Re: Hardware Advice Wanted: Router
On Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 5:58 PM Charles Curley
<charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:
>
> My FIT-PCs that provide network services are getting old, and i386
> Linux is slowly fading away. So I would like to replace them with a
> router/gateway computer.
>
> It should run Debian.
>
> It should either have two gigabit (or better) Ethernet interfaces or
> have suitable expansion capability.
>
> It should be quiet: no fans, and low power requirements. A small
> physical footprint would be nice.
>
> Most of the time it will run headless, but occasionally I will need to
> stick a monitor and keyboard on it. VGA will do fine.
>
> It will be a router. It will have at least DNS, DHCP, apt-cacher-ng and
> firewalld on it. Modest disk and RAM will be fine.
>
> WiFi is handled elsewhere for now, but I won't turn it down.
>
> SSD for storage would be nice, although the FIT-PCs do fine with IDE
> spinning rust.
It sounds like you want an all-in-one of sorts. Something with
hardware+software. I don't have a recommendation for that.
However, if you would like a piece of hardware that checks most of the
boxes and can run whatever you like, then I recommend you look at
Protectli. They make low power, fanless, mini pc's with multiple
ethernet ports. You can choose between 2, 4 and 6 ports.
<https://protectli.com/> and
<https://www.amazon.com/stores/Protectli/page/532343EA-BBD8-4423-87A6-08A76E28A16F>.
Protectli devices are typically used as firewalls. In fact, I use one
running pfSense as a firewall behind my ISP's router. I am very
pleased with it.
On the downside, Protectli does not have open hardware design or use
OpenFirmware. Those gadgets are a little harder to find.
Jeff
Reply to: