Another successful OpenBSD setup
I’ve been buying these little boxes from AliExpress for years to use as firewalls and routers. My oldest one is almost 9 years old now! OpenBSD installs just fine. Just a BIOS tweak to always boot up after power is restored.
I have one of these with PFSense on it. Works great, but when I had it in a hot room I had to zip tie a 120mm fan to it 😀
I bought some half-inch silicone feet to separate mine from the shelf it sits on. The added airflow underneath seems to do just fine.
Yea mine was hung on the wall with an air gap, still needed the fan hah
Sorry for my ignorance I tried googling but what is this exactly? A server for files or? A media server?
@madcaesar @otl It’s a small server running OpenBSD, configured to operate as a router and/or firewall.
Linux and the *BSDs can operate as very good routers and firewalls, usually being much more configurable and enabling you to do more complex than off-the-shelf consumer-level hardware routers. Using them on a small form factor computer with a cheap switch in front of them can give you a better performing and nicer to use alternative.
An operating system
Throw some hard drives on it and baby, you got a
stewhome media server goin!How?
I’ve been thinking about setting up one of these cheap boxes as a NAS but I cannot ever find one with 4 Sata ports. Is there a solution for this?
I could use external USB Hard drives but that just feels so janky…Can’t speak to cheap boxes, so usb might be the way, but I use a Zimaboard. Two built in SATA ports, and a pci-e daughter card gives me two more ports. Full disclosure, i don’t do anything more than 1080p, bad eyesight…
I’d love to use a Zimaboard too but they’re not available were I live.
I could import one but the currency conversion + import taxes make it very not worth it.
Got a simmilar one, and once a time i get an IO error.
Im sacred to leave my country and find out my router is dead@otl What CPU does it have?
This one has an old Intel N2830:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003378019857.html
With this particular model you can get a newer N100 chip
Any cheap 2x 2.5gb n100 ones yet?
There are a few 5x 2.5g N100 for $120-130 USD range on AliExpress. I grabbed one a while back for my own network.
https://cybergeekpc.com/products/cybergeek-mini-pc-nano-j1
Only on port so you can’t use it as a router unfortunately
What bios tweak do you apply? That’s the one thing I still need to do.
These things are awesome!
Restore power status after AC loss
Basically auto power on after restore power.
Meaning if you get unplugged (or power outage) turn back on like any other networking gear.
Why
Why what?
Because blinking lights give me goo goo ga ga
I’m glad to see that we’re not all addicts here
@otl@hachyderm.io @selfhosted@lemmy.world what machine is that?
This one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003378019857.html
Halfway through writing a follow-up blog post detailing set up, internals, etc. Should be available soon if you’re interested :)
@otl@hachyderm.io @selfhosted@lemmy.world absolutely, thank you
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters AP WiFi Access Point DNS Domain Name Service/System NAS Network-Attached Storage SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption TLS Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL
5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.
[Thread #543 for this sub, first seen 25th Feb 2024, 15:45] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Good bot 🤖
Do any of those cheap Chinese computers ever get any firmware or bios updates?
I’d be surprised if it wasn’t just based off the UEFI sdk examples containing 30+ CVEs over the last couple of years. If anything, it won’t get patched for logofail and all the others UEFI exploits we’ll definitely see in the coming years.
No and they don’t provide the source either. Makes you wonder what’s running in there.
While i agree, no one provides full source blobs for firmware and bios that i am aware of. Please correct me if I am wrong, however.
Open source bios yes, but you still have close source firmware blobs for amd/intel used on those systems. The only way to do this is to make 100% of the hardware.
Also please note, I am using coreboot already on my pcengines router.
Few computers use CoreBoot, and CoreBoot still uses proprietary blobs typically. Normally only libreboot has zero blobs, and they are very rare indeed.
I was wondering… that tp-link probably negates anything remotely resembling security on its own. But yeah, you can update some of these noname boxes easily, others, not so much.
I have dealt with (in a professional capacity) Chinese manufacturers that are under the impression they do not have to provide a working build tree for the kernel, let alone firmware, so its a gamble if you’re not talking to a major Chinese name brand. Mind you, I was ordering hundreds of those boxes, so there was some leverage.
That TP-link is a dumb switch. Unless you’re telling me that someone is going to find an opening in the firmware and hack their way into the ARP table or something (in which case the threat model here just became state actors and I don’t think the OP is safe with this equipment), I don’t think it affects much, if anything.
Now, if I’m mistaken and that is actually a managed switch; god help them with network security.
It is a managed switch. What’s wrong with TP-Link managed switches?
I have a basic Netgear managed switch for VLANs.
The problem is that their Web interface and firmware in general are not updated (at all). I think it’s even possible for script kiddies to hack into such managed switches, which forms the reasoning behind my comment.
Does your switch produce its Web interface over TLS?
Doesn’t look like it but if I set up VLANs unless an user is on the correct VLAN they can’t access the web interface. And the only way for them to get access is to get physical access and plug a device into the correct port.
