Thinking of building my own router...
entropy
Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
My current router (DI-604) isn't always up to the load it gets, and cooling it, with a Tornado no less 
, doesn't have any effect. So, I was thinking of using an old K6-2 and Smoothwall to build my own router. But, the problem is that the machine is so old, it only has one pci slot, presumably for a "high tech" graphics card. The rest are ... big ... and black ... slots. I have no idea what they are. There's one pci and 3 black ones. So, would it make sense to figure out what those are and just buy old nic cards and a regular one, or just buy a new mobo? Prolly can find a mobo like that, but slightly newer, for dirt cheap.
, doesn't have any effect. So, I was thinking of using an old K6-2 and Smoothwall to build my own router. But, the problem is that the machine is so old, it only has one pci slot, presumably for a "high tech" graphics card. The rest are ... big ... and black ... slots. I have no idea what they are. There's one pci and 3 black ones. So, would it make sense to figure out what those are and just buy old nic cards and a regular one, or just buy a new mobo? Prolly can find a mobo like that, but slightly newer, for dirt cheap. 0
Comments
Is the case you want to use AT or ATX? I have a bunch of boards laying around which might help you out. One could be yours postage-paid for a small donation to our F@H team.
(sorry it's so big ... photoshop is being a wench and won't let me use it
It's a k6-2 233mhz with ... 32 megs of ram i think? not quite sure, but it definitely isn't much.
//EDIT:
I guess I should warn you it's a Compcrap ... so I'm not sure if the power supply is picky, like Dell's are.
//Double edit:
Hey prof, out of curiosity, any idea what that stick of ... stuff is below the ram??
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(Guessing) Maybe more ram for the on-board video?
I shouldn't tell you this, but I threw away several AT cases which would be a good match for the MB I was talking about when I moved a few weeks ago. (I still can't figure out why I didn't toss the boards along with them.)
As a consolation, finding an old AT case isn't too tough. Just drive around on trash day in your neighborhood and you've got a decent chance of finding a free one sitting at the curb.
//EDIT:
well, just to satisfy my own curiosity I did some looking on the mobo. A spare part place (which didn't have it in stock, gotta call) had this advertised so maybe that extra thing is vram ... whatever that is...
also found this at another site So it could just be that 16mb non-removable memory
Smoothwall isn't an application, it's a full fledged Linux distro (in other words, it's an operating system designed to be a router). Installing it and setting it up is a snap, and maintaining it couldn't be any easier thanks to the web-based GUI accessible within your local LAN.
I think you have inspired me to (finally) write that Smoothwall guide I have been talking about (and Brian’s been nagging me about) for so long. Being as school's out, I now have more time on my hands than I know what to do with.
I'll go crazy on it tomorrow. Screenshots, step by step guide, the works!
EDIT: That brown slot with what appears to be a DIMM in it couldn't be an AGP terminator, as it's no where near a slot on the back of the case. Besides, if the board was made in the AGP era, it wouldn't have so many ISA slots, and one PCI. My guess is it's video memory.
I also may have an old ISA NIC kicking around. If I do I'll let you know. For a Smoothwall you'll need at least two NICs (unless your cable/DSL/telephony modem can use USB), and around 1-1.5 GBs of HDD space.
I'll go into much, much more detail tomorrow.
EDIT: You could use one PCI NIC, and one ISA. If I can find my old ISA one, you could use that and a new PCI card.
//EDIT: (I seem to be doing a lot of editing tonight...)
Maybe it's time to edjamuhcate me on routers...
The main reason the 604 can't keep up is apparently because it can't handle the amount of connections Overnet puts on it (and occasionally WinMX, and sometimes just browsing). So. If I smoothwalled that k6-2 and ran the router to it via the WAN, would the router technically still be keeping track of the connections or would it leave that up to the compaq? If so then this just might work...
It's AT form factor. Many of the connections on the backplane were connected via ribbon cable to the peripheral or motherboard.
Doesn't look like any AT form factor case I've ever used.
In fact it's not AT form factor at all. If it was, it would have an AT keyboard connector spot on the back of the case.
EDIT again: Also, AT style mobo's didn’t have built in connectors for the serial/Parallel ports. It either had header pins (which connected to ports on the back of the case VIA a ribbon cable) or a separate controller card. Furthermore, AT spec mobos didn’t have built in IDE controllers.
It'd try to I'd imagine.
You could try connecting everything (including the SW box) to the LAN ports (keeping the WAN port unused) and see what that does.
As long as the d-link router is set to a different IP than the Smoothwall box, I don’t think it would/could do anything to effect the rest of the network.
The modem will not connect to the switch, but the Smoothwall box (check my diagram above). If you connected the modem into a plain switch, it wouldn't work then either. The only things which should connect to the LAN ports are the computers, and the output of the Smoothwall's "green" port.
As for the USB thing, I wouldn't worry about it as the modem should work with whatever USB version it's connected to.
~dodo
Anyway the point is that you've got your switch already. I used the same router (till switching to ICS) and I think I tried this before. Certainly will help test if you need anything. In theory this idea passes with flying colors. Only drop the money for a switch when you're sure you need it.
The old P1's used to have plugin upgradeable cache.
That is external cache! It was all the rage to have that external cache during the ~166mhz era! Jeez!
Dodo called it