Successful Install on Watchguard Firebox X700!

jahonix

The watchguard seems to have a bunch of Realtec NICs onboard.
That's where I'd expect the troubles to start…

The DeLL 5224 or 5324 switches basically are rebranded SMCs.
They can be found on eBay regularly if you don't mind the additional ports.

drvcrash

@Valhalla1:

there are reports in this thread that some cisco switches had the errors, but someone else said theirs don't on cisco switches (what models?)
also netgear has been reported with the problems, but not a higher end model which got rid of the errors (which higher end model?)
my d-link causes them.. hp procurve has been mentioned as error free but not sure which models (any managed procurve switch?)

Im using a couple Netgear GSM712's I bought off ebay. Ive tested my watchguard v60 and x700's and no timeout problems. Also I used them thru my cisco 3548xl with no problems. I do have Dell 5324's at work . which is were these firewall are headed in the end but I havent had a chance to test them on the dells.

Valhalla1

thanks for those model #'s gives me some stuff to look for

David_W

It may be that the cheapest way ahead is to get a good brand 8 port web managed (or L2 managed) switch and hook that up to the rest of your network.

As a data point, I'm using ZyXEL level 2 switches in my very large home office network; at the moment, I've got two GS-2024 switches, which are linked by fibre. They're not HP, though they're little more than a third of the price of HP - around £350 as opposed to nearly £900 for an L2 managed 24 Gigabit port HP Procurve. There's a few rough edges, but they do work OK. I've had a fan failure which resulted in an RMA, also I had two DoA 1000BASE-SX GBICs (misshapen latch on one, no link on the other), but things have been OK since.

The biggest rough edge I know of is that there's no support for port trunking in the STP implementation; with HP you can set STP parameters for the trunk. ZyXEL doesn't support STP for trunks, though I hope it will be added in a future firmware version. That problem aside, the 3.80 firmware for the Dimension range is pretty feature rich, with new features in 3.80 including SNMPv3.

There's some new ES-2024 switches on eBay right now for just under $200 - these are 24 port Level 2 managed 10/100 plus 2 port 10/100/1000 copper or SFP devices. I suspect that's more ports than you want or could use, and I expect if you're spending that money you'd rather have fewer ports that are Gigabit. Overall, I'd expect ZyXEL to be a minority brand for switches in the US, much as their DSL routers are more common, but it's another direction that you could look in.

I have no idea about the "Watchguard problem" on these switches; my production firewall is a Dell PowerEdge R200.

Krisstian

someone asked for pictures… this is an Firebox x700

![DSC_0030 (Medium).JPG](/public/imported_attachments/1/DSC_0030 (Medium).JPG)
![DSC_0030 (Medium).JPG_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/DSC_0030 (Medium).JPG_thumb)
![DSC_0045 (Medium).JPG](/public/imported_attachments/1/DSC_0045 (Medium).JPG)
![DSC_0045 (Medium).JPG_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/DSC_0045 (Medium).JPG_thumb)
![DSC_0046 (Medium).JPG](/public/imported_attachments/1/DSC_0046 (Medium).JPG)
![DSC_0046 (Medium).JPG_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/DSC_0046 (Medium).JPG_thumb)

Sifter

Has anyone tried to replace the crypto mini-pci card with a wifi mini-pci card?

Sifter

So are most of you taking the HD tray out completely? Do you know where to get a HD that fits in the bracket and slides into place using the connector?

Valhalla1

@Sifter:

So are most of you taking the HD tray out completely? Do you know where to get a HD that fits in the bracket and slides into place using the connector?

my hard drive is in the tray, which if I recall is kind of loose inside there but I had to use it, otherwise the hard drive would just be laying on the motherboard directly, and this caused a short of some kind and it wouldn't power up
a regular sized ide hard drive might fit properly in the removeable cage, the laptop ones are obv. too small

Sifter

Ive gone ahead and purchased a 4gig hitachi microdrive. Id like to use this in the x700. Can I do a full install to the microdrive from my other computer, then slide it into the cf slot in the x700?

moep

I replaced our Firebox X500 for pfsense a few months ago and never noticed this thread.
Selling the box isn't worth it so I ripped into it and cleaned it today.

Now I'm wondering if anyone has tried installing a 1024 MB PC-133 stick in it?
I'd like to run a couple of packages on the box (squid in particular, i guess it's too weak for snort ) so the more RAM the better I'd guess.

