Tips for getting cheap used x86-based firewall with full Gbit NAT (a PC Engines APU) if you are in the US

Just got a VeloCloud EDGE 500-N. It has 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD and the Ethernet ports are all off from Marvell chips. An 88E6176 switch seems to drive the lan ports and an 88E6320 drive the 2 Internet ports and along with an 88E1112 the SFP port.

I have a backlog of equipment to catch up on but I will be eventually adding info to WikiDev for this and then loading OpenWrt.

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This is about the roqos rc10. Anyway, I tested the HDD enclosure with external power, but it doesn't connect with a bad cable blahblah message. Even if I connect another USB 3.0 stick, it does not connect with an error message. Perhaps a hardware failure.

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Can you show the contents of /proc/cpuinfo and at least the Processor Information part of dmidecode?

Sorry I have a stack of other hardware that are first on my todo list. I likely won't get to this one for over a week.

prices are so low that even with shipping costs it's a good deal for people in europe...

Shipping isn't the problem, VAT, and (if applied) customs charges, plus carrier's
"admin charges" might be.
But those vary from country to country, and carrier to carrier.

This one ended up pretty expensive - R7800 with corrupted firmware image and faulty LAN. Gosh - #76 by bright_plastik

Lesson (at least for me) is never to use the big carriers - FedEx, DHL, TNT & UPS when importing goods from outside Europe, their admin charges are very high (esp since it's a digital transaction, not touched by any human), unless the value of the parcel itself is very low.

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I tried a uSD card, it worked.

Then I tried a 2.5" 500GB HDD, it didn't even try to spin up.
So the port's either underpowered, or there's some quirk that needs to
be enabled, to get proper power to it.

A powered USB hub would probably solve the issue.

I ordered a usb tester. It will arrive tomorrow.

if it's small enough to fit in a plain or padded envelope, without any customs declaration sticker on it,
it'll probably arrive uncharged :wink:

but like i said, it also depends on where in Europe you live.

Ouch!
:heavy_check_mark: Being cited as one sad and expensive story.
Done. :sweat_smile:

I was looking into the Velocloud, they're cheap, as you said :wink:

The throughput seems very unimpressive though, if I read the specs correctly - https://assets.vonage.com/sfdc/prm/Edge_Datasheet.pdf

might be a market positioning thing though, deliberately capped by software.

I can't get them (for a reasonable price, with shipping, customs, etc.) over here (.de), but the vendor would have seriously messed up the hardware design, if they'd achieve less than >>800 MBit/s (I would even assume 1 GBit/s) on a Rangeley Atom C2358 (at least running OpenWrt). I would totally expect them to have messed up their 'cloud' firmware though (never checked their promised features, IDS and similar could explain those values).

Disclaimer, I only found references to the hardware specifications while searching for potential (cheap) targets, I never had one on my desk.

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If you buy an item that is using "ebay global shipping program" you pay customs and fees at the time of buying https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/postage-delivery/changing-delivery-address-method/international-purchases-postage?id=4057
and it's actually pretty decent and "honest".

For example, this item https://www.ebay.it/itm/224543872231?hash=item3447db94e7:g:uvMAAOSwGsRg-a1N is 30$ plus 30$ international shipping plus 19,46$ import fees with the Global Shipping Program

That's how I managed to import multiple boxes with dozens of Simplewans from the US without getting absolutely raped by customs.

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At ~75-80 EUR they sadly lose quite a bit of the appeal, compared to rev 3 sophos sg/ xg devices selling for around 100 EUR with local shipping.

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I've never ever used it, and it sounds pretty expensive to me, but if the shipping doesn't double with
the no of items bought, I can see it becomes tempting with an increasing number of units.

Also not really interested in buying that many whatever of the same kind, the local market's to small, it would be hard to (re)sell them.
I'm happy if the one I keep for myself is free, not really trying to make a buck.

I think the five sw301da I bought in US, ended up at ~30€/piece including shipping, VAT, tax etc, to .se.

yes I agree. It's just an example to show an item that is using global shipping program.
If I didn't do that for shipping to italy I would get 30 euro of "administrative fees" which is more or less a fixed cost, plus a VAT calculated on some strange and unknown item value (commonly item+shipping cost).

it's obviously calculated per total price so it increases if you buy multiple items. As said above this is just an example of item offering GSP, not a good item to buy

If the item didn't suck, paying only 20$ of import fees for a 30$ item isn't bad at all for Italy since as said above it's not just VAT but also "administrative fee" that is high for no reason and also the risk of getting some creative customs officer that decides the "real price" of the item is 3 times the price I actually paid so I nearly end up paying more in VAT/import fees than the item.

Also the fact that it's not going through customs at all so it's not held by customs for no reason. As another example, I only recently received a PiKVM board/case I bought as part of a kickstarter, that was shipped in december from Hong Kong and was held in customs for like 1 month and a half for no discernible reason

I had the same experience with a couple of gifts sent outside of EU. They were waiting in the customs for more than a month. Then they sent me the form to fill in, so that post office will handle the customs clearance, and after another week they arrived at home without extra charges. So I guess it was the Christmas season high workload along with the new rules that all packages from outside EU must pass customs.

I currently really have no need or purpose for yet another X86-based device (as you know :sweat_smile:). But, oh boy, the Velocloud 520 integrating a presumably quite capable passive Atom CPU, AC wireless and an 8-port switch does sound mighty tempting.

... for $50 that is. For more than twice that price after shipping, import fees and taxes decidedly less so. I guess that's what we have to live with. US getting dirt cheap capable X86 devices, Japan getting dirt cheap capable funky consumer routers and access points, and us in the EU getting cheap-ish decommissioned "professional" firewall appliances, with pretty much no cross-pollenation. :frowning:

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just bought two of those 500-N, fingers X:ed :slight_smile:

@takimata
this https://jp.mercari.com/item/m36302766611 is supported by OpenWRT ?
WTF price is lower than 17€ :joy:

Someone has the hardware specs of a Velocloud 520-AC ?