It’s so new… it hasn’t even been built yet! 🙂 Today I purchased a Soekris 4801 (with a vpn1411 add-on card) and an Amigo AWI-926W wireless card. I’m going to build a wireless router/firewall/vpn box. Stay tuned! I’m going to update this post with details about the whole process, from the ordering to the first boot and beyond!
Update! – Well it seems that soekris is all sold out of 4801’s for this week. Hopefully mine will get shipped soon, I’m anxious!
Update! – Finally got my soekris board yesterday! Everything seems to be in tact. The amigo wireless cards I ordered from iocombo.com are never going to come – I just saw that they cancelled my order and didn’t have the decency to tell me about it. Hopefully I don’t have to fight to get my refund. So far it looks like I made a few mistakes:
1. Didn’t do enough research. I did some, but had I done more I would have gotten the dual mini-pci board. I have a pci slot that I’m not sure is going to be very useful to me. I didn’t realize that “right angle” pci meant that it would be mounted so close to the case that a normal pci card wont fit. I knew I’d probably have to cut a hole in the back of the case for the antenna, but didn’t think about the right-angle pci slot and what that would entail. Obviously since the case is about 1″ deep a riser card is not exactly an option. I have my mini-pci slot filled with a vpn 1411, and that was about $70 so it’s not a good idea for me to just not use that. I’m considering buying a wireless bridge, which would unfortunately add another 90 or so dollars to the total cost of this project, but would also take some of the burden off of the soekris board.
2. I shouldn’t have trusted iocombo.com. I was putting too much faith in an unknown vendor. They appeared to be a trustworthy site, but they screwed me and now I have to do some work to get my money back.
The struggle continues……
Update! I tried a linksys WMP54G but of course I could only find a v4.1 which doens’t work. v4 only. Great. I am getting sick of supposedly supported wireless cards. I can’t find any of the cards listed on openbsd’s site. They must exist somewhere… people seem to use them. I just can’t find em. I thought I had a shot with the amigo card… but they were out of stock. I bet they arent even made any more. Oy!. It looks like it’s time to go with plan B – Get some kind of wireless bridge and use that. I might try one more wireless card but I am really just doubtful about this. I’m beginning to wonder what the hell I was thinking when I decided to get the 4801 with a pci slot and mini pci vpn chip. mini pci wireless cards look like they might be better supported. I just don’t get it! Grrrrrr
Update!!!!!! It’s working! I’m going to make a new post to tell all about it 🙂