Looking for Router Suggestions

[Dazed_75]

Be sure to look at the fine print.  They are setting that router to work
with a specific provider of what I think is dynamic DNS and offer special
encryption at fee that can come to about $10/month.

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 10:34 AM, Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz>wrote:

> James,
>
> It sounds like a fun project! I am very tempted.......
>
> However, I found this one -
> https://www.flashrouters.com/netgear-wnr3500l-ddwrt-router.php for $80.
> It has wireless, but I can just turn it off. A 480 MHz processor, and
> dd-wrt installed and tested with openvpn. I haven't priced out your parts
> list, but I would be surprised if it comes to less than $80. Also, I think
> the netgear router will consume less power and space in my crowded cable
> "closet" (aka the top shelf in my cupboard).
>
> Answers to your questions -
> I need a total of 20 gigabit LAN ports for my network. Currently, I have
> two 8 port gigabit switches, and 4 10/100 ports on my current BEFSX41
> router. I want to upgrade the router for open vpn, and gigabit speeds. So
> the router is also a switch.
>
> What is the advantage of running the whole thing virtualized?
>
> But still, the fun of building this little project may outweigh the high
> costs ($ and amps).....
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:10 PM, James Dugger <james.dugger at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> MSI Micro ATX board with Athlon II processor w/ 4 PCI slots (or 2 PCI and
>> 2 PCIE)
>> 2 GB RAM
>> 4 gigabit NIC cards
>> IDE or SATA to Compact Flash  Adaptor
>> Compact flash 2GB memory - install Linux or Router based distro on CF
>> card or USB memory stick
>> External power 120v to 12v transformer w/ mono power converter
>> Small micro case
>> Set BIOS to boot CF Card or USB Memory stick
>> Ubuntu 10.04 or 12.04 LTS server minimum install
>>  - Install Openssh
>>  - Firewall
>>  - OpenVPN
>>  - iptables
>>
>> Basically you are building an edge router/vpnserver.  There are a lot of
>> instructions to build a high end router/openvpn system using a minimum box
>> configuration.  The mobo  chip and RAM maybe overkill but smaller ATOM
>> based boards probably won't have 4 PCI slots.  you should be able to pick
>> up these for very reasonable cost compared to a higher end router.  Do you
>> need all 4 - 1 gigabit connections to the router or can the connections to
>> the VPN be shared off of one or two NICs?  OpenVPN needs a minimum of 2
>> NIC's  (Unless you have set up virtual network adaptors and bridged them
>> together).  Are you dedicating each user to a NIC for speed?  If not you
>> could allocate the 4 users to a NIC and connect the router/vpnserver to a 4
>> port gigabit switch.
>>
>> I'm sure there are a number of the ways to do this and there even might
>> be fairly high end router for a good deal but most will also have built in
>> wireless as well.  to find a dedicated wired only higher end router you may
>> pay as much as the system I just outlined and it would be no where near the
>> capabilities of the above system unless it was a lot more expensive.
>>
>> I'm sure that there are others here with a lot more experience with
>> consumer and enterprise level equipment then myself but I have had success
>> with the above. Also keep in mind that the Athlon II is 64bit with SVM
>> built in for virtualization.  With additional memory you could run the
>> whole thing virtualized using KVM or VMware.
>>
>> Good Luck!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Mark Phillips <mark at phillipsmarketing.biz
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> I am looking for a router with the following characteristics:
>>> * No wifi
>>> * 4 gigabit LAN ports
>>> * 1 WAN port to connect to my Cox Cable Modem
>>> * 400 MHZ+ processor so I can run OpenVPN SSL for a max of 4  remote
>>> users to access the LAN at the same time.
>>>
>>> The last point comes from reading various forums about running openvpn
>>> on the router, and they all say get the fastest possible cpu. I probably
>>> have to run dd-wrt on the router to get openvpn running on the router, but
>>> I am open to other options (most of the open source router packages support
>>> openvpn, so anyone will do).
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> James
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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-- 
Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry

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