Seeking hardware recommendations

J

jem

Hello.

I'm after hardware suggestions for some small FreeBSD hosts that I can deploy on my family member's home networks to serve as a secure point for me to remotely connect to when they ask for technical help with computer or home network problems.

Rather than set up port forwarding through their internet routers directly to their Windows machines for remote desktop or VNC for example, I think it would be much more secure to set up one port forward to the SSH port of an internal FreeBSD host, then I can use ssh tunnels for anything else.

These hosts would need to meet the following criteria:

  • Be small and unobtrusive
  • Run silently, with no moving parts if possible
  • Have low power requirements as they'll be running 24/7
  • Not be hideously expensive

I'm looking for something that's even smaller than a mini-itx system. I'm already aware of PC Engines ALIX and Soekris' offerings. I'm just wondering what other products along similar lines might be available.

Thank you for any suggestions.
 
I'm quite fond of the Zotac mini-PCs. Especially the smaller models, they aren't too expensive. If you add an SSD instead of a harddrive they'll make nice little boxes.
 
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There's a FreeBSD port to run on a $50 WAP with a MIPS processor, wireless, and gigabit Ethernet. Probably needs an NFS server for storage. A lot of the embedded stuff is not meant for general use, though.

Old netbooks are cheap. They are low power and have a keyboard and display which can be handy. Would not even have to be left on, the users could turn it on when necessary. Or maybe you could get the router to send a WOL packet when needed.
 
For SSH tunnels one my use a cheap Asus 500 GP or any DDWRT/OpenWRT compatible router. Even a mediaplayer running Linux would do the task. (Less than 20W ).
Next level would be a Netbook or old Laptop (30-40W).
For FreeBSD usage is hard to find something better than HP N40L (min 4Gb ECC RAM), 2.5 in drives @42W (more expensive though).
 
cbunn said:
It might be overkill, but have you heard of Intel's NUC mini boxes? They start at $300 for something on the order of a Mac Mini in size, powered by a Core i3. Only one ethernet port, should that matter.
Click to expand...

I remember reading about these some months back, but had forgotten about them until you reminded me. I ordered one of the DC3217IYE models (2x HDMI, gig ethernet) and it arrived today.

It's a very nice, well-made little unit. I won't be using this one for the purpose I stated in my original post as it's quite a capable little box and would be wasted on that. This one will be a Windows 7 media machine plugged into my HDTV.

When the cheaper Celeron version becomes available in the coming months, I'll consider some of those for my original purpose.

I did boot this one with my FreeBSD memstick though. The dmesg is here.
 
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