Which router software to use on this? (56k warning)

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OmegaAvenger

2[H]4U
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Sep 25, 2007
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The device in question is a "Shiva" 3015 VPN Gateway. Which is at it heart a modified PC.
The main differenced are no VGA/Parallel ports and the USB/KB/Mouse are blocked and possibly dissabled. The PCI slot it has does work (verified with an intel NIC.

I intend to make this a linux/BSD router and I wanted to know what you guys recommend.
Specs as follows:
733mhz celeron
256MB ram (has 64mb). I can get more I need to.
dual onboard Lan.


I plan to add a 3rd NIC and cut a hole for it. Im going to use a flexible PCI extender.

If you guys recommend it I could try a few faster p3 cpus in it tommorow. Pics following:

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First of all, what motherboard is in there?

You could more than likely do the whole installation without a keyboard or a monitor. All you would need is a live CD and a distro that you could simply copy over onto that flash drive. You could do the whole installation through SSH.

Just recently I came across a distribution called Zeroshell. It is very easy to setup, and it can be very powerful when used as a router. The community supporting the project is mostly non-English, but I would be willing to help you muck around with it. However, if you wanted something more "tried & tested", then I would stick with something like Smoothwall or pfSense.

Also, upgrading the CPU really depends on what you plan on doing with the box. If it's just for a small amount of users / devices, then I would say that Celeron would be just fine (not to mention cheap on power). But if you plan on having quite a few users behind it, then I would say give a P3 a try (I know that's the first thing I'd be digging through my drawers for. Also, I would definitely get that third NIC in there and get some bonding going on.

Anyways, good find! I wish I could come across something like that!!
 
Dawizman said:
First of all, what motherboard is in there?

You could more than likely do the whole installation without a keyboard or a monitor. All you would need is a live CD and a distro that you could simply copy over onto that flash drive. You could do the whole installation through SSH.

Just recently I came across a distribution called Zeroshell. It is very easy to setup, and it can be very powerful when used as a router. The community supporting the project is mostly non-English, but I would be willing to help you muck around with it. However, if you wanted something more "tried & tested", then I would stick with something like Smoothwall or pfSense.

Also, upgrading the CPU really depends on what you plan on doing with the box. If it's just for a small amount of users / devices, then I would say that Celeron would be just fine (not to mention cheap on power). But if you plan on having quite a few users behind it, then I would say give a P3 a try (I know that's the first thing I'd be digging through my drawers for. Also, I would definitely get that third NIC in there and get some bonding going on.

Anyways, good find! I wish I could come across something like that!!
Click to expand...



No idea what MB. But see that serial port? thats the serial console port. When i boot it up with a null modem cable and putty on xp box connected to it. I've tried pfsense to see if it supports it. and it works perfectly fine, but I dont like it or monowall too much.

I know IPCOP will boot from a cd on this. I've tried it. I just didn't do it because I'd prefer to use CF and getting IPCOP on a cf the proper way is a PITA from what i'v read.

Inluded in a pic of the CF media i have and a microdrive, so i can run pretty much anything.
I just want to know what you guys recommend.

I've heard good things about endian community edition, but im not sure if this has enough muscle for it.

I don't have a problem using monowall or pfsense, but I'd prefer something a tad bit easier to set up port forwarding on, because I've got 3-4 computers that I run bittorrent on. one of which I also use for games and a PS3.

Access to some p3 cpus isnt hard, we have trays of them at work.

I got this thing for $40 :D
 
OmegaAvenger said:
No idea what MB. But see that serial port? thats the serial console port. When i boot it up with a null modem cable and putty on xp box connected to it. I've tried pfsense to see if it supports it. and it works perfectly fine, but I dont like it or monowall too much.

I know IPCOP will boot from a cd on this. I've tried it. I just didn't do it because I'd prefer to use CF and getting IPCOP on a cf the proper way is a PITA from what i'v read.

Inluded in a pic of the CF media i have and a microdrive, so i can run pretty much anything.
I just want to know what you guys recommend.

I've heard good things about endian community edition, but im not sure if this has enough muscle for it.

