Firewalla Gold Intel-based Ubuntu Router Enables Multi-Gigabit Cyber Security (Crowdfunding)

Firewalla Gold vs Blue Red

We covered Firewalla based on NanoPi NEO board in mid-2018. The device is a tiny firewall, parental control, ad-blocker, and VPN appliance for end-users. Since then they’ve launched Firewalla Blue based on NanoPi NEO2 SBC with Gigabit Ethernet and a faster processor, and now the company has just introduced the even more powerful Intel-based Firewalla Gold. Firewalla Gold specifications: Processor – Unnamed intel 64-bit quad-core processor System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 32GB flash Connectivity 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports supporting over 3 Gbps in total, and up to 10 VPN connection at up to 120 Mbps aggregated bandwidth. WiFi 6 module (not sure optional or included) Misc – RTC Power Supply – DC barrel jack They may have designed a custom board this time, as I’m not sure which off-the-shelf SBC they may have used in their new product. The device runs Ubuntu Linux so the users will have […]

NanoPi R1S Dual Gigabit Ethernet Router Comes with 32-bit or 64-bit Arm Processor

NanoPi R1S Router

FriendlyELEC launched NanoPi R1 SBC & Gateway earlier this year with Allwinner H3 processor, two Ethernet ports, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The design makes use of both Ethernet on the processor, but that also means on Gigabit Ethernet port had to be combined with a Fast Ethernet processor. The company has now added a USB to Gigabit Ethernet bridge to their latest NanoPi R1S board meaning it’s now a dual Gigabit Ethernet SBC, but with the caveat that the port behind the USB bridge is limited to USB 2.0 speed (480 Mbps), and with overhead the USB Ethernet bandwidth is around 330 Mbps. There are two versions of the board, namely NanoPi R1S-H3 and R1S-H5 with respectively Allwinner H3 32-bit processor, and Allwinner H5 64-bit processor. Apart from the different processors, both boards share the same PCBA and specifications: SoC NanoPi R1S-H3 – Allwinner H3 quad-core Arm […]

Intel Denverton based Fanless Network Appliance Comes with 6x Ethernet Ports, 2x SFP Cages

PL-82000 Denverton Fanless Network Appliance

Intel Atom C3000 “Denverton” processors were introduced in 2016 for low power servers and network appliances with four to sixteen cores, and in the following years, many products based on the SoC were launched including GIGABYTE MA10-ST0 server motherboard, AAEON FWS-2360 desktop network appliance, and Supermicro A2SDi-2C-HLN4F Mini-ITX motherboard among others. New Denverton platforms did not get much coverage on CNX Software in the last couple of years, and an article on LinuxGizmos reminded me those still existed, as US-based WIN Enterprises recently launched LP-82000 fanless network appliance powered by Intel Denverton C3338, C3558, or C3758 processor and featuring six Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as two SFP cages. LP-82000 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Denverton C3338 dual-core processor @ 1.50 GHz / 2.20 GHz (Turbo); 4 MB cache; TDP: 8.5 W Intel Denverton C3558 quad-core processor @ 2.20 GHz; 8 MB cache; TDP: 16 W Intel Denverton […]

How I Adopted a Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway on my Existing Home Network

Ubiquity Security Gateway

Hey Karl here with a quick write up on how I adopted a Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway (USG) into my existing home network. I ran into a few issues so I wanted to share and hopefully help someone else. I have had 2 Unifi access points cover my home for several years now and I recently upgraded my internet to 100 Mbps. I was maxing out at about 95 Mbps with downloads on my existing 100 Mbps Linksys router and I knew I was leaving some bandwidth on the table. Spectrum is my internet provider and I have always got more than what I paid for. I placed an order on Amazon and 24 hours later it was delivered. I have a couple of things that made this challenging. First I run my network on a 10.0.0.1/24 subnet with devices that have static IP address and I host my own […]

