Wired VPN Router Suggestion

[sfx2000]

For approximately the same price delivered I purchased a mini PC from Qotom. It has an Intel I7 4500 processor 1.8/3.0 Ghz, 8 Gigs of Ram and 4 Intel Gig ports, HDMI, 2 USB 2 and 2 USB 3 ports. Came with Pfsense installed on SSD.

The only concern I have with the QOTOM boxes - in the beginning, it was one vendor selling a baytrail J1900 unit - worked well enough, and there's a build thread on the forums here.

The original QOTOM J1900's were priced fairly within the Intel Bill of Materials structure...

Recently though, if one scours the alibaba/taobao, there's a lot of "QOTOM" boxes with i5's and i7's - and they're selling below tray costs on the CPU's themselves... so either intel is putting money on the hood as a backdoor effort, or these are bin-rejects from laptop manufacturers - not wanting to put any conspiracy theories in play...

consider Intel Haswell - an i5-4620@1.4GHz (turbo to 2.7GHz) sells for the same price as a desktop i7-4790, which is the top of the line i7 for haswell outside of the K chips for gamers

They're both $300+ chips, even now... https://ark.intel.com/compare/75030,80806

 

[CaptainSTX]

Fellow I talked to said better with all that I want to do with it. The 2340s processor is an upgrade from the 2220, and the ssd is standard, unlike the 2220 which has 4GB eMMC with the option to add a 60GB ssd for an upgrade cost. Basically I got a better device, slightly smaller SSD, for the same money.

I'm really looking forward to digging into it, I even paid for 2nd day shipping hoping to have it by this weekend when I'll have the time to dedicate to checking it out.

Let me know how you do on VPN speeds. I bought my unit just to see if I could push my VPN client running on a router beyond 100 Mbps. The unit I was using before with an Atom proccesor at 1.86 Ghz was only able to to 75 Mbps.

 

[sfx2000]

God help you if you ever need customer support. Worst CS experience of my life and I'm no young pup

Somebody else mentioned that too... which is odd, because every time, which isn't often, I've had good luck with them - but again, I'm former Telco, and perhaps I have the secret handshake (and phone number/account with them)...

 

[sfx2000]

The unit I was using before with an Atom proccesor at 1.86 Ghz was only able to to 75 Mbps.

Which Atom?
How was VPN configured?
OpenVPN or LT2P/IPSec?

Just for clarification purposes...

 

[System Error Message]

older intel atoms were really slow. There has been many generations and more cores now with speed improvements.

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

Somebody else mentioned that too... which is odd, because every time, which isn't often, I've had good luck with them - but again, I'm former Telco, and perhaps I have the secret handshake (and phone number/account with them)...

Well the kid I talked to obviously didn't know the first thing about trouble shooting. First I had tried everything he was suggesting already, that's why I was calling. Second he was asking me to switch cables around faster than I could get across the room to switch the first cable he requested. Then he didn't want to wait until I checked to see if a change was going to address the issue at hand before he was telling me to make another change and another and another....

I tried to speak with a supervisor about the issue but just kept getting the run around. I completely removed their switch from service and redeployed my old switch and had my network back up and running all while on hold. I had an RA # and was tired of holding. I hung up and swore to NEVER again buy a NutGear product so long as I lived. I'd rather buy D-Link, not that I have, but that I would before ever giving them any more money.

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

Let me know how you do on VPN speeds. I bought my unit just to see if I could push my VPN client running on a router beyond 100 Mbps. The unit I was using before with an Atom proccesor at 1.86 Ghz was only able to to 75 Mbps.

Will do, hopefully this weekend. Build time can be up to 4-5 business days, but I called them early this morning, around 9am their time and purchased shortly there after

 

[sfx2000]

older intel atoms were really slow. There has been many generations and more cores now with speed improvements.

No doubt - and they have a lot of different configurations based on use cases....

(I still have a semi-active N270 old-school atom netbook, lol, Dell Vostro A50 if one wants to look it up - runs xubuntu 16.04LTS, which is odd..)

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

(I still have a semi-active N270 old-school atom netbook, lol, Dell Vostro A50 if one wants to look it up - runs ubuntu 16.04LTS, which is odd..)

Why is that odd Ubuntu runs on dam near everything. I've put it on 20 year old machines, unless somethings changed in the last 5 years.

 

[sfx2000]

Why is that odd Ubuntu runs on dam near everything. I've put it on 20 year old machines, unless somethings changed in the last 5 years.

There's been some talk about deprecating 32-bit x86 support at some point... it's been a while since Intel or AMD has shipped 32 bit only platforms - I know there still some Intel stuff that ships with 32-bit UEFI, the baytrail z-chips are a good example, but that's a microsoft thing, as there is 64 bit UEFI for those chips that run android...

