My Smoothwall Box
Note: prior to December 2003, I was using a tiny Unisys CWD box for Smoothwall.
However, it was retired after suffing from increasingly frequent spontaneous reboots caused
by a failing PSU.
Information on my Unisys Smoothwall box is still available here.
Hardware
My Smoothwall box consists of the following hardware:
-
low profile Dell Optiplex GXi:
-P133 processor with passive heatsink
-2 x 32Mb RAM
-810Mb laptop HDD
-3COM 3C595 10/100 PCI NIC (green)
-3COM 3C905 10/100 onboard NIC (orange)
-3COM 3C509b 10 ISA NIC (red)
-
D-Link DSL-300G GenII
ADSL modem
The Optiplex GXi is a low profile desktop case, with two PCI and two ISA slots.
The additional slots allowed me to add another NIC for a DMZ, something I was
never able to do with the Unisys box, due to lack of expansion slots.
Hard Drive
The Optiplex had a standard size IDE HDD, but I chose to install
a laptop hard drive, to keep the noise and heat levels down
as much as possible.
front view
Installation of a laptop HDD requires the use of a laptop HDD adaptor,
which I purchased from Jaycar
(catalogue no PL0754).
It allows you to use a laptop HDD on a normal IDE cable.
laptop HDD adaptor
Smoothwall Configuration
I've configured the network configuration type to be
GREEN + ORANGE + RED,
as I use an ADSL modem with an ethernet connection for my Internet connection.
The Smoothwall installer found all three NICs with automatic probes, making
the installation process very easy for me.
ADSL Modem
My first ADSL modem was a DLink DSL-300+, followed by a
DLink DSL-300G Generation II ADSL modem.
After upgrading to an ADSL2/2+ account, I'm now using a Billion BiPAC 7402L,
running in bridge mode, with Smoothwall handling the PPPoE.
For more details on configuring these modems for use with Smoothwall,
refer to these pages:
Billion BiPAC 7402L ADSL Router
Monitoring Smoothwall
I use some keyboard LEDs to remotely monitor the status of
my Smoothwall box.
Using a modified keyboard
and a tiny linux application called sifled,
the LEDs indicate the status of Smoothwall's red interface,
as well as transmit and receive activity on the red interface.
Location
The PC resides in my server cupboard, and is only shutdown when
a reboot is required by a Smoothwall patch.
Since the addition of a UPS, reboots caused by power fluctuations are
now a thing of the past.
last updated 30 Mar 2007
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