Suggest me a good SBC to share OpenVPN/wg as a Wi-Fi hotspot

quakerdoomer

quakerdoomer

Hello all,
I need an SBC [Single Board (ed?) Computer] which would
- Run FreeBSD (any x86 / x64 anything)
- Have both Wi-Fi (preferably 2) cards/chips and an Ethernet port
- At least 2 USB ports (in case I need to add more ethernet cards via USB)
- Comes with a storage card (if possible) for the OS.

My objective is simple: Connect to Wi-Fi, run an OpenVPN/Wireguard client then share that connection to Wi-Fi card 2 / Ethernet port as a hotspot. all using a low-power consuming SBC (lesser than a laptop). Thanks. Any suggestions?
 
In all honesty, just grab something that's based on Mediatek Filogic and run OpenWRT.
Your best bet regarding x86 (I suppose) is the Odroid H4 platform but you still need to figure out wifi somehow.
 
Most SBC's use ARM architecture, and you would want 64 bit of those. FreeBSD has download images for ARM64 (AARCH64).

Raspberry Pi 4 has wifi, an ethernet port, 4 usb ports and Bluetooth. 2 of those USB ports are USB version 3. Lots of manufacturer products have similar specifications.

Some SBC's allow a hat to be added for more functionality.
 
diizzy said:
In all honesty, just grab something that's based on Mediatek Filogic and run OpenWRT.
Your best bet regarding x86 (I suppose) is the Odroid H4 platform but you still need to figure out wifi somehow.
Click to expand...
Thanks H4 looks great. Also thank you for the Filogic tip.
 
I dunno about ALIX (WG needs some CPU) but an old PCEngines APU2/3/4 might fit the bill.
Two slots for Wifi and one for msata. Really low power.
 
What about Jetway or NUC? Don't you have something laying about? You really don't need much.
It does help to have some of the newer on-CPU crypto for your low power box.

E3930 is a good low power choice with newer features.
SuperMicro board with single Wifi slot.
www.ebay.com

✅Supermicro A2SAN-L Motherboard Intel Atom E3930 Embedded 3.5" SBC FULL WARRANTY | eBay

Cloud Project is located in the Silicon Valley of California, USA. Form Factor. 1 VGA port, 1 LVDS port, 1 HDMI port. Wide temperature suppot from -30°C to 75°C. Single Socket FCBGA1296 supported, CPU TDP support 6.5W.
www.ebay.com

www.wiredzone.com

Supermicro SYS-E102-9AP-L 3.5" SBC IoT Compact Barebone Embedded Intel Atom E3930 Processor

Embedded/IoT System with Intel Atom E3930 Processor, 1.30GHz 2-Core/2 Thread. Up to 8GB Unbuffered Non-ECC SO-DIMM DDR3L 1866MHz in 1x SO-DIMM socket, 1 M.2 B-Key 2280, 1 Full Mini-PCIe. Dual GbE LAN with Intel i210IT, 1 Display Port, 1 HDMI port - Fanless Design (MBD-A2SAN-L + CSE-E102 Chassis)
www.wiredzone.com www.wiredzone.com
 
I always wonder what the train of thought is when someone is asking about security related issues and people recommend ancient hardware with known vulns.
Wireguard doesn't benefit from AES-NI because it doesn't make use of AES encryption, in most applications an ARM SoC is more than enough in terms of processing power.
 
Thank you everyone for sharing. I checked out PCEngines' ALIX / APU System Boards and their hardware is priced much higher than average SBCs. Same goes for Supermicro . I might need to buy more than one so wouldn't got for these, just yet.

I just checked and even if I assemble a new system, it will still cost around approximately 200 USD as of date.
ItemPrice (approximate)Comments

AMD 3200G Ryzen 3 Motherboard61 euros-
ASUS Prime A520M-K CPU63 euros-
8gbx2 DDR4 RAM40 eurosVarious brands available
ATX Power Supply 500W20 eurosVarious brands available
 
Do note that the 3200G performs quite bad these days and that the Intel N97 isn't much far behind and draws much less.
 
Another suggestion: pick up one of the low cost intel N100 mini pcs from aliexpress. They are cheap and you get full x86 PC compatibility with wifi and RJ45 ethernet NIC. You typically get 3-5 usb ports. Typical power consumption is about 6-10W. The GMKtec G3 in particular comes with an intel NIC and wifi card, most of the others have realtek nics, intel is superior. It's a small box about 4" square. You can get one with 8GB ram and 256 GB SSD for about $90. It comes with a proper case and PSU. One caveat - I haven't personally run freebsd on that particular box, but I would be surprised if there were problems. There are video reviews on youtube if you search for that type. I like the G3 because it has an intel NIC.

IMHO the N100 mini-pc's easily outclass any ARM sbc/r-pi I can think of in terms of compatibility, performance and value for money, especially for 1-off jobs. The N100 SoC with 4 E-cores is a very nice chip. I currently run a 16GB ram N100 box as my main desktop machine, it's been completely stable over the last 6 months. Shenzhen have got their act together on these little boxes.