VLAN hopping can be done on outdated firmware if one is somewhat determined, AFAIK
From the switch? I thought the routing was done at the router level?
They do make managed switches, but just to be completely clear, my comment was mostly hyperbole. I just found the general combination of security - mindedness and cheap Chinese hardware curious / amusing.
I did realise that, and apologies for my tone earlier.
With that said, this seems to be a slight bias - unless the PCB has some nefarious spy-chip built inside, hardware is hardware, regardless of where it comes from.
I just found the general combination of security - mindedness and cheap Chinese hardware curious / amusing.
I think it can make sense, since there are so often vulnerabilities in consumer router firmware, and because those devices are so common the vulnerabilities are profitable to exploit. Running a BSD-based router on a cheap Chinese PC is likely to be better security for the router’s OS and software itself, even if you don’t know for sure about the firmware on the board (which you don’t with consumer routers either, really). Overall you could still have reduced your attack surface compared to a popular consumer router.
None that I know of :(
But @benjja tells me that on some of these you can install coreboot: https://ohnepunktundkomma.org/@benjja/111991771619601081Something I’m keen to look into.
Protectli ported coreboot for their hardware, and with a little research you can find this hardware on aliexpress, of course under a different name.
Does any board ever get firmware updates? I don’t understand your logic.
I recognise that internet router on the right. That looks like the “smart router” Telstra gives their customers - we have one we used to use back when we had Telstra cable. It’s currently playing the duty of an Ethernet switch for dad’s office.
Good eyes! Yes this is one we got from Telstra on a VDSL NBN connection. Now it’s just a modem in bridge mode with Aussie Broadband
Smg2?
How would one go building a router? I was planning on getting wired networks for a NAS build but most providers seem to ship their own router which probably is a nightmare for privacy, can I just pay for internet and use whatever router I want?
OpnSense would be the easiest way if you wanted to go. It’s still not easy, but the articles online should help you out.
First you’d need a machine. I’ve got an m920q I bought off eBay for $135 after shipping.
The computer will likely only have one Ethernet port. And it’s likely the port is Realtek which isn’t supported well.
So, you’ll need to get yourself a NIC (a fancy term for a network card). There are good forum posts and articles online about the best NICs to buy for your needs. Intel is a must. However, you can find many of their NICs online labeled as another brand - usually HP, Lenovo, or Dell. Again, the forum posts will tell you what to look for.
If you bought the same computer I mentioned above, you’ll also need a riser and a bezel. Amazon and eBay will have a good selection.
Now assemble it. Flash the computer with OpnSense. Don’t plug it in as your router yet. Follow along with some basic setup guides online to figure out how you want it configured.
Once you’re happy, plug it in as your router and test that it works. If not, you’ll need to put your old router back in place until you can figure out what you need to change.
So these noname boxes are good for making a hardware firewall/network?
I use one with 6 LAN ports and a fanless 10th gen i5 running OPNsense, and it has worked well for years. It runs many services including Unbound DNS and Suricata with capacity to spare. It’s much better than any consumer router, though I run WiFi separately with an Asus AI Mesh set to AP mode.
The only concerns are that you don’t get BIOS updates, and you don’t know for sure that there’s nothing nasty in the firmware. But then you don’t really know that on consumer routers either.
Sure as long as security isn’t a concern
Ok, cool - do we have astroturfing on lemmy now?
pfSense has a very good record, but OpenBSD’s record and code quality are literally unparalleled.
Conversely, I spend a fair bit of time working on devices made by SonicWall, Fortinet, etc. and it’s all fucking garbage.
Are you concerned about it being designed in China in addition to the conventional and thoroughly ubiquitous “manufactured in China”? Please explain your concerns in detail.
As @floofloof@lemmy.ca stated:
The only concerns are that you don’t get BIOS updates, and you don’t know for sure that there’s nothing nasty in the firmware.
I’ve been running one for the past 6+ months with no issues.
Mine died after 2 years after a power cut.
I havent tried to debug it yet. At the time, it would power on but a monitor didnt see anything from the video port, and it didnt seem to actually boot.
I presume it is toast.If you dont need compact, a rebfurbed SFF with a 4 port network card is gonna be cheaper
Yeah, as long as it it’s one with 2+ network ports. I use a little 4 port with pfsense loaded on it for my home network.
6 VLANs, 2 ISPs on load Balancing and FailOver, 6 switches, 7 APs.The sky’s the limit
@jjlinux Hahaha no way that’s awesome
I’m bent on getting as many people as I know to self-host everything possible and to guard their home networks. The garbage out there today is too much.
> The garbage out there today is too much.
For sure. I’m hoping that with much cheaper and more reliable hardware
that we have now, it makes it easier for indivduals and small groups
to run services that could only be run by big dysfunctional companies.
Fingers crossed!
@jjlinux @selfhostedIt’s not much, but I got a friend from church (die-hard Apple user) to love away from all that crap. He now owns a Pixel 6 Pro running Graphene and is running PopOS on an Intel Mac. Sold his IPhone too.
He says that I am the only person he knows that preaches 2 Gospels 🤣🤣