Also, what's the smartest solution when it comes to the installation?
I think I'll go with the "connect cdrom-drive and do the installation via serial console"-route.
And I'm definitely going to put a harddrive in there, should I get rid of the CF card and do the full installation on the HD or install the base system on a CF and while leaving all busy partitions on the HD?

Valhalla1

@moep:

I replaced our Firebox X500 for pfsense a few months ago and never noticed this thread.
Selling the box isn't worth it so I ripped into it and cleaned it today.

Now I'm wondering if anyone has tried installing a 1024 MB PC-133 stick in it?
I'd like to run a couple of packages on the box (squid in particular, i guess it's too weak for snort ) so the more RAM the better I'd guess.

Also, what's the smartest solution when it comes to the installation?
I think I'll go with the "connect cdrom-drive and do the installation via serial console"-route.
And I'm definitely going to put a harddrive in there, should I get rid of the CF card and do the full installation on the HD or install the base system on a CF and while leaving all busy partitions on the HD?

not sure anyones reporting attempting a cdrom install, it might have problems recognizing or booting from a cdrom unless you can get into the motherboard BIOS config, but good luck. You can always install the system on another machine and swap the disk out

here's a question, I just got around to installing phpsysinfo on my Firebox x500 and noticed the temperature sensors seem outragous, is this false info or is something inside my box about to spontaneously combust? This seemingly hasn't caused any problems but doesn't look pretty

moep

I've finished the installation on my Firebox now, went a different route:

Attached the notebook-disk to my Notebook via an IDE-USB adapter, fired up VMware Fusion, used the .iso and installed pfsense to the disk via vmware. It worked fine.

The box will boot with a doublesided 1024 MB PC-133 stick but only 512 MB are recognized.

And well, keep an eye out for the completely open PSU while working in there. I was stupid enough to accidentally touch a 220V part while swapping the HDD with the box plugged in. Fun, fun.:D

@ Valhalla1: 127° is a default temperature for sensors as far as I remember. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless the temperature actually fluctuates over 120°C.

Sifter

Anyone have a good way of removing the heatsink/fan from the Celeron chip that is stock? I have a PIII 1.4 chip that Id like to throw in, but the heatsink seems bonded pretty tight to the existing celeron.

Idea's are welcomed.

moep

My X500 only has liquid thermal compound between the CPU and HSF — no “baked in” thermal pad or anything like it.
All it takes is a slight twist and the HSF will come off.
If your’s sticks to the CPU, try running the firebox so the thermal compound heats up and gets soft. Then lift it off without applying excessive force.

If you have trouble opening the clip, see the picture for how it works. Be careful not to break the little tabs on the socket though.

IMG_5223.jpg_thumb

IMG_5224.jpg_thumb

familyguy

@Valhalla1:

How are you generating this system info page? It seems a LOT more informative than the default. Is that some special add-on?

Best,

jahonix

That's a package called 'phpSysInfo'.
You can install it from System|Packages if you are on a full install.

familyguy

@jahonix:

That's a package called 'phpSysInfo'.
You can install it from System|Packages if you are on a full install.

Ah. It doesn't appear to be available for the 1.2.1-snapshots.

Best,

Sifter

@moep:

My X500 only has liquid thermal compound between the CPU and HSF — no “baked in” thermal pad or anything like it.
All it takes is a slight twist and the HSF will come off.
If your’s sticks to the CPU, try running the firebox so the thermal compound heats up and gets soft. Then lift it off without applying excessive force.

If you have trouble opening the clip, see the picture for how it works. Be careful not to break the little tabs on the socket though.

Worked like a charm, thank you.

emigrating

@Sifter:

It looks like the mini pci slot could be used for a wifi card, so you could choose if you wanted a vpn card or wifi card in that slot. Granted, both have to be recognized by pfsense.

So has anyone tried sticking a wifi card in there? If not, what's a generally accepted card for FreeBSD which I could try?

Sifter

@emigrating:

@Sifter:

It looks like the mini pci slot could be used for a wifi card, so you could choose if you wanted a vpn card or wifi card in that slot. Granted, both have to be recognized by pfsense.

So has anyone tried sticking a wifi card in there? If not, what's a generally accepted card for FreeBSD which I could try?

I havent tried it yet, but I do have one at home. I finally received my hitachi 4gig microdrive, so I can now install pfsense on the thing and then boot my x700. Hopefully Ill have time later this week.