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OpenBSD Router Guide

unixsheikh.com

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#21
post #15

I use OPNsense. I love OpenBSD, but I love GUI more :))

OPNsense is FreeBSD

GP is implying that OPNsense is not OpenBSD, otherwise they would not have used the word "but", and used a comparison between their love of the GUI to their love of OpenBSD.

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#22
post #2

I have an old Soekris Net6501 which I would love to use OpenBSD on. However, they don't have any support for the Sierra WWAN modem I have. Unfortunately these days finding an alternative Linux distro which supports an installation process which uses the serial terminal interface is really, really hard these days. So the device sits unused in one of my desk drawers.

You might have to PXE boot to launch the installation with non-default parameters but you should have little problem doing so (and both PXELINUX and iPXE support serial console).

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#23
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OPNsense is FreeBSD

GP is implying that OPNsense is not OpenBSD, otherwise they would not have used the word "but", and used a comparison between their love of the GUI to their love of OpenBSD.

Ok, thanks, noted :)

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#24

Looks like a good article to follow. Anyone has recommendations on a small form factor board to get for this project? It appears that the ASRock Mini ITX board in the article is no longer available?

If you are providing a compatible ethernet board as in this writeup, virtually anything you can actually plug the board into will work. Not to imply that OBSD does not support most ethernet, as opposed to WiFi where you might have to be a bit more selective. Here is the list of appropriate WiFi drivers that can be used to make a OBSD based access point:

* https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#Wireless

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#25
post #9

My dream is of Open source 802.11ac Wi-Fi router. Is there any open hardware that works well?

It depends on how much should be open source (wifi generally involves a lot of blobs), and how much the router should do more than just route, but a good starting point should be OpenWRT on supported hardware.

I tend to separate the router and access points. Well working wifi hardware has traditionally been hard to find on consumer pricepoints, so I've used Ubiquiti thoughout. They're not open source at all, but neither are most network cards and wifi adapters so I consider them appliances. That way the router can be simple and separate.

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#26
post #5

Looks like a good article to follow. Anyone has recommendations on a small form factor board to get for this project? It appears that the ASRock Mini ITX board in the article is no longer available?

Check out the PC Engines APU2. They work very well with OpenBSD. I've been using them for ~8 years. I'm not sure how they would handle a gigabit. I have 250Mbps and I get 248Mbps with a dozen firewall rules.

I've been running an APU3A4 on a gigabit for the last 3 years. Works just fine.

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#27
post #9

My dream is of Open source 802.11ac Wi-Fi router. Is there any open hardware that works well?

Do you mean even the Hardware are open sourced or any router that is capable of running OpenWRT?

There are plenty of options for OpenWRT.

Running OpenBSD may better fit your description of "dream".

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#28
post #6
post #2

I have an old Soekris Net6501 which I would love to use OpenBSD on. However, they don't have any support for the Sierra WWAN modem I have. Unfortunately these days finding an alternative Linux distro which supports an installation process which uses the serial terminal interface is really, really hard these days. So the device sits unused in one of my desk drawers.

PFsense that's whats running on my Net6501.

Was it easy to install and configure?

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#29
For a year I had success with a Beaglebone Green[0] and OpenBSD installed and in a "Router on a stick" configuration[1]. It wasn't amazing preformance, but it was in a rural area with a slow ISP anyway. IPSec performance was sufficient for the single client I ever used with it.

For the year prior to this one, I had FreeBSD in almost the same configuration running on a Raspberry Pi (1!!!) B.

Both were rock solid stable without any serious problems, but in the end, I favored the OpenBSD/Beaglebone more. The sole reason for this is the strange behavior I encountered on FreeBSD while using vi over a serial connection - all of vi would appear in the serial console as a single line. I believe it was a known bug at the time. This made vi unusable, and I had to resort editing the firewall confgs line by line using sed and cat (FreeBSD sed doesn't have the in-place editing that GNU sed has). Quite a PITA.

[0]https://beagleboard.org/green

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_on_a_stick

Re: OpenBSD Router Guide

#30

For a year I had success with a Beaglebone Green[0] and OpenBSD installed and in a "Router on a stick" configuration[1]. It wasn't amazing preformance, but it was in a rural area with a slow ISP anyway. IPSec performance was sufficient for the single client I ever used with it. For the year prior to this one, I had FreeBSD in almost the same configuration running on a Raspberry Pi (1!!!) B. Both were rock solid stabl…

not sure about any particulars of the issue you describe but it sounds like the terminal could not support something about your session to vi. maybe running GNU screen or tmux would make things work better?
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