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

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
176

I've searched for some further velocloud information (which is scarce, and I don't have the hardware myself), the biggest issues with this hardware will probably be:

Sources, based on a heavily forked OpenWrt (chaos calmer derived), should be available from https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/src/master/

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177

It's listed in the Power section of the wikidevi entry!

Conn. measurements: 5.5 mm (OD), 2.1 mm (ID), 9.5 mm (LEN)

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178

How did you find this! I wasn't coming up with much of anything and based on the fact that VeloCloud was acquired by VMWare didn't give have much hope.

179

I don't know if it's a problem with all the Roqos RC10 or just mine. Anyway all problems gone with a powered usb 3.0 hub. All test usb devices are stable.

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180

For now I'd advise against purchasing a VeloCloud device unless you are ready to do some serious development work as it isn't going to be easy to get the network ports up and recognized!

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181

any J4125 mini PC like this, can handle full gbit nat ?

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183

I'd say it's decent, since it appears to have intel 2.5gbit NICs.

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184

And those work out-of-the-box? I also heard some rumors that certain versions of those are buggy...

185

intel i225 with stepping prior to B3 are buggy.

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186

I believe so, and yeah, some versions are buggy.

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187

Quad core Gemini Lake processor and 5 Intel NICs, ready to use with RAM and SSD, brand new for < $175USD? Where can you do better than that, even before factoring in that they're 2.5GbE?

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188

Plus shipping.

189

Plus god knows how much in taxes, vat, and fees.

190

The costs of delivery affect much more than this one device. Free shipping is not the usual case, and many forum users here have limited choices in their own countries and have no option except to order from other countries. You should probably open another topic to complain about it; it seems wildly off-topic here.

191

Out of curiosity, are you affiliated with aliexpres? Not that it would bother me as I'm pretty sure this is my next router should my existing $35 US core 2 duo (used of course) gives up the ghost.

192

In no way whatsoever. I was just very surprised at the sudden apparent assumption that every other device mentioned in this thread was shipped to a domestic customer, for free.

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193

They won't arrive until Thursday, but I just snagged 10 of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/185317249943 for 400+ tax (~$43 each delivered)...4cores, 4gig, dual gig ether and I plan to use them to do some near wire speed NAT and bastion edge stuff (openvpn,NFS,haproxy,squid...) as OpenWRT edges. They will need power supplies but they are slated to be my latest adventure.

I also nabbed 4 of those 302 APU Gen2 SimpleWan boxes a while back. I pretty much stole them at about $28 each including shipping. They work great and are able to fully saturate my 940 * 40 actual (900 * 35 claimed) Spectrum cable link NAT feeding about a dozen VLANs on the inside without working hard. I put some ath10k AC cards in them and fed them each a 256gb nvme gumstick. All are working flawlessly since August. I am a longtime fan of pcengines.ch dating back to my wrap based Wisp days.

194

That looks pretty attractive. My only hesitation is that it looks like the NICs are Realtek, though the one in my MiniITX server seems to work without issue.

195

I will immediately subject them to abuse on arrival and I will let you know how it works out.

196

I wouldn't quite call those (Zotac Mini PC AMD FX-7600P) a bargain though, considering that you have to add storage and PSUs (around 20 bucks a pop) to the price, combined with unknown idle power consumption figures (but my guess would be around 30-35 watts, which is a lot for an always-on device).

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