Easy success on Multitech RF-850 "RouteFinder" appliance
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I recently took over a client using this device as their firewall/router. It's probably not the worst web interface I've ever seen, but it's close. Decent featureset, but missing a couple key features I needed for the client, and the web interface was truly bad. Very slow, didn't warn before it would take down the system to reload (several minutes), and just terribly laid out. Final straw was that while this is a multi WAN device, this feature didn't seem to work properly at all, changing the configuration meant a 3 minute reload, and support would have cost me a pretty penny, even just to ask a question online.
Anyway, I was going to buy an ALIX to toss in, but I noticed this box had a VGA port on the back and investigated a little further. This is a full x86 platform, with 3x100mbit, VGA, PS/2, 2xUSB2.0, miniPCI, IDE and DIMM RAM sockets. This one had a 1GHz Via C3 (hardware AES), 512MB of RAM and a 1GB industrial CF card in the internal CF slot. It appears to have mounting space for an internal hard disk, there's an antenna slot and 'line' marking apparently for an internal modem, and only one of the DIMM sockets was populated, so it may be available in several configurations.
Really the only unfortunate thing about it is the RTL8139C+ interfaces it contains. I'm hoping that because they're a late revision of the chip they should work relatively well.
Anyway, getting pfSense going was a piece of cake. Burning the NanoBSD image to a fresh CF card worked first try, the serial console comes straight up. It seems to also have good support for booting from USB, or USB CD. Console redirection wasn't enabled by default, but the BIOS is accessible, then you don't need the VGA port ever. Seems to be a well built little box, perfect for pfSense.
Probably a relatively obscure device, but I thought I'd report my success here anyway in case anyone else comes across one, or can get one cheap.
Boot log and a poor cellphone photo:
1 FreeBSD 2 FreeBSD Boot: 1 /boot.config: -h Consoles: serial port BIOS drive C: is disk0 BIOS 639kB/506880kB available memory FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1 (sullrich@FreeBSD_7.2_pfSense_1.2.3_snaps.pfsense.org, Mon Dec 7 17:37:10 EST 2009) Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf /boot/kernel/kernel text=0x739788 data=0x13cf6c+0x51c80 / \ Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. Booting [/boot/kernel/kernel]... Copyright (c) 1992-2009 The FreeBSD Project. Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation. FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE-p5 #0: Mon Dec 7 18:09:15 EST 2009 sullrich@FreeBSD_7.2_pfSense_1.2.3_snaps.pfsense.org:/usr/obj.pfSense/usr/pfSensesrc/src/sys/pfSense_wrap.7.i386 Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: VIA Nehemiah (999.83-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "CentaurHauls" Id = 0x698 Stepping = 8 Features=0x381b83f <fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,sep,mtrr,pge,cmov,pat,mmx,fxsr,sse>VIA Padlock Features=0xdd <rng,aes>real memory = 520093696 (496 MB) avail memory = 495046656 (472 MB) wlan: mac acl policy registered ACPI Error (tbxfroot-0308): A valid RSDP was not found [20070320] ACPI: Table initialisation failed: AE_NOT_FOUND ACPI: Try disabling either ACPI or apic support. cryptosoft0: <software crypto=""> on motherboard padlock0: <aes-cbc> on motherboard pcib0: <host to="" pci="" bridge=""> pcibus 0 on motherboard pir0: <pci 7="" interrupt="" routing="" table:="" entries=""> on motherboard pci0: <pci bus=""> on pcib0 pcib1: <pci-pci bridge=""> at device 1.0 on pci0 pci1: <pci bus=""> on pcib1 vgapci0: <vga-compatible display=""> mem 0xe8000000-0xebffffff,0xec000000-0xecffffff irq 10 at device 0.0 on pci1 re0: <realtek 10="" 8139c+="" 100basetx=""> port 0xe000-0xe0ff mem 0xee000000-0xee0000ff irq 11 at device 11.0 on pci0 re0: Chip rev. 0x74800000 re0: MAC rev. 0x00000000 miibus0: <mii bus=""> on re0 rlphy0: <realtek internal="" media="" interface=""> PHY 0 on miibus0 rlphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto re0: Ethernet address: 00:08:00:e8:2d:98 re0: [FILTER] re1: <realtek 10="" 8139c+="" 100basetx=""> port 0xe100-0xe1ff mem 0xee001000-0xee0010ff irq 5 at device 12.0 on pci0 re1: Chip rev. 0x74800000 re1: MAC rev. 0x00000000 miibus1: <mii bus=""> on re1 rlphy1: <realtek internal="" media="" interface=""> PHY 0 on miibus1 rlphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto re1: Ethernet address: 00:08:00:e8:2d:97 re1: [FILTER] re2: <realtek 10="" 8139c+="" 100basetx=""> port 0xe200-0xe2ff mem 0xee002000-0xee0020ff irq 10 at device 13.0 on pci0 re2: Chip rev. 0x74800000 re2: MAC rev. 0x00000000 miibus2: <mii bus=""> on re2 rlphy2: <realtek internal="" media="" interface=""> PHY 0 on miibus2 rlphy2: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto re2: Ethernet address: 00:08:00:e8:2d:96 