hoping to get some more services running to ensure extra security!
 
here is mine:
Express Version 3.0-polar-i386
CPU Vendor GenuineIntel
CPU Model Celeron (Coppermine)
CPU Speed 632 Mhz
Memory 504 Mb
Disk 40 Gb
Network Config GREEN + PURPLE + ORANGE + RED
Connection Type Ethernet
 
I am running pfSense 1.2.2 on a old HP d530 P4 2.8 GHz with 512 meg DDR RAM with a 2 gig CF and CF-to-IDE adapter.

I'm running with the stock Broadcom gigabit WAN and an el cheapo Realtek gigabit for LAN and an even cheaper ($1.90 at Fry's pre-tax) Realtek 10/100 NIC for my FiOS VoD equipment.

I'm pretty happy with pfSense. Love being able to OpenVPN and PPTP into my house (I setup both just to learn).

I got ahold of six of those old HP d530 SFF boxes and setup a separate squid proxy server and mail server. Next step is to setup one with XP Pro at my Dad's house (three miles away, also FiOS) and VPN it into the house for doing nightly off-site backup archives.
 
Update on mine.....came across an IBM Thinkpad T41, Pentium M 1.2, 512 megs.
Running PFSense 2.0 Alpha on it, which replaced my older Thinkpad T22 which was runing PFSense 1.2.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Update on mine.....came across an IBM Thinkpad T41, Pentium M 1.2, 512 megs.
Running PFSense 2.0 Alpha on it, which replaced my older Thinkpad T22 which was runing PFSense 1.2.
Click to expand...

Are you using a virtual shared nic or do you have a pcmcia card installed?
 
I roll DD-WRT x86 for my home router
PIII 1ghz Tualatin (0.13 micron)
256 or 512mb of ram, can't remember
4GB Compact Flash card with CF-IDE converter
3 pci nic's, ~generic ones, and I think they are all gigabit

I use a WRT54GS also running DD-WRT for my wifi
The x86 box handles all the DHCP, etc, the WRT54GS is simply a wifi AP.
 
my (ex)smoothwall will be getting an upgrade soon ( well on my WRT54G 100% atm) at one point I had a Dell 400MHz GX1 but I took it down cuz hte case was massive and heavy and I think the mobo has the swine flu.. its gets sick and randome times adn just freezes.

anywho Upgrading to a 5 year old compaq sr1020nx

2.8GHz Intel Celeron (Northwood based)
512MB PC2100 DDR
80GB HD ( but will be downgrading that to a 20GB 5400RPM WD Protege (that I think still works, if not then 40GB)
ahs a 16x DVD-ROM and 48x CD-RW which I will be replacing with a single 40x CD-ROM
was also one of the last few Compaqs to come with a floppy.
also will use the Integrated NIC for the WAN
an Intel Pro/100 S NIC for the LAN

I'll use my WRT54G as an access point.. and probably putting DD-WRT Mini on there ( I did it at one point.. but changed back for whatever reason. Anywho pics to come in the next few days.

oh adn forgot to mention I will be also making the move to pfsense possibly. still deciding on that.
 
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Quick question for folks running pfsense.
I came across a few Checkpoint based VPN/Firewall 1u appliances and want to move my pFsense to one of them. They are a Intel Celeron 650M (Ultra low voltage) 256k/512mg/40gb/CF slot with 6 10/100 intel ports (4 onboard, 2 on card). Will this handle pfsense?
 
The Spyder said:
Quick question for folks running pfsense.
I came across a few Checkpoint based VPN/Firewall 1u appliances and want to move my pFsense to one of them. They are a Intel Celeron 650M (Ultra low voltage) 256k/512mg/40gb/CF slot with 6 10/100 intel ports (4 onboard, 2 on card). Will this handle pfsense?
Click to expand...

Mind sharing a link where you found those? :D
I'd wager a truckload of Guinness stout that they would run PFSense like a dream...Intel CPU, probably Intel chipset? And nice Intel NICs.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Mind sharing a link where you found those? :D
I'd wager a truckload of Guinness stout that they would run PFSense like a dream...Intel CPU, probably Intel chipset? And nice Intel NICs.
Click to expand...

Sadly they were local and I bought them out of the 2 they had.
Intel Celeron 650 ULV, Intel chipset, Intel nics. Onboard CF card slot. Ect ect. However they had Maxtor slimline hard drives :(.

They came with a binder, with install quote... $10k for both ($2.3k each) with 100 Checkpoint VPN seats ($5k), $1800 install.
 
The Spyder said:
Sadly they were local and I bought them out of the 2 they had.
Intel Celeron 650 ULV, Intel chipset, Intel nics. Onboard CF card slot. Ect ect. However they had Maxtor slimline hard drives :(.

They came with a binder, with install quote... $10k for both ($2.3k each) with 100 Checkpoint VPN seats ($5k), $1800 install.
Click to expand...

Hey, if you got them at a good price....don't sweat the crapxstor drives, just toss those and slap in a nice pair of WDs or Seagates.

Take 'n post some pics when you set them up eh?
 
Pictures can speak for them selves..

img1986h.jpg

img1989y.jpg

img1991cig.jpg

img1992a.jpg


All of this came from my favorite geek shop. Top 2 were $20, next 3 were $60, switch was $30, but I had to have it :).
img1993n.jpg

With my servers a friend just gave me. (Supermicro, PD3.2/2gigs/80gbx2, RAID, 2x Gigabit)
img1995e.jpg


Too little time to mess with any of it :(
 
Last edited:
Does anyone know anything about them? They just load to a blank screen after booting the kernel for 10 minutes.
 
The Spyder said:
Does anyone know anything about them? They just load to a blank screen after booting the kernel for 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

I'd ditch the stock firmware and just see if i could get pfsense to load.

I'd be more then happy to mess around with one on your behalf.. :D
 
photo9w.jpg

Finally got one of the Ndurants setup.
PFsense 1.2.3
1 WAN
1 LAN
1 DMZ
1 WIFI private N AP
1 WIFI open G via Linksys card installed where the 5th nic used to be.

So far its great. Going to pick up a new CF card tonight and try installing it via the onboard CF card slot!
I did have to upgrade both powersuppy and CPU fans to make it decent. Oh and it looks like the Maxtors were trash
and explained why they were junked.
 
The Spyder said:
Finally got one of the Ndurants setup.
PFsense 1.2.3
1 WAN
1 LAN
1 DMZ
1 WIFI private N AP
1 WIFI open G via Linksys card installed where the 5th nic used to be.

So far its great. Going to pick up a new CF card tonight and try installing it via the onboard CF card slot!
I did have to upgrade both powersuppy and CPU fans to make it decent. Oh and it looks like the Maxtors were trash
and explained why they were junked.
Click to expand...

which model of linksys? I've been trying to find out what G nics work with pfsense.
 
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