Habanero Qualcomm IPQ4019/IPQ4029 SoM Brings 802.11ac Wave2 WiFi to Linux Gateways and Routers

IPQ4019 Development Kit

Last April, we first wrote about Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor with built-in 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi, as it was found in Qualcomm Mesh Networking DevKit with support for Amazon Alexa. A few months later, we discovered router boards powered by either IPQ4019 or IPQ4029 processor such as Dakota DR40X9 or MikroTik RB450Gx4. The latter does not come with WiFi at all and instead leverages the hardware IPSec encryption built-into the processor. Habanero System-on-Module Today, we’ve come across the first IPQ4019 / IPQ4029 system-on-module we’ve countered so far, courtesy of 8devices with their Habanero and Habanero-I 802.11ac Wave 2 modules based on the respective processors. Habanero(-I) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ4019/IPQ4029 quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 processor @ 717 MHz with NEON, FPU, hardware-based NAT engine, and crypto accelerator System Memory – 512 MB DDR3L RAM Storage – 32MB NOR flash; up to 1 GB NAND flash on baseboard Connectivity QCA8075C 5-port […]

Banana Pi BPI-R64 Linux Router Board Launched for $68

Banana Pi BPI-R64 Specifications

SinoVoIP introduced Banana Pi BPI-R64 router board in the summer of 2018. The Linux router board is powered by MediaTek MT7622 dual-core Cortex-A53 WiFi processor with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 built-in, and offers more connectivity options namely 802.11ac WiFi 5 via MT7615 chip, as well as  Gigabit Ethernet ports. 4G LTE is optional via a mini PCIe socket, and a SATA port is included for storage. At the time, I envisioned an official launch in Q1 2019, but I was off by a few quarters, as the company has only just launched Banana Pi BPI-R64 on Aliexpress for $68 plus shipping. The specifications of the Banana Pi BPI-R64 board have slightly changed since last year announcement, and we’ve got a few more details: SoC – MediaTek MT7622 dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.35GHz with dedicated network accelerator, 4×4 802.11n and Bluetooth 5 connectivity System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage […]

$99 MikroTik RB450Gx4 Router is based on Qualcomm IPQ4019 SoC

MikroTik RB450Gx4 Router board

A few days ago, we covered  Dakota DR40X9 Wave-2 AC router board powered by Qualcomm QCA4019/QCA4029 SoC, but we were informed about MikroTik RB450Gx4, an Ethernet router with five Gigabit Ethernet ports, a serial port, two power jacks, and a microSD card slot that is also based on the 4-core Qualcomm IPQ4019 SoC. Mikrotik has used this SoC as the heart of its RB450Gx4 Router Board. It has 5 Ethernet ports, one of them able to power the board by means of Power-On-Ethernet (PoE), and another port can be used as PoE output. In addition, it may be powered from 2 DC Jacks. Router price is 99$, making it a great choice for 5 ports, PoE enabled router with a great SoC which allows to use Mikrotik Router OS firmware or to install a Linux distribution, like OpenWrt. Additionally, it provides PCB temperature and voltage monitoring. MikroTik RB450Gx4 Router specifications: […]

Winston Privacy Filter Lets You Browse the Web Anonymously, Ad-free & Tracking-free (Crowdfunding)

Winston Privacy Filter

More and more people are worried about their privacy online, so products and solutions aiming to protect people against tracking, targeted ads, cookies, and various other threat have been popping up. Fingbox and Firewalla are such devices, but their hardware may be limited, and software solutions like PiHole are also an option, but  may not be suitable for everyone. Winston privacy filter is another plug-and-play solution, but based on an actual network processor, namely a Marvell ARMADA dual core Arm Cortex-A53 SoC, that should make sure your network performance is not impacted, and even provides a boost of performance for most visited websites due to the resources that are being blocked out. Winston “privacy filter” hardware specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA dual core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz with security and data acceleration engines System Memory – 1GB DDR4 @ 800 MHz Storage – TBD Networking – Dual Gigabit […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case