Good to know.  I've got one of those cards sitting at home from when I ripped apart my Actiontec a year ago.

Thanks for the reply, that clarified what I thought to be the case (but couldn't find anywhere)! Strange that the keyboard wouldn't work in minicom though…

I managed to use a USB CD and a HDD to get the unit into testing, it's using an extra 0.05A with the HDD but it's only using 0.17A anyway (240V).

I'll have another go when I get more time (and maybe look into getting a cheap-ish/32GB SSD to replace the HDD.

I would start by updating the laptop to the latest BIOS.  Besides that, I think ACPI is enabled by default with pfSense/FreeBSD.  If you want to tinker, try installing pfSense with ACPI DISABLED by following the instructions here and see if that might help…http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/HOWTO_disable_acpi

@bompus:

Any other recommendations? This is on a production server and I'm not sure if I want to chance it with 1.2.3 if it is still considered unstable or alpha.

Use 1.2.3.  See http://blog.pfsense.org/?p=377

Whats interesting is that I have a T-1 (symmetrical bandwidth), and I ONLY get high latency on the download portion of the test, NOT the upload.

Here are pings to the pfSense internal interface:

Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=64  <–download test starts
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=170ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=306ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=104ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=243ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=372ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=510ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=204ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=64  <--download test ends
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64  <-- upload test starts
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64  <-- upload test ends
Reply from 192.168.3.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.3.1:
    Packets: Sent = 41, Received = 41, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 510ms, Average = 48ms

VOIP is getting mangled because of this.  But I don't know what is causing it or how to get ride of it.  I do have the traffic shaper turned on and data is flowing into the VOIP queues.  But I still have the problem.

@Monoecus:

It does send it through directly at full speed and does not bother the router. That's the whole idea of a switch. Moreover, if Port 1 and 2 exchange data, port 3 and 4 can do it at full speed whereas port 5-8 connect to the internet etc.

I believe (I'm no networking expert)that an ARP request is sent and the switch then learns the MAC of the connected network device and the port it's connected to.

All traffic that device is then sent to the device on the switch.

Only thing the router might be hit with is some broadcast traffic and ARP requests to find out what's where.

A switch unlike a Hub (Hub will broadcast everything to all ports) has intellegence and knows which port a device is connected to  even if there are other switches between it and the device.

Even the el-cheapo unmanaged switches can remember at least a couple hundred if not a couple thousend mac addresses.

@wfdudley:

@dotdash:

@wfdudley:

Once pfSense has had it's initial startup, is there anything else the terminal can do?

Is the port nearest the power supply jack "vr0" ?

Is the WRAP board firmware the same as for the Alix board?

Even if I statically assign my laptop to an address in 192.168.1.0/24, I cannot ping 192.168.1.1.  Does pfSense
respond to ICMP packets?

Can I telnet or ssh to it?  Is there any password?

Is the default address of the LAN port 192.168.1.1 ?

You can reboot, re-assign interfaces, drop to a shell, etc. from the terminal. The port nearest the power jack/usb is vr0 Both m0n0wall (1.3b15) and pfSense use the embedded image for Alix/Wraps. pfSense responds to ICMP on the LAN by default. You can ssh. admin/pfsense is the default. The default address of the LAN port is 192.168.1.1

I haven't run m0n0wall much on the Alix- it should be supported under the 1.3beta branch, but I have around two dozen 2c3's in the field and most are running 1.2 release. 1.2 is based on FreeBSD 6.2, so the 1.3 branch of m0n0 should have the same vr driver and I haven't seen any issues. But maybe I'm just lucky. So far, the only problems I have had have been a couple of bad cf cards and a bad a/c adapter.
And don't be so harsh to the suggestion that you check the BIOS version- versions prior to .99 are know to not run pfSense stably. The BIOS controls the interrupts and such, which have an effect on how the OS handles the hardware.

Well, my Alix 2C3 with 0.98 Bios is definately not happy with pfSense.  We're apparently not finishing the boot
since the console interface never comes up with a menu or prompt of any kind.

I guess I'll bit the bullet and try to upgrade the bios, and see what that does for me.

Thanks for your time,
Bill

Well, this isn't going at all well.

I upgraded the bios to 0.99h.  A bit tricky, since I do not run Windoze, and most of the techniques on the pcengines site
want you to run windoze.  But the Alix isn't bricked, it says it's running 0.99 now.

But pfSense won't boot.

This is what I get:

PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99h
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory

01F0 Master 848A KODAK ATA_FLASH                       
Phys C/H/S 984/16/32 Log C/H/S 249/32/63
//bboooott..ccoonnffiigg::  –DD

FFrreeeeBBSSDD//ii338866  bboooott

DDeeffaauulltt::  00::aadd((00,,aa))//bboooott//llooaaddeerr

bboooott::  ��  ���������xx�
-----------------------------------------------end of screen capture----------------------------------

questions:

1. Why the hell is every character doubled?  I've got local echo turned off in minicom,
I've got the baud rate at 9600 in minicom and in the Alix bios setting, and I understand
that pfSense assumes 9600 baud also.

2. What the hell is pfSense waiting for?  Hitting "enter" just gives more of the same
garbage with another "bboooott::  ��  ���������xx�" prompt.

3. I'm trying to boot a fresh copy of pfSense-1.2.2-Embedded.img that I've dd'd onto
a 256Meg CF card.  I don't have a 128Meg CF card.  I doubt you can even buy them
anymore.  Is pfSense-1.2.2-Embedded.img the correct image to try to boot in an Alix 2C3?

