[geeks] IPCop and pfSense...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: nate at portents.com
>Date: 2008/04/17 Thu PM 12:57:53 CDT
>To: geeks at sunhelp.org
>Subject: [geeks] IPCop and pfSense...

>So lately I've been intrigued by the $100 Shuttle KPC and it's possible
>use as a firewall/AP:
>
>http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/K45.html
>
>Unboxing here:
>
>http://bigpcgeek.com/blog/2008/03/28/shuttle-kpc-unboxed-reviewed-reveals-hidden-gem/
>
>Throwing a dual-core E2160 in there and 2GB of RAM should make a pretty
>well performing firewall/AP.

That's $100 + CPU + RAM + boot media (Optical/HD/etc.)

Why not the Intel Little Valley board (D201GLY2) - it has a nice Conroe Celeron CPU (1.5 GHz), SATA HD, takes 2 Gigs of DDR2 RAM, has a PCi slot and gobs of USB ports. After the purchase of the board and RAM you will get change back from a hundred dollar bill - add a case (*any* case will do) and you've got a great little box for such an application...

>Shuttle sells an internal Realtek RTL8187 chipset 802.11b/g card that you
>can install and have an antennae sticking out the back for $50 (doesn't
>use a slot, plugs into internal USB from motherboard):
>
>http://global.shuttle.com/product_detail_spec.jsp?PLLI=638&PI=906
>
>Only problem is, it appears there's no FreeBSD support for that wireless
>device, which would rule out pfSense, but it should work in IPCop since
>there is Linux support..
>
>I already have a PCI quad 10/100 (Intel) ethernet card I can put in the
>PCI slot, which would just leave a boot device to worry about, and I was
>thinking a CF to SATA adapter would do the trick:
>
>http://www.startech.com/item/SAT2CF-SATA-to-Compact-Flash-Adapter.aspx

WOW - $50? IDE -> CF adapters are under $15 these days... Heck, USB memory sticks are *real cheap) - 8 Gigs for $25 at microcenter.com - just add a jumper to go from MB header to USB female and a zip tie to hold it in place...

Lionel