I don't have a problem using monowall or pfsense, but I'd prefer something a tad bit easier to set up port forwarding on, because I've got 3-4 computers that I run bittorrent on. one of which I also use for games and a PS3.

Access to some p3 cpus isnt hard, we have trays of them at work.
Click to expand...



Well, like I said, take a look at Zeroshell. It has a half decent web-based gui, and installs very easily (gunzip -c zeroshell.img.gz > /dev/xxx)

As long as you can find a heatsink & fan that'll fit in that case, then go for the P3 for sure! I don't think I'd want to fun a P3 without a fan blowing on it.
 
Dawizman said:
Well, like I said, take a look at Zeroshell. It has a half decent web-based gui, and installs very easily (gunzip -c zeroshell.img.gz > /dev/xxx)

As long as you can find a heatsink & fan that'll fit in that case, then go for the P3 for sure! I don't think I'd want to fun a P3 without a fan blowing on it.
Click to expand...

I don't have a linux PC setup at the moment so how would I install it with one of my windows boxes?
 
OmegaAvenger said:
I don't have a linux PC setup at the moment so how would I install it with one of my windows boxes?
Click to expand...

Well, there are many ways to do it. But since you are just installing it to a CF drive, I would say the easiest thing to do you either be using Cygwin, or possibly gunzip for Windows, and then run the above mentioned command.
 
im gonna extract the .img and use physdiskwrite to that 4gb microdrive I have. I'll get a bigger cf card later.
 
Well it works. It supports my onboard lan, which is not a suprise as they are Intel.
Now to go about configuring it and testng it. Looks like the best solution for me ATM.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
Well it works. It supports my onboard lan, which is not a suprise as they are Intel.
Now to go about configuring it and testng it. Looks like the best solution for me ATM.
Click to expand...

Right On! Glad to hear you figured it out. Like I mentioned before, the documentation and community isn't the most active by an means, so if you need any help with it, feel free to shoot me a PM.
 
Update:

I swapped the IDE to CF adapter for the other "generic" one i had and rotated it 180 degrees and cut a hole in the back so now if the need arises I can power down the router and update/replace the CF card. Yay! Now I'm just waiting for logicsupply to deliver my PCI flexible extender so I can add another NIC.

Should I add a single or a dual port NIC? I have like 15 NICs laying around.
Sorry in advance for my bad cell phone pics. I did the mod @ work.
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BTW I used the cisco 1GB CF card because it cost me $12 and it was already empty.
 
Aye Pfsense is as easy an monowall to install... But then again PFsense is based off of monowall. Also Zeroshell is the same way, it just requires more space.
 
Well I got the final part today and took to modding and rack mounting my router.
Here's the pics:
I had to rewire about half the rack since i removed my 3com 32 port switch and added the patch panel.
The patch panel lets me switch the WAN and LAN connections between the Cisco and the Pfsense box, not that its likely to happen. It also connects to my connect gear 14 port switch (lightning killed 2 of the 16 ports), which acts as the shelf for my wireless router (running as an AP) and my linksys gigabit switch. The connect gear also connects some low priority stuff such as my UPSes and my photo smart printer to the main switch.
The linksys switch connects my PS3 and those 2 pcs in my rack running server 2003 to the main switch as well. Prior to today they were running 10/100 which sucked, but i found the gigabit cards I had laying around. The other gigabit connection on the main switch goes to my netgear gigabit switch which connects my main workstation, laptop and laser printer to the main switch.

Even with all the switches my latency is not affected.

I ordered the 1u rack shelf from sweetwarter.com its the UTR-1 or something like that (don't have the invoice handy), and the PCI extender from Logicsupply.com

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/Omega123/IMG_1827.jpg

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I would of stuck with zeroshell, but pfsense is just easier to get up and running and it has UPNP support which can be limited to certain hosts, so gaming with my PS3 = next to no config. In fact, I'm gonna be helping a friend upgrade from monowall to pfsense next week. I haven't connected anything to OPT1 or OPT2 yet, though I will be connecting my wireless routers to them later.
 
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