Network appliances

A group of colleagues all bought a Soekris a while back. Some are using it to experiment with CARP (possibly inspired by the rather graphic EuroBSDCon 2005 presentation by Ryan McBride), others run M0N0wall/pfSense or fairly standard Linux distribution to shape their internet connections. At least one colleague connected USB speakers and uses it as a fancy alarmclock.

Personally, I find the the different units available from RouterBoard more interesting, as these have more CPU horsepower and are (IMHO) more expandable. I don't have any experience with the, supposedly, carrier-grade RouterOS from MikroTik, but I know I can get Linux on such a board to do what I need.

Unfortunately, sometimes you need something faster. You could go for a 1U server with a PCI-X or PCIe slot and plug in a dual- or quad-port Intel Ether Express Pro 1000 card. On the other hand, both iGoLogic and Arbor (not to be confused with Arbor Networks) have some pretty nice network appliances.

iGoLogic sells two models: the i9043N is based on a low-power Celeron M/Pentium M processor and has four 10/100 Mbps ports, while the i9011N is powered by a Pentium4 (it is not clear to me whether a dual-core Pentium D would be supported) and has four gigabit ports. The smaller unit should make a nice firewall/VPN solution for smaller networks - more or less the market segment being targeted by, for instance, the smaller Juniper (Netscreen) or Sonicwall units. The gigabit unit might fit nicely into a Linux Virtual Server (LVS) or CARP setup.

Arbor sells a few more different units. Their line-up starts with the VIA Eden-based MBX-1610 which has three 10/100 Mbps ports up to the Pentium D-based MBX-1736 which has six gigabit ports.

Depending on the price, products from both companies might be interesting.

Update: I just came across the FabiaTech FX5620 unit sold by LinITX and several units sold by Nexcom. The FX5620 is has a 1 GHz VIA C3 processor, five 10/100 Mbps and one gigabit port - unfortunately it's using Realtek chips. Nexcom has units ranging from the DNA 730 (with it's 667 MHz XScale, three 10/100 Mbps ports and an 8-port switch) to the NSA 2189 which can have two quad-core Xeons, up to 24 gigabit ports and has redundant power supplies and disks.