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

There's been some talk about deprecating 32-bit x86 support at some point... it's been a while since Intel or AMD has shipped 32 bit only platforms - I know there still some Intel stuff that ships with 32-bit UEFI, the baytrail z-chips are a good example, but that's a microsoft thing, as there is 64 bit UEFI for those chips that run android...

I didn't even consider the 32 to 64 bit architecture change. Should have thought before grabbing ye ole key board

Been good chatting with you but it's almost bed:30

 

[sfx2000]

I didn't even consider the 32 to 64 bit architecture change. Should have thought before grabbing ye ole key board

Been good chatting with you but it's almost bed:30

All good - just be advised - the pfSense community can be very helpful, but they, in general, do expect folks to have some fore-knowledge about general networking and do some homework on questions there...

With pfSense branded HW - one does get a couple of support tickets, and access to some detailed docs that are not available to non-pfSense branded gear...

The Netgear Pro-Safe support team is similar there - they do expect folks to do some homework and ask knowledgeable questions, and you'll find the right answers there... ask an open-ended question like an OTS/consumer, and they'll try to help...

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

Let me know how you do on VPN speeds. I bought my unit just to see if I could push my VPN client running on a router beyond 100 Mbps. The unit I was using before with an Atom proccesor at 1.86 Ghz was only able to to 75 Mbps.

Thought I'd update you guys, I received an email today saying that the 2320s & 2340s are not going to ship now Those of us with pre-orders are either being given a full refund or the option to be first in line for the unit their currently dubbing the Rouge-One, anticipated release ATM is August. And I was so looking forward to that 2340 too

Giving it some thought but I'm leaning towards maybe going with a Qotom box instead. I'm going to call Netgate tomorrow and see what if any the price difference will be. After my discussion earlier with them this week I'm not sure if I want to downgrade to the 2220, the rep there suggested I may run into memory problems with what I want to set the box up to do.

 

[System Error Message]

64 bit? 16 bit is still applicable . those cpus in NICS, soundcards, micro controllers still use 8 or 16 bits.

 

[sfx2000]

Thought I'd update you guys, I received an email today saying that the 2320s & 2340s are not going to ship now Those of us with pre-orders are either being given a full refund or the option to be first in line for the unit their currently dubbing the Rouge-One, anticipated release ATM is August. And I was so looking forward to that 2340 too

They did a stop sale based on FCC Part B regulations, which are needed for home use - has to do with compliance issues with a monitor attached to the HDMI port - without the monitor, it passes, but Part B requires any port on the device to be plugged in - and there it's not a pass..

There were some SW issues with the HMDI being used for local access - disconnect a monitor, and it wouldn't be found again until the device was rebooted - and this goes at FreeBSD's DRI subsystem..

Additionally, they were seeing some issues with pxe-boot which made things hard for the factory - the DRI and pxe-boot issues can be fixed with SW at some point, but the Part B issue with FCC compliance was the tipping point.

The R1 - it's interesting, as it's their second ARM effort - based on Marvell's Armada 38x - which is a very stout platform, and it also includes a good 4 port GBe switch with some management capabilities...

Since the SG-23xx is based on the MinnowBoard Turbot-Dual E (from ADI), it will be available on the Amazon as a hobby/hacker board - and I suspect that board will run pfSense just fine...

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

They did a stop sale based on FCC Part B regulations, which are needed for home use -

Yea sucks though sounded like a good box. Thinking I may go with the 2220 after all and upgrade to the 60GB SSD, same price so...

it also includes a good 4 port GBe switch with some management capabilities...

I only really need 2 ports, a WAN and a LAN. I have a couple of switches I could use. Right now I have a 16 port TP Link managed switch up and running. I also have an 8 port LinkSys managed switch sitting in its original box on the shelf.

Since the SG-23xx is based on the MinnowBoard Turbot-Dual E (from ADI), it will be available on the Amazon as a hobby/hacker board - and I suspect that board will run pfSense just fine...

That sounds like it would require soldiering and THAT is something I'm unable to do. Being blind in one eye (legitimately blind, not that ha ha and can't see out of the other BS) messes with you depth perception, even with a bench mount magnifying glass. My depth perception, or should I say lack thereof, causes me to bugger things up when such delicate precision is required. So no soldiering on boards for me.

 

[sfx2000]

That sounds like it would require soldiering and THAT is something I'm unable to do. Being blind in one eye (legitimately blind, not that ha ha and can't see out of the other BS) messes with you depth perception, even with a bench mount magnifying glass. My depth perception, or should I say lack thereof, causes me to bugger things up when such delicate precision is required. So no soldiering on boards for me.

It's the same board - without the snazzy case...

 

[FatherLandDescendant]

It's the same board - without the snazzy case...

I see, guess I should have looked. When you said hobby/hacker board I assumed...