Jetway JBC373F38W

henrik_pf

Hi all.

I'm new here, so hello everyone. ;)

Wanted to make a nice router + accesspoint with this:
http://www.jetway.com.tw/jw/barebone_view.asp?productid=1012

Seems to have all the goodies including 4 x Gb LAN + 1 WLAN

Any one else seens this or maybe used this with pfSense? Would this be compatible?

Kind regards,
Henrik

stephenw10

Hi. :)

Two things immediately stand out.
You will probably have to run 2.1RC to get drivers for the Realtek 8111 NICs. That isn't a problem though.
It doesn't say what the wifi card is but it will almost certainly not be compatible. The best case scenario would be that it works but only in 'G' mode. It depends completely on the chipset used. You would probably be better off getting the box without a WLAN card and then adding one yourself that you know is supported. You will find many people prefer to just run a separate wifi access point to get 802.11N. They are very cheap these days for basic soho units and have the advantage of being able to be positioned for best reception. But that does mean no 'one box' solution and probably more power used.

The most up to date list of supported wifi hardware is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AojFUXcbH0ROdHgwYkFHbkRUdV9hVWljVWl5SXkxbFE&hl=en#gid=0

You haven't said what you are hoping to push through this box in terms of bandwidth or services so I can't comment on suitability for that. ;)

Steve

wallabybob

The RTL8111EVL NICs in this box don't seem to be capable of sustained Gigabit speeds (see http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,57037.0.html) but the CPU doesn't seem to have enough muscle for that either.

henrik_pf

@stephenw10 and @wallabybob:

Thanks a lot for your comments. I really appreciate them.

Seems to be more of a NIC hardware / driver issue than a CPU performance thing. Probably better off with a board with other NIC's. I frankly do not have a clue as to how much performance I should expect. I want as much as possible off course. It's all a matter of cost, I guess. :)

What are you guys using out there for a dedicated router appliance?

About putting WLAN on a separate accesspoint: I actually agree… ;)
I just stumbled acroos the Ubiquiti UniFi products - will probably give those a try. Great price and a serious feature set. Also noticed the EdgeMAX router from the same company - looks great on "paper", but I need something that will run in a virtual environment as well. So pfSense is still my best choice I think.

Thanks,
Henrik

wallabybob

@henrik_pf:

I frankly do not have a clue as to how much performance I should expect. I want as much as possible off course. It's all a matter of cost, I guess. :)

How much are you prepared to pay for your Internet connection? What speed does that give you?

What applications do you want on your pfSense?

@henrik_pf:

What are you guys using out there for a dedicated router appliance?

Mine is a 256MB system with a 800MHz VIA C3 CPU and a 1GB solid state disk module. I get up to about 4Mbps on my ADSL link and run a very limited set of pfSense packages.

@henrik_pf:

About putting WLAN on a separate accesspoint: I actually agree… ;)

I agree to an extent BUT it has been my experience that consumer grade APs seem to have very limited event logging and packet capture facilities which severely limits troubleshooting. This remark might not apply to the Ubiquiti devices you reference.

stephenw10

At home I am running a re-purposed Watchguard Firebox. I have an older Atheros based mini-PCI card in it as an access point. It works great at 'G' speeds. I also have an external access point to provide better coverage some distance from the firebox which, since it's a large rack mounted box, has to be located carefully. This provides far more interfaces and processing power than I need if I'm honest and it costs more to run. It was fun to setup though. ;)

I agree with Wallabybob, my external consumer grade AP provides almost no diagnostic info compared to pfSense. Not that I have needed it.

There are plenty of people using those or similar NICs without issue but if you can find a similar board with Intel NICs it will be better, but more expensive. The D525 will provide approximately ~550Mbps thoughput, between any two interfaces, of just firewall/NAT. As soon as you start running packages, Snort Squid etc, that will fall.

Steve

henrik_pf

I just found this nice box with Intel NICs:
http://www.ibase.com.tw/2009/fwa6304.html

Do you really think the D525 will only allow about 500Mbps - also for routing/firewalling between thw NIC's? Say for LAN<->DMZ (no NAT)?

Anyway - that is more than fine for most use cases… :-)

My plan is to get this box up and running with a simple firewall/nat scenario - WAN, LAN, DMZ and WLAN (via separate AP now) - 4 NICS needed. Will probably use squid as well, but not much else. Might do VLANS to separate guest wifi from internal users.

I will build this for my self, but also have a few customers where this is right on target.

Thanks again for all your replies.

stephenw10

@henrik_pf:

Do you really think the D525 will only allow about 500Mbps - also for routing/firewalling between thw NIC's? Say for LAN<->DMZ (no NAT)?

I do. ;)
This is based on reports on the forum and this detailed test by a pfSense developer:
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,27780.0.html
I upped the speed slightly since that box uses the D510

That ibase box looks pretty nice if you can get one at reasonable cost and in resonable quantities.
Have you considered the Netgate FW-7541D? Purchasing that directly supports the pfSense dev team. :)

Steve

sventunus

Hi Henrik,

I actually have one of these running at home, and it works absolutely great!
Will post some pictures & run some tests for you to show the throughput it reaches this weekend.
It is not really seeing a huge load at my home of course, but I do have around 30 wired devices connected to the box 24/7, login to my VPN server 10-15 hours a day, and have an outgoing VPN client connection 24/7 too. Never had a hickup yet.

The Realtek NIC's indeed require that you run 2.1RC. I run the nightlies & am very happy with them :-)
You can also get an expansion with 4 Intel NIC's for this barebone by the way if you really require top notch NIC's.

sventunus

@stephenw10:

It doesn't say what the wifi card is but it will almost certainly not be compatible. The best case scenario would be that it works but only in 'G' mode. It depends completely on the chipset used.

It's an Atheros AR9280 based Mini-PCIe, and it "kind of" works. You can get WiFi functioning, but there is some trouble with it still. See this topic for details: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,59465.0.html. I use 3 TL-WR1043ND's with OpenWRT on them at home for my WiFi networks, it's just the better option.

henrik_pf

@sventunus

Thanks for your input. Great to hear from someone actually using this Jetway box.

I will look forward to hear your real world numbers if you get around to it.
;)