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November 14, 2025 by Debashis Das - 21 Comments

Turris Omnia NG Wi-Fi 7 router features dual 10GbE SFP+, mini PCIe slot for 4G LTE/5G, runs OpenWrt-based Turris OS

The Turris Omnia NG is a high-performance Wi-Fi 7 router with a mini PCIe slot for 4G/5G modems, two 10GbE SFP+ cages, a 240×240 px color display, and a D-Pad button, running OpenWrt-based Turris OS, and designed for advanced home users, small businesses, and lab environments. Built around a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm IPQ9574 quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A73 CPU, the Omnia NG supports Wi-Fi 7/6 tri-band connectivity. Additionally, it features four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, NVMe storage support, and includes a 90 W power supply for attached peripherals. Other hardware highlights include rack-mount supports, a metal chassis, and antenna arrays for 4×4 MIMO operation. It comes 10 years after the original Turris Omnia open-source router was launched on Indiegogo. Turris Omnia NG Router specifications: CPU – Qualcomm IPQ9574 quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 processor @ 2.2GHz processor Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage 8 GB eMMC storage M.2 socket for […]

July 29, 2025July 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AAEON FWS-2291/FWS-2292 – Intel N97 & N150 desktop network devices with six 2.5GbE and GbE ports

AAEON FWS-2291 and FWS-2292 are Intel N97/N150 desktop network devices with six Ethernet ports, either in 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports + 2 SFP cages or 6x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports configuration, which are designed for SD-WAN, uCPE, and UTM (Unified Threat Management) applications. The network and firewall appliances are said to support up to 16GB DDR5 memory with the default processors, come with 32GB eMMC flash for the OS (build option up to 128GB), offer a 2.5-inch SATA bay and an M.2 Key-M socket for additional storage, M.2 Key-E and Key-B sockets for WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE, and/or 5G cellular connectivity, and two USB 3.2 ports. They also support power redundancy thanks to two 12V DC lockable input connectors. FWS-2291/FWS2292 specifications: SoC FWS-2291 (default) – Intel Processor N97 quad-core Alder Lake-N CPU up to 3.6 GHz with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 12W FWS-2292 (default) – Intel Processor N150 […]

May 22, 2025May 21, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Protectli Vault Pro VP2430 – An Intel N150 fanless network appliance with four 2.5GbE ports, four video outputs

Vault Pro VP2430 A compact, fanless network appliance

The Protectli Vault Pro VP2430 is a compact, Intel Processor N150-based fanless network appliance designed for firewall, router, and virtualization applications in home labs, small businesses, and edge deployments. The system supports up to 64GB DDR5-4800 memory via a single SO-DIMM slot and features various storage options, including a 32GB onboard eMMC flash, an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slot, and a SATA 3.0 interface for 2.5″ SSDs. It comes with four 2.5GbE Intel I226-V Ethernet ports and includes video outputs via HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, and two USB-C with DisplayPort functionality. It also features M.2 slots for WiFi and 4G/5G modem, to work with the module, there is also a Nano SIM slot. Additionally, it has multiple internal headers, including GPIO, COM, SATA, and eSPI for expansion. On top of that, the system supports both AMI and coreboot BIOS options, and TPM 2.0 for security, making it ideal for secure […]

February 24, 2025February 24, 2025 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

GL.iNet Spitz Plus GL-X2000 – An affordable WiFi 6 cellular router with GbE, dual SIM, and load balancing capabilities

Spitz Plus (GL X2000) Wi Fi 6 4G LTE CAT 12 Router

GL.iNet Spitz Plus GL-X2000 is a Wi-Fi 6 cellular router with GbE networking, two nano SIM slots, interchangeable high-gain antennas, and more. It is built around a Qualcomm IPQ5018 dual-core 1 GHz SoC and supports AX3000 Wi-Fi speeds with data rates of up to 574 Mbps on 2.4GHz and 2402 Mbps on 5GHz. Other features include support for multi-WAN connectivity, failover, and load balancing for stable connections, it also comes with preinstalled VPN support for over 30 providers. It also has remote management features that allow users to monitor data usage, update firmware, and troubleshoot through a centralized interface. The device is available in different LTE variants for North American and international markets, supporting region-specific bands. These features make this router useful for applications such as remote work, mobile offices, industrial IoT, and backup connectivity in areas with unreliable broadband. GL-X2000 (Spitz Plus) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ5018 dual-core Cortex-A53 […]

