Re: Req: Recommendation on VIA EPIA Boards/Small Dual Lan units

[Todd Pytel <tppytel@sophrosune.org>]

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 16:54:15 -0500
<cmturner2@alltel.net> wrote:

> I'm looking to buy/assemble a "cheap" small, hopefully fanless,
> machine for an obsd project of spurious "real" value other than to
> satisfy my current network tinkering needs. I'm looking at the VIA
> EPIA-6000 board since it has dual lan and would thus be useful for
> actual firewall/router playing around, but figured someone might have
> some additional insight on how (un)well obsd works with this board, or
> even alternates that might be cheaper/better (not necessarily both)
> for me long-term.

As someone suggested, you can get by a lot cheaper by just buying an old
486 or P1 - that's going to fanless or nearly fanless, and a lot cheaper
than building a new Via machine. Fine for a firewall/router.

That being said, if you don't mind spending the cash, OpenBSD should
work fine. I built a fanless 1U router off of the Epia 500 (?), and
haven't had any serious problems. The only glitch I've seen is a problem
with tcpdump dumping core under certain kinds of heavy loads. I haven't
had time to really investigate that, and it's not clear that it's really
a problem with the hardware rather than my configuration or tcpdump
anyway. Other than that, everything runs great - no need for any kernel
tricks or unusual configuration, and just enough power to compile in
patches without being too tedious. Makes a nice router if you don't mind
spending the money.

-- 
Todd Pytel

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