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I've also replaced a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter with a spare PC I had around. It was a small form factor thing, I don't need WiFi, so I replaced the WiFi card with a M
by dgl 4y ago
I've also replaced a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter with a spare PC I had around. It was a small form factor thing, I don't need WiFi, so I replaced the WiFi card with a M.2 Ethernet card[1], which gives me two network interfaces. The point is pretty much anything is powerful enough to be a router now.
(Actually my setup is more complex, as the machine is powerful enough to run a few VMs, so I pass through one of the PCI devices to a firewall VM, which means the VM host doesn't even see the outside world.)
One thing to watch out for is Intel released some bad 2.5Gbe hardware (e.g. earlier versions of the I225-V). I even have a more recent one that seems to have issues (even when running the latest Linux from kernel.org). You can find Realtek cards though, which seem to work better (yeah, who'd have thought that would be the case).
[1]: It was something like: https://www.amazon.com/Suroene-Ethernet-Adapter-Multi-Gigabit-Network/dp/B0BLGVGRCF https://www.amazon.com/Suroene-Ethernet-Adapter-Multi-Gigabi... -- there are others.
- sliken 4y agoApparently I225 went through 2-3 revisions, and the "b3" is supposedly ok. But the newer $200 PCs are now coming with the I226, which it's claimed is much better.
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y agoRe that M.2 Ethernet card, that's a long untwisted ribbon cable. 100Mbit should be fine, but 1G or 2.5G? Sus.
- lmz 4y agoI take it you've seen PCIe riser cables like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Zer-one-7-5Inch-Extension-Flexible/dp/B07W4KV8ZK/ https://www.amazon.com/Zer-one-7-5Inch-Extension-Flexible/dp... If that sort of thing can work at PCIe rates I don't see any reason why that M.2 card can't. It's a lower bit rate plus theoretically a more resilient encoding for long distance as opposed to PCIe.
- theideaofcoffee 4y agoThe untwisted ribbon cable is fine for PCIe in short runs by virtue of PCIe data lines being a differential signal and if the length of cable is kept short(-ish). The max length of the cable should vary inversely with the generation, that is, max length of a flexible copper extender for gen v1 is longer than gen v3, more length introduces more noise which increases error rates. A well terminated cable should be able to use the full bandwidth of the bus. I'd be completely comfortable running x16 flat out at max rate with one of those. I don't have any hard-and-fast sources to back the above up, but punching 'pcie extender max length' into the Gargler should find you something to suffice.
- squarefoot 4y agoThere also are dual 2.5G Ethernet (and multiple SATA) adapters for M.2 sockets, which make things even more interesting for those little ARM boards. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804337466480.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804337466480.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804400925663.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804400925663.html OpnSense/XigmaNAS devs, are you listening?