4 ms·

Old but relevant, I have used an espressobin as a router for years and the performance I am getting is similar to much more expensive semi-professional routers.

by ews 5y ago

Old but relevant, I have used an espressobin as a router for years and the performance I am getting is similar to much more expensive semi-professional routers. https://blog.tjll.net/building-my-perfect-router/ https://blog.tjll.net/building-my-perfect-router/

NortySpock 5y ago
Thanks for this. I've been keeping an eye out for home firewall hardware that won't break the bank, spike my power bill, and hopefully still keep up with most of my theoretically-1-Gbps home connection.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Check also the PCEngines APU boards at https://pcengines.ch https://pcengines.ch Also interesting are the NanoPi R2S and R4S at https://www.friendlyarm.com https://www.friendlyarm.com Especially those by PCEngines are designed for that job; I've used their Wrap boards in the past as firewalls with PfSense and they were rock solid. No affiliation with any of them, just a satisfied customer.
  - mahalol 5y ago
    Can confirm, I have been using pfSense on one apu board, and debian on another older 2c13 board. they are such nifty devices with a very simple case. Big fan.
- Scramblejams 5y ago
  Not sure if you're looking to use pfSense, but if you are, and you want to get gigabit for a single TCP connection, choose carefully among the SBC options. See this for more detail: https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/apu2-1-gigabit-throughput-pfsense/ https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/apu2-1-gigabit-through... For me, I've discovered the excellent Supermicro X10SLM+-F motherboard. I've bought them off eBay for as little as $145 with 32 gigs of ECC RAM and a 4-core Xeon E3-1220v3 included. Every one I've grabbed runs flawlessly. That board uses around 25w at idle with the BMC running, and can host more than just a pfSense VM. You still have to supply a case and a high quality PSU (don't skimp here!), but those don't have to break the bank. (If you want to run your router in a VM and pass the LAN controllers through to it, I can recommend the X10SLM+-LN4F, which adds two more gigabit ports. Pricing should be similar.) If I had to do this on a tighter budget, I have tried OpenWRT on an Rpi4 and it was definitely workable. Didn't have a few features I was looking for, and I was already running a Supermicro anyway for other workloads, so I went back to using a pfSense VM, but YMMV.
- sneak 5y ago
  I use a pcengines apu2. It's x64 and runs ubuntu. 3 onboard gbe ports. Passively cooled/silent, boots from SD.
Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
For those who wish to undergo lesser trouble to get similar performance/security there are number of Single Board Computers(SBCs) with OpenWrt support[1] sometimes with official support like those from Friendly Elec. [1]https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_single-board-computers https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_single-board-computers [2]https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=69 https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/category...
- rektide 5y ago
  espressobin is currently #90 on the openwrt table of hardware for single board computers you linked. personally I'd way rather have a system that boots a good Debian rather than openwrt, & the espressobin will fair many times better/be much easier than many of these openwrt-centric alternatives. and it will happily run openwrt too. this line of chips from Marvell has done a good job over the years keeping good upstream/mainline kernel & u-boot support. whereas openwrt often good es out of itcs way with out of tree patches to support all kinds of difficult hardware environments.
  - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
    Number of SBCs listed there boot debian as well. My suggestion wasn't a debian vs OpenWrt one, But rather a 'If you like OpenWrt, then you got SBC options too'.
- edf13 5y ago
  I'm constantly looking for good priced SBC with cellular connectivity - that chart shows only 2/3 with modems and all appear to be via external modules. Anyone know of any?
  - westurner 5y ago
    > This page shows devices which have a LTE modem built in and are supported by OpenWrt. https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_lte_modem_supported https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_lte_modem_supported It looks like this table is neither current nor complete though. And there's a different table of OpenWRT compatible devices that have a battery as well. > [The Amarok (GL-X1200) Industrial IoT Gateway has] 2x SIM card slots for 2x 4G LTE modems (probably miniPCI-E so maybe upgradeable to 5G later), external antenna connectors for the LTE modems, MicroSD, #OpenWRT: https://store.gl-inet.com/collections/4g-smart-router/products/amarokgl-x1200-industrial-level-4g-router https://store.gl-inet.com/collections/4g-smart-router/produc... The Turris Omnia also has 4G LTE SIM card support (and LXC in their OpenWRT build). https://openwrt.org/toh/turris/turris_omnia https://openwrt.org/toh/turris/turris_omnia There's also a [Dockerized] x86 build of OpenWRT that probably also supports Mini PCI-E modules for 4G LTE, LoRa, and 5G. Route metrics determine which [gateway] route is tried first. From "How much total throughput can your wi-fi router really provide?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26596395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26596395 : > In 2021, most routers - even with OpenWRT and hardware-offloading - cannot actually push 1 Gigabit over wired Ethernet, though the port spec does say 1000 Mbps
orthoxerox 5y ago
Do you run OpenVPN on it? My biggest issue with consumer routers and SBC routers is their inability to decrypt 100+ Mbps of AES-256 data.

