Follow-up: OpenBSD routers on AliExpress mini PCs
I got lots of replies to the last post showing the little OpenBSD internet gateway setup (super interesting; thanks!). Here’s more info and pictures:
https://www.srcbeat.com/2024/02/aliexpress-openbsd-router/
Something I’ve been meaning to share for years now.
Been thinking about buying a similar setup, and you just pushed me into buying a “Chinabox”
Let’s see how this goes, if It explodes you owe me a beer, and a pair of hands, and another chinabox (I’m not a quitter)
What would be the difference of running this as opposed to pf/opnsense? I know they use FreeBSD but I am not that versed in BSD based networking
pf/opnsense essentially provide web interfaces to the underlying
FreeBSD OS tooling. In this case I’m running plain OpenBSD. That means
configuring the system is mainly done by reading and writing text
files and doing stuff at the command line. There’s a whole bunch of
reasons why some people prefer one way or the other or even mix things
up a bit. My recommendation is, if you’re interested, have a go
administering a system without a web interface and see how you feel!
@Edgarallenpwn @selfhostedI personally would stick to *sense. I personally used OPNSense there’s a huge community backing, well documented, and actively maintained. I like to use the CLI, but using the Web GUI was a breeze and I mainly wanted to set it and forget it.
Same, hopped from PF to opn last year and really haven’t had to do too much besides updates. For somethings E
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters AP WiFi Access Point NAS Network-Attached Storage Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand
[Thread #572 for this sub, first seen 4th Mar 2024, 20:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
“EVALUATION COPY BIOS” was the best bit
Really cool! I never touched *BSD, I have a mini PC/NAS home that ended with a minimal Arch install. This is something I can do at some point.
And what about Wireless networks?
Normally you use a separate AP to do that. BSDs don’t normally have good support for WiFi cards. Consumer WiFi cards aren’t really meant for use as APs anyway.
This is really cool. I’ve been interested in running something like this. Does it make sense to have this as a dedicated firewall in front of my Unifi lan?
deleted by creator
What I meant was, I have a Unifi router and was thinking of putting a dedicated firewall in front of it. Does that make any sense or would the firewall on the unify be just as capable? Before the Dream Machine that is my current router I was running an opnsense router with my Unifi switches behind it so I’m not super unfamiliar with it I guess.
deleted by creator
