[wellylug] Linux VPN Router Hardware

[Nigel Roberts]

On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 at 13:49:52 +0200, Martin Bähr wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 11:53:01PM +1200, Rob Giltrap wrote:
> > It is also desirable if it has low power consumption as it'll run 24*7
> > Should be inexpensive (but not at the expense of reliability)
> > Can handle a full 10Mb/sec traffic load (this is critical)
> > And is plentiful (i.e. I can buy 10 of them all the same)
> 
> you might want to look at the wrt54gs and related machines.
> they can be run with the openwrt linux distribution which allows you to
> customize the machine to your liking. they are cheap and plentifull
> (ignore the wireless, you can turn that off)
> 
> i am using the wrt54g as a 10mbit router. it is a bit thight on
> diskspace. you need to be very selective on what you install. 
> the gs has more space. newer or other models may have even more. 
> look at www.openwrt.org for details.


I second this suggestion. I have openwrt running on a Linksys WRT54GS
at home. The router itself set me back all of about $175 a couple of
months back.

It does firewalling, wireless, ip accounting, snmp and ratelimiting
and runs on a few watts. I've yet to see it crash, it's very small
and you can mount it on a wall. I've managed to get 20Mbit/s through
it as well.

It would be perfectly possible to create a standard image using the
openwrt build environment to keep them up to date. I really can't
recommend them highly enough as a network appliance.

Regards,
Nigel