by ews 5y ago

NortySpock 5y ago

Thanks for this. I've been keeping an eye out for home firewall hardware that won't break the bank, spike my power bill, and hopefully still keep up with most of my theoretically-1-Gbps home connection.

squarefoot 5y ago
Check also the PCEngines APU boards at https://pcengines.ch https://pcengines.ch Also interesting are the NanoPi R2S and R4S at https://www.friendlyarm.com https://www.friendlyarm.com Especially those by PCEngines are designed for that job; I've used their Wrap boards in the past as firewalls with PfSense and they were rock solid. No affiliation with any of them, just a satisfied customer.
- mahalol 5y ago
  Can confirm, I have been using pfSense on one apu board, and debian on another older 2c13 board. they are such nifty devices with a very simple case. Big fan.
Scramblejams 5y ago
Not sure if you're looking to use pfSense, but if you are, and you want to get gigabit for a single TCP connection, choose carefully among the SBC options. See this for more detail: https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/apu2-1-gigabit-throughput-pfsense/ https://teklager.se/en/knowledge-base/apu2-1-gigabit-through... For me, I've discovered the excellent Supermicro X10SLM+-F motherboard. I've bought them off eBay for as little as $145 with 32 gigs of ECC RAM and a 4-core Xeon E3-1220v3 included. Every one I've grabbed runs flawlessly. That board uses around 25w at idle with the BMC running, and can host more than just a pfSense VM. You still have to supply a case and a high quality PSU (don't skimp here!), but those don't have to break the bank. (If you want to run your router in a VM and pass the LAN controllers through to it, I can recommend the X10SLM+-LN4F, which adds two more gigabit ports. Pricing should be similar.) If I had to do this on a tighter budget, I have tried OpenWRT on an Rpi4 and it was definitely workable. Didn't have a few features I was looking for, and I was already running a Supermicro anyway for other workloads, so I went back to using a pfSense VM, but YMMV.
sneak 5y ago
I use a pcengines apu2. It's x64 and runs ubuntu. 3 onboard gbe ports. Passively cooled/silent, boots from SD.

Abishek_Muthian 5y ago

For those who wish to undergo lesser trouble to get similar performance/security there are number of Single Board Computers(SBCs) with OpenWrt support[1] sometimes with official support like those from Friendly Elec. [1]https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_single-board-computers https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_single-board-computers [2]https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=69 https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/category...

rektide 5y ago
espressobin is currently #90 on the openwrt table of hardware for single board computers you linked. personally I'd way rather have a system that boots a good Debian rather than openwrt, & the espressobin will fair many times better/be much easier than many of these openwrt-centric alternatives. and it will happily run openwrt too. this line of chips from Marvell has done a good job over the years keeping good upstream/mainline kernel & u-boot support. whereas openwrt often good es out of itcs way with out of tree patches to support all kinds of difficult hardware environments.
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
  Number of SBCs listed there boot debian as well. My suggestion wasn't a debian vs OpenWrt one, But rather a 'If you like OpenWrt, then you got SBC options too'.
edf13 5y ago
I'm constantly looking for good priced SBC with cellular connectivity - that chart shows only 2/3 with modems and all appear to be via external modules. Anyone know of any?
- westurner 5y ago
  > This page shows devices which have a LTE modem built in and are supported by OpenWrt. https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_lte_modem_supported https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_lte_modem_supported It looks like this table is neither current nor complete though. And there's a different table of OpenWRT compatible devices that have a battery as well. > [The Amarok (GL-X1200) Industrial IoT Gateway has] 2x SIM card slots for 2x 4G LTE modems (probably miniPCI-E so maybe upgradeable to 5G later), external antenna connectors for the LTE modems, MicroSD, #OpenWRT: https://store.gl-inet.com/collections/4g-smart-router/products/amarokgl-x1200-industrial-level-4g-router https://store.gl-inet.com/collections/4g-smart-router/produc... The Turris Omnia also has 4G LTE SIM card support (and LXC in their OpenWRT build). https://openwrt.org/toh/turris/turris_omnia https://openwrt.org/toh/turris/turris_omnia There's also a [Dockerized] x86 build of OpenWRT that probably also supports Mini PCI-E modules for 4G LTE, LoRa, and 5G. Route metrics determine which [gateway] route is tried first. From "How much total throughput can your wi-fi router really provide?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26596395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26596395 : > In 2021, most routers - even with OpenWRT and hardware-offloading - cannot actually push 1 Gigabit over wired Ethernet, though the port spec does say 1000 Mbps

orthoxerox 5y ago

Do you run OpenVPN on it? My biggest issue with consumer routers and SBC routers is their inability to decrypt 100+ Mbps of AES-256 data.