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.
Throw some hard drives on it and baby, you got a stew home 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…
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
What bios tweak do you apply? That’s the one thing I still need to do.
These things are awesome!
Any cheap 2x 2.5gb n100 ones yet?
https://cybergeekpc.com/products/cybergeek-mini-pc-nano-j1
Only on port so you can’t use it as a router unfortunately
Do any of those cheap Chinese computers ever get any firmware or bios updates?
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.
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.
It is a managed switch. What’s wrong with TP-Link managed switches?
I have a basic Netgear managed switch for VLANs.
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.
None that I know of :(
But @benjja tells me that on some of these you can install coreboot: https://ohnepunktundkomma.org/@benjja/111991771619601081
Something 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.
