OpenBSD Journal

BSDNow Episode 011 Shows Their Ultimate OpenBSD Router Tutorial

Contributed by jcr on from the what-comes-after-ultimate dept.

Allan, Kris, and TJ of BSDNow have release Episode 011 of their show with a whole bunch of OpenBSD and OpenSSH related content. In the show and on their site, they've created an "Ultimate OpenBSD Router" tutorial. The interview this week is with Jamie Hyneman of the Mythbusters, but in the form of his far more famous and better known secret identity as Justin Sherrill (justin@DragonFlyBSD). The interview covers a number of topics including the release of DragonFlyBSD 3.6, some history of the project, and his efforts on the DragonFly Digest.

Video | HD Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | Youtube | iTunes

There is also a Roku channel for Jupiter Broadcasting with open source code available. You can add the channel with the code JBTV or by clicking this Jupiter Broadcasting Roku link.

(Comments are closed)


Comments
  1. By Mohd Yusof Bin Mohd Khalid (FryShadow) fryshadow@gmail.com on blog.bsdinfo.my

    The youtube link is kinda broken.

    Comments
    1. By Janne Johansson (jj) on http://www.inet6.se

      > The youtube link is kinda broken.

      Fixed.

  2. By cnst (cnst) on http://BXR.SU/s?q=%22Constantine%20A.%20Murenin%22%20OR%20cnst

    As far as ultimate routers go, there are much better options than Soekris — the model they cite costs 350 USD, but is lacking the most basic performance characteristics — comes with just 600MHz CPU, and only 0.5GB of RAM, soldered and nonupgradable. If you want a more powerful Soekris, the price goes further over the roof, which is hardly justified in light of all the alternatives.

    Consider this:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205007
    http://www.oemproduction.com/products/2700L2D-MxPC.asp

    129 USD, accepts up to 8GB of DDR3 SO-DIMM modules (you could always reuse the modules left over from your laptop memory upgrade), comes with 2× GigE, also has 2× USB 3.0 for the future XHCI support, as well as 4× USB 2.0 for the meantime.

    And it is actually very nicely supported in OpenBSD, according to a dmesg from tedu.

    It has a fan, but is also capable of running fanless, or, unless they didn't connect the circuitry correctly, you might even find some middle ground with the fan control, if needed.

    What to do with the 200 USD you've saved? Consider donating to OpenBSD.

    Comments
    1. By Brad Smith (brad) on

      > As far as ultimate routers go, there are much better options than Soekris the model they cite costs 350 USD

      The whole point of the article/tutorial has nothing to do with advocating any particular hardware. It's about the OS, software and how it is configured.

    2. By eddie (75.177.14.253) eddie.shaw@mail.com on

      Although it's been mention, and it's true that the article was focusing more on the capabilities of OpenBSD rather than hardware, there are high end enterprise alternatives for OpenBSD. Please click the following link. http://www.vantronix.com/products/vtrt/zl2/

      > As far as ultimate routers go, there are much better options than Soekris the model they cite costs 350 USD, but is lacking the most basic performance characteristics comes with just 600MHz CPU, and only 0.5GB of RAM, soldered and nonupgradable. If you want a more powerful Soekris, the price goes further over the roof, which is hardly justified in light of all the alternatives.
      >
      > Consider this:
      >
      > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205007
      >
      > http://www.oemproduction.com/products/2700L2D-MxPC.asp
      >
      > 129 USD, accepts up to 8GB of DDR3 SO-DIMM modules (you could always reuse the modules left over from your laptop memory upgrade), comes with 2 GigE, also has 2 USB 3.0 for the future XHCI support, as well as 4 USB 2.0 for the meantime.
      >
      > And it is actually very nicely supported in OpenBSD, according to a dmesg from tedu.
      >
      > It has a fan, but is also capable of running fanless, or, unless they didn't connect the circuitry correctly, you might even find some middle ground with the fan control, if needed.
      >
      > What to do with the 200 USD you've saved? Consider donating to OpenBSD.

      Comments
      1. By phessler (phessler) on why in god's name am I wearing pants?

        > Although it's been mention, and it's true that the article was focusing more on the capabilities of OpenBSD rather than hardware, there are high end enterprise alternatives for OpenBSD. Please click the following link. http://www.vantronix.com/products/vtrt/zl2/

        The .vantronix products are not a high-end *alternative*, they *are* based on OpenBSD. And the ZL2 series is a very specific form factor and while super awesome, is only for certain environments.

    3. By Anonymous Coward (107.218.13.234) on

      > And it is actually very nicely supported in OpenBSD, according to a dmesg from tedu.

      Everything except the video, which isn't a concern for the router use-case.

      It would be nice if it worked better though, if only to display a fullscreen tmux in X. I can't get it to use any resolution other than 1024x768 (help?) which gets stretched and distorted on a 16:9 LCD.

      Other than that, performance is very acceptable and you end up spending more on RAM and a disk than the device itself. As tedu notes, the included fan is beyond useless, and I dremeled a hole in the side of the case and externally mounted a quiet fan. With all cores pegged, I can't get it running hotter than 90F/32C.

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