[kwlug-disc] x86 "routers"

[Paul Nijjar]

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 11:47:49PM -0500, Lori Paniak wrote:
> 
> Yes there is hope!  Take a look at this Supermicro 1U ready-to-go
> system:
> 
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5015/SYS-5015A-H.cfm?typ=H

That has a form factor that is too big. This (as yet hypothetical) box
would be replacing a stupid little consumer-grade router in a cabinet
that is already smaller than I would like. I could maybe double any
one dimension of a standard consumer router (say a Linksys WRT54G) but
I can't fit much more than that. 

The real answer is to build a bigger cabinet, but I can't ask about
that on the KWLUG list.

I was looking at the shuttle systems that Khalid recommended. They are
sweet, but they come with one builtin network card. Adding additional
jacks is possible (maybe using USB to ethernet dongles, or perhaps
some miniPCI thing) but awkward. 

Some of the mini-ITX boards on that supermicro.com site look sweet,
though. 

> Intel Atom dual-core (64-bit!) and two gigabit network ports.  Get
> yourself a stick of RAM and a 5-port switch and you are on your x86 way.
> My favourite part: onboard video - no serial port-ology here.

How does a 5-port switch help me? Are you talking about a switch on a
card? I don't think an external switch helps me -- the reason I want
more ethernet ports is so that pfSense can assign different subnets to
each interface (which I guess is like VLANs, but not exactly). 

- Paul