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:
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.
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...
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.
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