re2: [FILTER] uhci0: <via 83c572="" usb="" controller=""> port 0xe300-0xe31f irq 10 at device 16.0 on pci0 uhci0: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci0: [ITHREAD] usb0: <via 83c572="" usb="" controller=""> on uhci0 usb0: USB revision 1.0 uhub0: <via 1="" 9="" uhci="" root="" hub,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 1.00="" 1.00,="" addr=""> on usb0 uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered uhci1: <via 83c572="" usb="" controller=""> port 0xe400-0xe41f irq 5 at device 16.1 on pci0 uhci1: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci1: [ITHREAD] usb1: <via 83c572="" usb="" controller=""> on uhci1 usb1: USB revision 1.0 uhub1: <via 1="" 9="" uhci="" root="" hub,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 1.00="" 1.00,="" addr=""> on usb1 uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered uhci2: <via 83c572="" usb="" controller=""> port 0xe500-0xe51f irq 11 at device 16.2 on pci0 uhci2: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci2: [ITHREAD] usb2: <via 83c572="" usb="" controller=""> on uhci2 usb2: USB revision 1.0 uhub2: <via 1="" 9="" uhci="" root="" hub,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 1.00="" 1.00,="" addr=""> on usb2 uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered ehci0: <via vt6202="" usb="" 2.0="" controller=""> mem 0xee003000-0xee0030ff irq 7 at device 16.3 on pci0 ehci0: [GIANT-LOCKED] ehci0: [ITHREAD] usb3: EHCI version 1.0 usb3: companion controllers, 2 ports each: usb0 usb1 usb2 usb3: <via vt6202="" usb="" 2.0="" controller=""> on ehci0 usb3: USB revision 2.0 uhub3: <via 1="" 9="" ehci="" root="" hub,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 2.00="" 1.00,="" addr=""> on usb3 uhub3: 6 ports with 6 removable, self powered isab0: <pci-isa bridge=""> at device 17.0 on pci0 isa0: <isa bus=""> on isab0 atapci0: <via 8235="" udma133="" controller=""> port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0xe600-0xe60f at device 17.1 on pci0 ata0: <ata 0="" channel=""> on atapci0 ata0: [ITHREAD] ata1: <ata 1="" channel=""> on atapci0 ata1: [ITHREAD] cpu0 on motherboard orm0: <isa option="" rom=""> at iomem 0xd0000-0xd7fff pnpid ORM0000 on isa0 ppc0: parallel port not found. sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0 sio0: type 16550A, console sio0: [FILTER] sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0 sio1: type 16550A sio1: [FILTER] speaker0: <pc speaker=""> at port 0x61 pnpid PNP0800 on isa0 unknown: <pnp0c01> can't assign resources (memory) unknown: <pnp0c02> can't assign resources (memory) unknown: <pnp0501> can't assign resources (port) unknown: <pnp0501> can't assign resources (port) Timecounter "TSC" frequency 999832127 Hz quality 800 Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec IPsec: Initialized Security Association Processing. ad0: 1903MB <smi 20071116="" model=""> at ata0-master PIO4 WARNING: Expected rawoffset 0, found 63 WARNING: Expected rawoffset 0, found 1902159 Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ufs/pfsense0 Setting up embedded specific environment... done. ___ ___/ f \ / p \___/ Sense \___/ \ \___/ Welcome to pfSense 1.2.3-RELEASE... Mounting filesystems... done. Creating symlinks......done. Launching the init system... done. Initializing.................. done. Starting device manager (devd)...done. Loading configuration......done. Updating configuration...done. Cleaning backup cache...done. Setting up extended sysctls...done. Syncing user passwords...done. Starting Secure Shell Services...done. Setting timezone...done. Setting up microrcode and tx/rx oeffloading...1: link state changed to UP re0: link state changed to UP re2: link state changed to DOWN done. Configuring LAN interface...re0: link state changed to DOWN done. Configuring WAN interface...re1: link state changed to DOWN re1: link state changed to UP re0: link state changed to UP done. Configuring OPT interfaces... OPT1 (OPT1)... done. Configuring CARP interfaces...done. Starting syslog...done. Starting OpenNTP time client...done. Configuring firewall......done. Starting webConfigurator...done. Starting DHCP service...done. Starting DNS forwarder...done. Starting FTP helpers...done. Final filter pass......done. Generating RRD graphs...done. Starting DHCP service...done. Starting CRON... done. Executing rc.d items... Starting /usr/local/etc/rc.d/*.sh...done. appending output to nohup.out Bootup complete</smi></pnp0501></pnp0501></pnp0c02></pnp0c01></pc></isa></ata></ata></via></isa></pci-isa></via></via></via></via></via></via></via></via></via></via></via></via></realtek></mii></realtek></realtek></mii></realtek></realtek></mii></realtek></vga-compatible></pci></pci-pci></pci></pci></host></aes-cbc></software></rng,aes></fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,sep,mtrr,pge,cmov,pat,mmx,fxsr,sse>Actually scratch the picture. I can't get one even close to passable with my BlackBerry and my digicam is elsewhere.