[Wylug-help] ADSL & CCL

[Dave Fisher]

On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 12:39:11PM +0000, Jim Jackson wrote:
>
> On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Steve King wrote:
>
> > > 	An old 486 might make a good adsl interface / firewall / router /
> > > ... (if you can stand the noise of the fan)
> >
Stevek > > 486s do not need fans!  But, if you get an adsl router you shouldn't
Stevek > > need a 486 too (unless you are one of the security mad people).

Jim > Mmmm... tries to remember. My main machine till about 4 years ago was a
Jim > 486DX4/100 and I think it had to have a fan, not a heatsink. Not sure
Jim > about the maker of the chip. And of course there is the fan on the PSU.
Jim > Some of these old chips were pushing the envelope of design at the time,
Jim > and need hods of Watts to do the simplest mipage. My current AMDK6/333
Jim > state-of-the-art powered desktop (:-) uses obscene amounts of power for
Jim > what you get out of it. The replacement new fanless NG mini-itx mobo,
Jim > quiet disk, and fanless PSU is the next project - I've even got permission
Jim > from management :-)

Steve,

As you know, I'm not security mad, but I wouldn't trust my adsl router
as far as I could throw it.

Along with many other routers, mine has several known and unfixed
vulnerabilities in its firmware and its admin software can only be
accessed by super-secure protocols like telnet and ftp!

I have, therefore, inserted a fanless 533 MHz mini-itx mobo as a
gateway/firewall between the router and my internal network. Despite
this, you'll understand why I have no intention of publicising the
router brand or model name.  I can't afford a replacement router, and I
don't have another lifetime to waste on hand-rolling a pc-based PPPoE
connection to BT's bizzare ATM system.

Jim,

I've had the mini-itx running for a while now, and it is fine for most
things I need from a PC.  The on-board graphics card is not up really
heavy-duty work (but you could use the PCI slot to add a better graphics
card if you needed it), and the processor falls a bit short of the
requirements for serious DivX/MPEG video decoding.  Otherwise, it's
fine.

I've currently got the thing sat on my desk, with "SilentDrive" socks
around the hard drives stacked underneath it.  It's virtually silent, so
I'd imagine that it would be undetectable with a case on!

I suspect these fanless mini-itx boards could be the basis for a massive
wave of conversion from stupid office PCs to sensible Xterminals.  If
necessary, cheap hard drives could be added to allow a small set of
network hogs like Mozilla to be run locally, while most apps run on the
server.

Best wishes,

Dave