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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.

@selfhosted #selfhosting #selfhosted #openbsd #runbsd

#OpenBSD #selfhosted #runbsd #selfhosting @Selfhosted
in reply to Oliver Lowe

Merovius
Merovius
• •
<kirk>Is that a lot?</kirk>
Both my laptop and my workstation are roughly 9 years old =D
in reply to Oliver Lowe

Da_Boom
Da_Boom
• •
I recognise that internet router on the right. That looks like the "smart router" Telstra gives their customers - we have one we used to use back when we had Telstra cable. It's currently playing the duty of an Ethernet switch for dad's office.
in reply to Da_Boom

Oliver Lowe
Oliver Lowe
• •

Good eyes! Yes this is one we got from Telstra on a VDSL NBN connection. Now it’s just a modem in bridge mode with Aussie Broadband

@selfhosted @Da_Boom

@Selfhosted @Da_Boom
in reply to Oliver Lowe

cmnybo
cmnybo
• •
Do any of those cheap Chinese computers ever get any firmware or bios updates?
in reply to cmnybo

Oliver Lowe
Oliver Lowe
• •

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.

@cmnybo @selfhosted

Benjamin Richter

2024-02-25 11:00:19


some of this boxes can run with #coreboot, so the #firmware is #opensource too.

@Benjamin Richter @Selfhosted @cmnybo
in reply to Oliver Lowe

Benjamin Richter
Benjamin Richter
• •
@cmnybo
Protectli ported coreboot for their hardware, and with a little research you can find this hardware on aliexpress, of course under a different name.
@cmnybo
in reply to Oliver Lowe

Alvaro
Alvaro
• •
what machine is that?
in reply to Alvaro

Oliver Lowe
Oliver Lowe
• •

This one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003378019857.html

Halfway through writing a follow-up blog post detailing set up, internals, etc. Should be available soon if you’re interested :)

@alvaro @selfhosted

@Alvaro @Selfhosted
in reply to Oliver Lowe

Sandwich
Sandwich
• •
Got a simmilar one, and once a time i get an IO error.
Im sacred to leave my country and find out my router is dead
in reply to Oliver Lowe

youmaynotknow
youmaynotknow
• •

Image/photo

Image/photo
6 VLANs, 2 ISPs on load Balancing and FailOver, 6 switches, 7 APs.

The sky's the limit

in reply to Oliver Lowe

youmaynotknow
youmaynotknow
• •
I'm bent on getting as many people as I know to self-host everything possible and to guard their home networks. The garbage out there today is too much.
in reply to youmaynotknow

Oliver Lowe
Oliver Lowe
• •

> The garbage out there today is too much.

For sure. I'm hoping that with much cheaper and more reliable hardware
that we have now, it makes it easier for indivduals and small groups
to run services that could only be run by big dysfunctional companies.
Fingers crossed!
@jjlinux @selfhosted

@Selfhosted @youmaynotknow
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