Thanks for any help given,
Bill

You haven't given much information for readers to work with. Is a EEE Box B202 one of those small form factor PCs based on the Intel Atom CPU? If so, I assume  the Belkin FD5055ED is some sort of USB to Ethernet adapter. (The small form factor boxes don't generally have two or more PCI slots.)

Belkin, Dlink, Netgear and Linksys (among others) have adopted the practice of using the same model number for devices with a number of different chipsets, so when you see a device from one of those manufacturers in the supported hardware list of an open source operating system it may mean that SOME device with the model number in the supported hardware list will work; unfortunately it doesn't mean ALL devices with the model number in the supported hardware list will work.

What appears on the pfSense console when the Belkins are plugged in?

If my guess was wrong and they are PCI devices, please post the output of the dmesg command?

What have you connected to these devices?  Does the "link active" indicator in the device at the other end of the cable come on?

@ktims:

RRD data is stored permanently in the shutdown scripts. If you want to be prepared for losing power, you can set up a cron job to duplicate the action once a day or something like that. The embedded image is 128MB, but it can be resized - you probably won't ever use the 128MB anyway though.

Thanks for that.  ;D

Yes I might have to look into that :)

Performance. All that traffic hits the CPU/OS and also needs to pass on the PCI/PCIe bus. You'd be hard pressed to get anywhere close to the performance of a real switch (in bandwidth, latency, pps or pretty much any other metric) - but if it's useful in your application (bridging firewall or whatnot) it does work.

As for your pc, pfsense does not take much, just make sure you use good nics. Intel nics will be fine, i have two 1GBs in mine (and a old 3com 100mb for wan)

I beleve you just need to buy virtual center to use it.

There is not much avantage to virtual center unless you have 2+ servers + SAN.

Currently Link Aggregation isn't supported. Unless you use v2.0
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,12459.0.html

I'd expect most types of flash memory thesedays perform some type of wear leveling.

How long they'd last running the full version of PFSense I have no idea but i'd hope to get at least 6 months out of a 2gb card.

That said i'm willing to risk it as i want to run TinyDNS as a dns cache and lets face it CF cards don't exactly break the bank thesedays. :D

I've installed SUN QuadFast on a normal PCI slot and recognizes as hme[0-3]. Dirty cheap on ebay, like $10 each. Works on Linux too.

Hello GruensFroeschli, and thank you for your reply.

I see you have some somewhat dated data (cisco). I've got some
somewhat more recent dadatsheets/manuals that might be of interest to
you, and perhaps others. :)
The list grows, so rather than link to each of them directly, I'll just post
the page the links are on:
https://bsdforge.net/cisco-data/

The one I have indicates that for the 837 a max memory limit of 80Mb.
I'll bet I can

coerce it into seeing more

or

trim some things from pfsense

It also states that max flash is 24Mb, but I'll bet I can add an "extended"
partition that pfsense can see - no?
Being that it's running off an Apple (Motorola RISC) CPU, that many of the
hacks that we had to employ to get more out of our old MacOS boxen
would work here too - especially given that it'll be running a modern
OS - don't you think?

Also there is no support for ISDN/T1/analoge-modem in pfSense.

No problem, I'm looking for POTS.

Just my thoughts :)

PS: the preview does work.
Just with white font…
Select it with the cursor and you will see it.

Thanks for the "heads up". I'll give it a shot. :)

Thank you again for taking the time to respond!

–Chuck

P.S. I have the latest version of AUX. Would that be of any help?
FYI that's what OS these ran on, but an older version.

Yes it's possible.

Nics available with R300

Network Adapter

On-Board Dual Gigabit Network Adapter

On-Board Dual Gigabit Network Adapter [Included in Price]

Intel PRO 1000PT 1GbE Dual Port NIC, PCIe-4 [add $199]
Dell Recommended

Intel PRO 1000PT 1GbE Single Port NIC, PCIe-1 [add $139]

Intel PRO 1000PF Fibre 1GbE Single Port NIC, PCIe-4 [add $399]

Intel PRO 1000VT Quad Port 1GbE NIC, PCIe-4 [add $529]

Broadcom 5708 Single Port 1GbE NIC w/TOE PCIe-4 [add $99]

Broadcom 5722 1GbE Single Port NIC, PCIe-1 [add $59]

Broadcom 5708 Single Port 1GbE NIC w/TOE iSCSI, PCIe-4 [add $99]

2x Broadcom 5708 Single Port 1GbE NIC w/TOE iSCSI, PCIe-4 [add $198]

2x Intel PRO 1000PT 1GbE Dual Port NIC, PCIe-4 [add $398]

2x Intel PRO 1000PT 1GbE Single Port NIC, PCIe-1 [add $278]

2x Intel PRO 1000PF Fibre 1GbE Single Port NIC, PCIe-4 [add $798]

2x Broadcom 5722 1GbE Single Port NIC, PCIe-1 [add $118]

2x Broadcom 5708 Single Port 1GbE NIC w/TOE PCIe-4 [add $198]

2nd Network Adapter

Intel® PRO 1000PT Dual Port Server Adapter, Gigabit NIC, Cu, PCIe x4 [add $199]

Intel® PRO 1000PT Single Port Server Adapter, Gigabit NIC, Cu, PCIe x1 [add $139]

Intel® PRO 1000PF Single Port Server Adapter, Gigabit, Optical PCI-Ex [add $399]

Intel PRO 1000VT Quad Port 1GbE NIC, PCIe-4 [add $529]

Broadcom® NetXtreme II 5708 Single Port Gigabit NIC w/TOE, PCIe-4 [add $99]

Broadcom 5722 Single Port 1Gbe Ethernet NIC, PCIe [add $59]

Perfect!  Thanks for the fast reply.

No. If there is such a card compatible with FreeBSD it would be possible to add that support.