Watchguard Firebox X Peak platform

mmiller

Well in my quest to get a driver for SafeXcel 1841 chip. I received a reply today from safenet today. It looks like they sold off the "Embedded Security Solutions Division product line". That new company is AuthenTec Inc. I have now contacted them to find out if they have a driver for FreeBSD. I'm sure they do if they have one for Linux.

fastcon68

I just got my x6000 in today a day early! I just got it up and running and the lcd by stephen10 installed. It is working like a charm. I have have a few issues with auto-negotiation. If that is my only problem that is not a big one.

I connected a Tenda W311U wireless USB dongle, and so far I have not been able get to detect it.

RC

stephenw10

I found that a number of usb devices didn't physically fit in the socket correctly because they were obstructed by the front fascia. To use these I had to use a usb extension cable.

Steve

neotec_de

Hi Steve,

in summary you could use 3 additional USB devices after soldering the fuse and the 3 double chokes.
CN30 beside the frontpanel USB port and CN28 are alternative keyboard and mouse connectors.
Have a look at the picture.

Alex

stephenw10

Your soldering is better than mine! :-[

I didn't have (and couldn't face waiting for) any common mode chokes that small so I just used straight wire links instead. It worked fine but I guess if you were in an area with high RF interference you might have a problem.

Steve

fastcon68

The N class usb adapter is able to plug directly into the port on the front with out issue.

We are seeing a huge difference in performance between the x500 and x6000. I have no issues with the bridging and have run speed tests and I am getting close to the max on my DSL circuit. I getting 11 + meg down and 800 KB up without any trouble.

I am very excited. besides the noise from the 3 fans it's no real big deal. New unit is awesome.

I found that the excryption module from the x500 would not work in the x6000. I think it is conflicting with the one on the system board.

RC

stephenw10

You should be able to get your full dsl speed with no problem. I was able to get 300Mb/s throughput during testing and my X6000 has a low voltage 1.2GHz CPU fitted.

Steve

mmiller

fastcon68,

How are you determining that auto-negotiation is failing? Are you looking at the switch side of the connection or the firebox side? I've not had any issues and seeing that all of my ports are 100 and Full Duplex.

fastcon68

no luck figuring out why. but I have everthing working. I only have one issue and that is my vonage device will not connect. I connected it to the a dell 8 port switch then used a cross connect cable. I connect it there and have had no issues.

I am using a combination of GB and 100MB and 10-Half for vonage.
RC

fastcon68

I have gotten the n series driver for the Tenda 311U. what is the best way to install this new driver?

I just got my new used 40 gb hard drive for my x6000. what it the procedure for doing the install. I currently have it connected to a USB converter.

Last but not least here is the mbmon data:
Temp.= 35.0, 18.0, 41.5; Rot.= 21774, 22500, 21093
Vcore = 1.50, 1.92; Volt. = 3.33, 5.08, 12.16, -12.04, -0.67

Can somebody explain the values? This would be perfect to made into widget for the home page.

I have item left to do and that is the arm/disarm light. The x6000 is a awesome piece of technology. Stephen10 was talking about 2 different add on cards. what are the and what do they do?
RC

wallabybob

@fastcon68:

I have gotten the n series driver for the Tenda 311U. what is the best way to install this new driver?

There is a driver for the Tenda W311U in snapshot builds of pfSense 2.0.

stephenw10

@fastcon68:

I just got my new used 40 gb hard drive for my x6000. what it the procedure for doing the install.

The easiest way to do this probably to put the drive in a laptop then boot the laptop from the pfSense install cd and install from there.

@fastcon68:

Last but not least here is the mbmon data:
Temp.= 35.0, 18.0, 41.5; Rot.= 21774, 22500, 21093
Vcore = 1.50, 1.92; Volt. = 3.33, 5.08, 12.16, -12.04, -0.67

Can somebody explain the values? This would be perfect to made into widget for the home page.

I've never been completely sure about this, the middle temp value probably an unconnected sensor. I think the last value is CPU and the first value is probably the chipset.

@fastcon68:

Stephen10 was talking about 2 different add on cards. what are the and what do they do?

There are no add on cards for the X-Peak as far as I know. The only expansion possibility is the mini-PCI slot. There is an expansion card for the X-E series, the 'tacoma' module, which adds advanced encryption for VPNs. It doesn't work in pfSense.

Steve

fastcon68

I just order a disk caddy for my 2.5 - 40 GB hard drive. I reading through the forum on installing to a HD. The problem that I have is I only have is, That I do not have a laptop that I can put the hard drive in to install PFsense.

The caddy came from England, it should be here this upcomming weekend. I have is a USB to IDE converter. I would like to get the hard drive prepared before it comes in.

What options do I have. Does anybody have a base image that is 40GB in size that I could install on my HD.

Thanks
RC

mmiller

I tried to upgrade my memory to 2 Gigabytes last night in my X8000. I figured I would max it out and ran into a roadblock. When I installed the new memory all it would do it make a beeping sounds. Nothing would come up on the LCD screen. What I ordered was DDR1 400 PC3200 ECC. Can anyone provide me with a type of DD1 400 with or with out ECC. I really would prefer ECC though. An I guess if anyone else has the same type of ram maybe they can test as well. I didn't think to download the hardware guide to try and reset the BIOS via the jumper. Do you think that might be my issue the BIOS expects 512 megs. I also didn't see the VGA connector on the X8000. I had thought the 2x8 2mm pitch IDC 16 connector was on the X8000.

stephenw10

Hmm disappointing. :(

Doesn't the original P4 2.8GHz cpu run with a 533 FSB?
The bios behaves just as a standard desktop bios as far as ram settings are concerned. I'd be very surprised if it was locked at 512MB, though I haven't tried it. I don't think the standard ram is ECC.
I have seen some bioses that through out an error when you change the ram. It could be saying something you can't see.
The 2mm pitch VGA header is only in the X-e box as you have found. I don't beleive the X-Peak has any vga hardware at all.

Steve

mmiller

That is very disappointing. I'm going to continue on my quest to get more ram for the X8000. Maybe I will have a talk with the mother board manufacturer. I was able to get a 4 gig CF card to boot with out making any changes to the BIOS settings. Well I can't really make any changes to the BIOS. It would be nice to see the BIOS screen with out flashing the current BIOS.

charlie0440

@stephenw10:

I trying to buy a x8000 and have read the whole thread. Thanks for all the work steve.

What is the best way to integrate Wifi into the firebox? I can see you have an antenna, what are the options ie USB or minipci? Model number of working devices would be appreciated. I don't mind modding the case but I have never done any soldering so hopefully none is needed.

mmiller

I have a x8000 and your only option is the minipci slot. There is only one USB slot and it's a v1.0 or 1.1 not v2.0 USB. You could try usb but get less than the 12 megabits of bandwidth you would be expecting.

charlie0440

So will this one work: Atheros AR5213A AR5004G Super G 108 Mbps Mini PCI Card.

How do you attach an antenna to a minipci?

stephenw10

That should work ok although there are issues with the driver. I get the 'stuck beacon' report in the logs a lot if I'm on a busy channel.
You need to use a short adapter cable to connect to the minipci card known as a 'pigtail'. I recovered the antenna and cable from an old access point.

Steve