[ale] homebrew routers, castoff hardware

Sat Sep 23 22:58:31 EDT 2017

I should have said why the 114W was an issue. I'm not a "prepper" but every
now and then we have an extended power outage (i.e. Irma) and I do like to
try to limit my watts and amps for a small off-grid, solar setup I have put
together. We lost power during Irma but we had internet, lights, laptops,
and tablets until the power came back on. Probably not a care or worry for
most... it's just a hobby for me. :)

/Raj

On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 6:13 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> I never mix investment payoff with geek appeal or security. If the budget
> is too tight to run the hardware, I need to be doing other things. AC,
> dryer, fridge = big power. My stack of gear in the basement is worth every
> W in my happiness (until something breaks then it's all just a pile of
> garbage to be replaced asap).
>
> I will be using that rack to provide crawlspace heating this winter:-).
> The floor in my den is usually quite cold.
>
> On September 23, 2017 3:04:47 PM EDT, Steve Litt <
> slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 00:31:54 -0700
>> Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>>
>>  On 2017-09-22 15:59, Joey Kelly wrote:
>>>
>>>>  On Friday 22 September 2017 12:53:34 DJ-Pfulio wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  The newer APU2 CPUs handle 750+Mbps on their GigE connections
>>>>>  thanks to Intel NICs.  These aren't the old Alix boards.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  I'm about to get a few of these for my lab. I'm working on a
>>>>  perpetual dev project and had wanted to use Soekris, but they just
>>>>  pulled out of the US. I started looking for a replacement and found
>>>>  these, the apparent Alix successor. These things are beefier and
>>>>  way cheaper, so it's a win.
>>>>
>>>>  On a side note, there's lots of little router-style boxes out of
>>>>  there, but most of them are from Red China. I shudder to think what
>>>>  lurks in the firmware.
>>>>
>>>>  --Joey
>>>>
>>>>
>>>  I've been looking at one of these though I haven't pulled the trigger
>>>  yet since they're not cheap.  Not necessarily direct from China
>>>  (though one office is in Taiwan).
>>>
>>>  https://www.logicsupply.com/ml400g-12/
>>>
>>
>> Not cheap is an understatement. At 15 cents/kw-hr, I spend about
>> $0.40/day running my guestimate 100 watt ancient box. So that's in the
>> neighborhood of $150/year. It would take me 4.4 years running the
>> recommended low power computer to break even. Would the $662 computer
>> last that long and still be relevant to start saving? It's a
>> reasonable question, although I have a feeling the answer would be
>> "yes".
>>
>> In this calculation I assumed the low power unit uses 0 watts, because
>> my round figure of 100w for my old commodity box is probably low too.
>>
>> For those of us living in warm climates, a factor in favor of the low
>> power machine is that my 100 watts creates heat which must be
>> removed via the rather inefficient method of air conditioning,
>> effectively raising the wattage I pay for due to this one computer.
>>
>> I'd feel much better about this investment if it were $300.00. An
>> investment that pays for itself in 2 years is a no brainer, as long as
>> there's a reasonable expectation the equipment will last longer than
>> that.
>>
>> Whether you buy one of these or not, it's essential to have a second
>> computer, probably an old commodity box, at the ready in case this one
>> screws up. You should also have an up to date copy of pfSense or ipCop
>> or OpenBSD or whatever you're using to firewall.
>>
>> I love the fact that, as configured, this computer has no wifi. I
>> really want my wifi separate from my firewall.
>>
>> SteveT
>>
>> Steve Litt
>> September 2017 featured book: Manager's Guide to Technical
>> Troubleshooting Brand new, second edition
>> http://www.troubleshooters.com/mgr
>> ------------------------------
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