New build on eeePC
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hi guys,
my first post here…. i have an eeePC that i want to use as a firewall. The spec is:
atom N270
1gb RAM
160GB hdd
built in wifi
built in nica few things i wanted to find out before i try to build... firstly, has anyone used an eeePC with pfsense before? also, are there USB NICs i can use with PFsense? will pfsense be able to turn the wifi into an access point?
thanks!
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also, are there USB NICs i can use with PFsense?
Yes, see the FreeBSD supported hardware list at http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.1R/hardware.html
will pfsense be able to turn the wifi into an access point?
Probably not if you want to use the inbuilt WiFi, but lets not be too hasty. What is the WiFi chipset brand and model?
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hi,
im not sure what the chipset is, there is not a lot of detail on the asus site…http://uk.asus.com/Eee/EeeBox_PC/EeeBox_PC_B202/
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OK, you could buy a USB WiFi NIC known to work as an AP on pfSense 2.0.1 I have had success with Tenda W311U (cost: local equivalent of US$13 retail near where I live). Other forum readers have reported success with ALFA AWUS036NH which apparently uses the same chipset (Ralinlk RT3070) as the Tenda W311U.
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Instead of using a USB NIC, you can use VLANs with a smart switch. Like GS108T-200[1].
[1] http://netgear.dk/business/products/switches/smart-switches/smart-switches/GS108T-200.aspx
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i think i will buy one of those wifi adapters, then will have all the internal network wireless. could you recommend a usb wired NIC as well?
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The Eeebox B202 appears to use the Ralink RT2860 wifi chipset which looks to be unsupported by FreeBSD 8.1 (and hence pfSense 2.0.X) out of the box.
However some quick googling shows that there are some drivers available which may work if you're willing to do some compiling.Steve
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thanks for the advice guys, will get on this soon.
just need to order the power supply…
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The RT2860 is apparently a PCI chipset. This could be wired into the motherboard or it could be on a removable mini PCI card. If the latter you could replace the card with a suitable Atheros based card. A suitable card would need to be the right size (I don't know if there are different sized mini-PCI cards) and have a supported Atheros chipset (there have been reports of problems with at least one Atheros chipset supporting 802.11n).
I have used a couple of USB wired NICs based on the DM9601 chipset but was ultimately disappointed in them because, from time to time, the system would boot and not recognise them and that would require manual intervention. They were also 12Mbps USB which was probably just fast enough for my WAN connection but definitely not fast enough for my LAN connection. I have no experience with them but the USB NIC described at http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-2-0-wired-10-100mbps-high-speed-ethernet-network-adapter-dongle-white-92233 is based on the ASIX AX88772A which is listed on http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=axe&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+9.0-RELEASE&arch=default&format=html as a device supported by the FreeBSD axe driver.
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Mmm yes it looks to be a mini PCI-e card however accessing it seems quite an involved process! ::)
Steve
