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I bought an x86 box from China with 6x Intel i210 GbE NICs onboard a few weeks back and reviewed it here: https://johannes.truschnigg.info/reviews/2021-01_fwbox

by c0l0 6y ago

I bought an x86 box from China with 6x Intel i210 GbE NICs onboard a few weeks back and reviewed it here: https://johannes.truschnigg.info/reviews/2021-01_fwbox/ https://johannes.truschnigg.info/reviews/2021-01_fwbox/ It's my favorite OpenWrt router so far, and I've owned quite a few since I started using it on a WRT54G :)

3np 6y ago
Thanks for writing about it - I was actually close to pulling the trigger on another of their boxes a few moons back, great to hear it's good in practice as well :) (...Personally I avoid Intel CPUs best I can, though. AMD's ME equivalent on the APU can actually be disabled, which happens to be something I care about for something like router)
- circularfoyers 6y ago
  Has there actually been any research into the disabling of AMD PSP like there has been surrounding me_cleaner? All I remember regarding AMD PSP was that one motherboard manufacturer showed the option after an update and the other you had to flash a modified BIOS to expose it. But besides this discovery by a user, there hadn't been any research or verification that this software option does what it claims.
  - Legogris 6y ago
    I am also an owner of these devices. I am not knowledgeable if this is as trivial for AMD CPUs in general, but I know that specifically for the SoC in the APU, since i build my own image anyway, it's a simple configuration flag there: https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/439 https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/439
    - circularfoyers 6y ago
      That seems to be only for TPM, which isn't usually what people refer to when talking about Intel ME.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mirchiseth 6y ago
Thanks for the great writeup. I got to know about a lot of ls** commands that would be useful in future. I built similar with OPNSense using QOTOM Q515G6[1] which looks eerily similar to what you got from AliExpress. So in a way reading your article was more like knowing my own router better. Thanks. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DLYGZG4/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DLYGZG4/
wtallis 6y ago
Thanks for sharing that. It looks quite a bit more powerful than PCEngines APU boards, and cheaper than the Qotom boxes it's imitating. And it's nice to have a detailed review showing it works as expected.

by c0l0 6y ago

3np 6y ago

Thanks for writing about it - I was actually close to pulling the trigger on another of their boxes a few moons back, great to hear it's good in practice as well :) (...Personally I avoid Intel CPUs best I can, though. AMD's ME equivalent on the APU can actually be disabled, which happens to be something I care about for something like router)

circularfoyers 6y ago
Has there actually been any research into the disabling of AMD PSP like there has been surrounding me_cleaner? All I remember regarding AMD PSP was that one motherboard manufacturer showed the option after an update and the other you had to flash a modified BIOS to expose it. But besides this discovery by a user, there hadn't been any research or verification that this software option does what it claims.
- Legogris 6y ago
  I am also an owner of these devices. I am not knowledgeable if this is as trivial for AMD CPUs in general, but I know that specifically for the SoC in the APU, since i build my own image anyway, it's a simple configuration flag there: https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/439 https://github.com/pcengines/coreboot/issues/439
  - circularfoyers 6y ago
    That seems to be only for TPM, which isn't usually what people refer to when talking about Intel ME.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mirchiseth 6y ago

Thanks for the great writeup. I got to know about a lot of ls** commands that would be useful in future. I built similar with OPNSense using QOTOM Q515G6[1] which looks eerily similar to what you got from AliExpress. So in a way reading your article was more like knowing my own router better. Thanks. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DLYGZG4/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DLYGZG4/

wtallis 6y ago

Thanks for sharing that. It looks quite a bit more powerful than PCEngines APU boards, and cheaper than the Qotom boxes it's imitating. And it's nice to have a detailed review showing it works as expected.