December 17, 2024December 18, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

iKOOLCORE R2 Max review – Part 2: 10GbE on an Intel N100 mini PC with OpenWrt (QWRT), Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 24.04 and pfSense 2.7.2

iKOOLCORE R2 Max Review Proxmox VE Ubuntu 22.04

I’ve already checked out iKOOLCORE R2 Max hardware in the first part of the review with an unboxing and a teardown of the Intel N100 system with two 10GbE ports and two 2.5GbE ports. I’ve now had more time to test it with an OpenWrt fork, Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 24.04, and pfSense, so I’ll report my experience in the second and final part of the review. As a reminder, since I didn’t have any 10GbE gear so far, iKOOLCORE sent me two R2 Max devices, a fanless model and an actively-cooled model. I was told the fanless one was based on Intel N100 SoC, and the actively-cooled one was powered by an Intel Core i3-N305 CPU, but I ended up with two Intel N100 devices. The fanless model will be an OpenWrt 23.05 (QWRT) server, and the actively cooled variant be the device under test/client with Proxmox VE 8.3 server […]

November 24, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Mitigating a DoS attack with GoAccess and Cloudflare

In this off-topic post, I’m going to discuss some behind-the-scenes “fun” that may happen when managing the web server used to host the CNX Software website. From time to time, the server becomes unreachable, but I can still access its console, and notice a very high CPU load (over 100) on a VPS with four cores, while the CPU load is typically 0.5 to 2 under normal circumstances. That’s usually due to a DoS (denial of service), DDoS (distributed denial of service), or some bug I can’t identify. An easy way to solve this issue is to log in to Cloudflare and set the “Under Attack Mode” to on. It will show all visitors a JavaScript challenge the first time they visit the website, and the CPU usage typically drops back to normal level within a minute or so. That means I can access my website and so do regular […]

October 18, 2024July 29, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

AAEON FWS-2290 Intel N97 network appliance targets UTM and VPN applications

AAEON has recently released the FWS-2290, an Intel N97 network appliance. This is not quite the first network appliance launched by the Taiwanese company. Back in 2018, they launched the AAEON FWS-2360 designed for wireless gateway, SD-WAN, IPS, WAN Optimization, NFV, and vCPE applications. In 2020, they followed up with the FWS-2275 rugged network appliance for Secure industrial IoT networks, and then, in 2021, they introduced the FWS-2280 Elkhart Lake network appliance designed for UTM (Unified Threat Management), firewall, SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network), VPN, and other applications. Compared to all the previous network appliances the new FWS-2290 features a newer generation and more powerful Intel Alder Lake-N processor, faster DDR5 memory, 2.5GbE Ethernet compared to GbE Ethernet on the previous models, an M.2 slot for storage, and to top it all off the device is now more compact than the previous ones. AAEON FWS-2290 network appliance specification SoC Intel […]

October 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

iKOOLCORE R2 Max Alder Lake-N mini PC/server features two 10GbE and two 2.5GbE ports

The iKOOLCORE R2 Max is an Alder Lake-N-powered firewall/gateway/server/mini PC that is offered with either an Intel Processor N100 or Core i3-N305 CPU, and equipped with two 10GbE ports and two 2.5GbE ports. It builds upon the iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC and router which we reviewed with Promox VE, Ubuntu 22.04, and pfSense and features four 2.5GbE ports in a smaller form factor. The new R2 Max model uses the N100/Core i3-N305 CPU instead of the N95/Core i3-N300, supports up to 48GB SO-DIMM memory, features a wider yet thinner design, and provides support for both 10GbE and 2.5GbE networking. iKOOCORE R2 Max specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC Intel Processor N100 quad-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 15W System Memory – 8GB, […]