Reading your reqs list... they generally only have one wifi card though. Worth a look anyway. Another option to check is a firebat AM02 which has one wifi card and two realtek ethernet NIC's brought out to 2 RJ45 connectors.
 
blackbird9 said:
Another suggestion: pick up one of the low cost intel N100 mini pcs from aliexpress. They are cheap and you get full x86 PC compatibility with wifi and RJ45 ethernet NIC. You typically get 3-5 usb ports. Typical power consumption is about 6-10W. The GMKtec G3 in particular comes with an intel NIC and wifi card, most of the others have realtek nics, intel is superior. It's a small box about 4" square. You can get one with 8GB ram and 256 GB SSD for about $90. It comes with a proper case and PSU. One caveat - I haven't personally run freebsd on that particular box, but I would be surprised if there were problems. There are video reviews on youtube if you search for that type. I like the G3 because it has an intel NIC.

IMHO the N100 mini-pc's easily outclass any ARM sbc/r-pi I can think of in terms of compatibility, performance and value for money, especially for 1-off jobs. The N100 SoC with 4 E-cores is a very nice chip. I currently run a 16GB ram N100 box as my main desktop machine, it's been completely stable over the last 6 months. Shenzhen have got their act together on these little boxes.

Reading your reqs list... they generally only have one wifi card though. Worth a look anyway. Another option to check is a firebat AM02 which has one wifi card and two realtek ethernet NIC's brought out to 2 RJ45 connectors.
Click to expand...
Thank you for providing such broad options. I am looking into this. The second Wi-Fi card won't be an issue since I have a USB de-multiplexer / multiplier that lets me attach 3 devices at a time. I am already using a USB WiFi device. Firebat looks great. Thanks again.
 
I researched the SBC field earlier this year, when I was planning to build a low-cost, low-power-consumption, small, silent, and cool (temperature-wise) FreeBSD network device for home and small-office use.
I finally abandoned the SBC path in favour of used Thin Clients. The HP T610 has proven to be a very good choice for multiple purposes. Its size is bigger than an SBC config, and it has an additinal external power brick. But still smaller than an SFF PC, small enough for my requirements. And I have a perfectly functional mini PC, up to 16GB RAM, native SATA boot, wired GbE on board and mini card WiFi. I also have USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports at my disposal to add more WiFi or GbE when needed. And I have DVI and DisplayPort to connect an LCD for diagnostics or installation, an adapter can convert these to VGA if needed. The device is very hackable. Yet a complete FreeBSD works on it out of the box. So no hacking needed to get things working.
A T610 with 2-4GB RAM and a small SATA DOM can be picked up from e-bay or another marketplace for much less than what an SBC setup would cost. And you have far less work getting it working.

David Parkinson has a superb webpage about many kinds of Thin Client devices.
https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t610/
You can also go with earlier HP Thin Client models using 32-bit FreeBSD x86. These devices are even cheaper than the T610, but you have no SATA and other conveniences. You need to boot from USB, CF, PATA DOM, still not difficult.
The T610 has a wide edition, allowing you to expand your system with a PCIe add-in card. I have seen people using a dual or quad GbE card, or multi-antenne WiFi for their appliance.

Re-purposing a Thin Client may be a good choice for your project too. Worth a shot. ;-)
Do your research on the ParkyTowers site to see what make and model suits your need.
 
ark.intel.com

Intel® Processor N100 (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) Product Specifications

Intel® Processor N100 (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.
ark.intel.com ark.intel.com

Check out the N100's TDP of 6W(!). People are typically measuring not much more than that at idle for those mini-pc's. The old objection that a PC will cost a lot more in power usage per year to run than an SBC has largely been eliminated with the N100. Perhaps a small ARM SoC is still lower, but the difference is becoming negligible. That's the magic of the 'E-cores'. It's a very good chip. It seems to be only shenzhen that are putting them in nuc clones though.
 
I think people here are deviating from my requirement and presuming it. I only need to
1 - Connect to a WiFi
2 - Connect to a VPN
2 - Share that said VPN connection as a hotspot using another WiFi card/chip

That's it. I do not wish to run Kodi or host a NAS. Thank you everyone for participating.
 
quakerdoomer said:
Hello all,
I need an SBC [Single Board (ed?) Computer] which would
- Run FreeBSD (any x86 / x64 anything)
- Have both Wi-Fi (preferably 2) cards/chips and an Ethernet port
- At least 2 USB ports (in case I need to add more ethernet cards via USB)
- Comes with a storage card (if possible) for the OS.

My objective is simple: Connect to Wi-Fi, run an OpenVPN/Wireguard client then share that connection to Wi-Fi card 2 / Ethernet port as a hotspot. all using a low-power consuming SBC (lesser than a laptop). Thanks. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You're not going to find many SBCs with two WiFi chipsets embedded. The best you could do is get an ARM SoC, and then attach two USB to WiFi adapters. It'll require a little more configuration on your end though. If you want cheap and low power, get an ARM SoC. The RockPro64 looks nice IMO.
 
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