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The Drawer Router - Powered by Intel Atom

S_G

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Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
820
Location
Montreal
So... I've wanted to do this for a while. Basically, I pretty much run everything out of my desk right now. However, I came to realize that the Linksys WRT54GL router with Tomato is very lackluster, and definitely does not suit my needs.

Streaming extremely high-bitrate videos over the network easily saturates my 100Mbps line at peak. My heavy, er, "river networking" overwhelms my router's memory and so any decent QoS is made impossible. So, everything is getting overhauled:
  • My new Skulltrail system is on the way. Why is that of relevance here? It uses an Intel PRO/1000 onboard network interface, so that's a major improvement over the Marvell I have now. All my media is shared from this computer to all XBMC installations over my network, so speed is important.
  • The new router will consist of:
    • A single-core Intel Atom processor with 1GB DDR2-667 RAM -- both way more than I'll ever need for this thing.
    • pfSense as the operating system, installed on a 2GB CompactFlash card via a IDE-to-CF adapter.
    • An Intel PRO/1000 GT PCI card, yes, sadly PCI will limit my max bandwidth to 133MBps, but it's all this silly Atom board has.
      This was necessary because the single-core Atom board only has a 10/100 onboard. I didn't know until after I ordered this that the dual-core version has gigabit onboard. Still, this is a much better NIC.
    • A Netgear GS108T-100NAS Prosafe 8-port managed gigabit switch. As of today, I have had it on backorder for 29 days! EDIT!! I just got the notice that it shipped out via Purolator Air just as I was writing this! Finally, the build will be complete. (And wow, the price on it has shot up 50% since I ordered it.)
    • Powered by an Antec EarthWatts 380. It only cost me a little over 30 bucks! I could have gotten a picoPSU, but I wanted to try and build a powerful and compact budget router, and I had plenty of room for this PSU.
    • Using VLAN: Two ADSL modems connected to TekSavvy for MLPPP, 12Mbps down / 1.5Mbps up. Really though, it'll only be 8Mbps down / 800Kbps up. Something is really killing my network here.
    • Running off an APC Smart-UPS 1500VA unit to keep the network going as long as possible in case of brownout, blackout, and surge. Can't protect the phone line through this thing though...
And that's that. Here are pics of me putting it together.


Good ol' Intel Atom. Let's show them what you're made of.


Good thing this was easy to remove. The PCI cover was too tall and wide, it just interfered with my "case" in every possible way. So, I took it off and mounted in the network card bare.


Fun, fun. I was going to do a nice cut on the back of my drawer, but I got frustrated and, knowing no one will ever see this part of my desk, I just hammered it out. This is where all the external cables get routed (LAN, power).



Next up... mounting it.
 
Last edited:

BrainEater

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Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
2,867
Location
Calgary
awesome !

I run a custom made PF rig myself , you'll love it.

I'm curious why you are going to use a CF card.I actually bought a couple ide-CF adapters myself , but decided to go with a harddrive , based on the 'write-limit' of cf cards.

:thumb:
 

Xilikon

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 9, 2008
Messages
447
Location
Quebec City
You will love the home-made router, much more beefy than those crappy consumer-grade routers. Personnally, my Endian Firewall is in a virtual machine within my Q6600 Windows Home Server and the uptime is awesome barring the necessary reboots for WHS updates or server parts upgrade.
 

S_G

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Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
820
Location
Montreal
I may reboot my system somewhat frequently, so I couldn't run it within a VM, had to be a separate box. I went with CF for a few reasons. Lower power consumption, no noise, and a much lower profile. Not to mention it's considerably cheaper both in the short- and long-term.


There she is, mounted in the drawer.


It's not neat and tidy, but it fits!


The CF card, connected to an IDE adapter. A customized version of pfSense enables the use of this as the operating system medium, but also keeps writes down to a minimum due to limited write cycles and speed.



And here she is, with room to spare. The switch won't fit in there, sadly. That would have been perfect.


I will most likely end up mounting the switch underneath the drawer. That way, everything stays centralized and fewer wires need to be routed around. Not sure if I can screw it in, if not, there's always double-sided tape! :biggrin:




Next: Waiting for the switch. Then it's time to install and set up pfSense and the rest of my network. I also just realized I'm missing a stick of DDR2, so I have to find somewhere to get one at a reasonable price in Montreal.
 

S_G

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
820
Location
Montreal
No need. I temporarily jacked a stick from one of my other computers. Not sure why I hadn't thought of this earlier. Currently copying the pfSense image to the CF card.
 

S_G

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
820
Location
Montreal
Well, I think this build has ended in shambles. I have tried everything I could think of, but my limited knowledge of networking has left me lost. I can't get pfSense to connect to the Internet, so I'm pretty much screwed now. Not sure what else I can do.
 

3.0charlie

3.0 "I kill SR2's" Charlie
Joined
May 22, 2007
Messages
10,054
Location
Laval, QC
Wait 'til Brain sees this, he said in his reply that he runs one of his rigs with pf - whatever that means!
 

BrainEater

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Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
2,867
Location
Calgary
Wait 'til Brain sees this, he said in his reply that he runs one of his rigs with pf - whatever that means!

PfSense , the router software S_G is using , is written in BSD . 'PF' is literally a 'Packet Filter' written in BSD.

---------

Tell me the procedure you followed S_G....

I assume you have correctly assigned both network cards.
Are both cards being assigned an IP addy ?
 

S_G

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
820
Location
Montreal
Actually, I'm only running one network card. I'm doing this:

Code:
  pfSense
192.168.1.2 LAN (vlan0)
192.168.2.2 WAN (vlan1)
     |
     |
   switch ------ (vlan1) ------ DSL modem
192.168.1.239                  192.168.2.1
     |
     |
  (vlan0)
     |
     |
  LAN PCs
192.168.1.x

Looks complicated for no reason, right? I did this so that I could add more DSL modems later on with more VLANs (vlan2, vlan3, ...).
 

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