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Home VM

Meet My Home Firewall

Over time I’ve been asked to please post about the hardware I use at home. Depending on the season I may be running either pfSense or M0n0wall(currently). This set-up has been running for over a year without problems. The Hardware:

  • VIA C3
  • 512MB RAM(Kingston)
  • 2 10/100 NICs
  • 16MB SD Card / USB SD Reader
  • Serial Port(does not work with M0n0wall)
  • Same PSU that came with the case

As you can see I am using the case of a Dell Optiplex to house my firewall. The entire installation runs from a 16MB SD card connected to cheap USB reader. Where do you get a 16MB SD card you ask?, it came with my digital camera. It takes around 90 seconds to boot M0n0wall from this set-up. The onboard Serial port does not work when M0n0wall is installed, I don’t have the time to troubleshoot the reason why this only happens with M0n0wall(works with pfSense). BTW: The board is a Gigabyte that I bought off some guy in a van, seemed legitimate at the time. Not pictured is the noisy PSU and missing 40mm fan necessary to cool the VIA C3. Not what I would call quiet. The system is capable of handling a 12Mbps Internet connection with resources to spare. Nothing new or ground breaking. But I have been thinking about replacing the firewall with either an ALIX or a RouterStation Pro(quiet), which would be a good topic for another post. In the mean time, I am more than happy with my current set up. If you have any questions leave a comment below.

, — Apr 25, 2011