I need your skills to confirm or deny that MT7922 wifi card can act like an access point.
is that chipset, based on your personal experience, fully supported on ipfire?
Hi,
most of what I’m writing might not be helpful for your question, but i hope that, after some read, you’ll find it… Interesting enough to ehnance your project.
The box you choose has some nice features, but some other downsides, compared to other solutions.
All things above considered… do you really need to go from 6-10w power budget to… 60?
For an homelab/virtualization setup is not enough as config (a little short on CPU, a little short on ram) but seems quite more viable for that instead of being a “router replacment”, unless “big and specific needs”. Like 3x1gb/s internet connections and hundreds of concurrent VPN sessions.
Moving on, Moginsok has a website and provide bios updates for some products… but the file is hosted on google drive. Drivers, bios, procedures…
For who lives in EU, Lightning wire labs sells several boxes, the cheapest one is quite close to 500 EUR 22% VAT included. You can find it here.
I’m not gonna lie, this thing is older than sh1t and dust, and as you saw in the previous link has 5% the grunt of your box.
Specs
Processor: AMD Embedded G series GX-412TC @ 1GHz
Four Dedicated Intel i211AT Gigabit Ethernet Controllers
4GB ECC Memory
16GB SSD Storage
1x RS-232 Serial Console, 2x USB 3.0 Ports
BIOS: Coreboot
Desktop Form-Factor & Passively Cooled
Why costs that much? three reasons:
power consumption is close to one of a commercial router, 12W more or less
reliability is top notch, this boxes can run 5+ years without issue, the SSD used for storage is not consumer grade and also ECC ram provides way less hiccups and problems compared non parity ram.
BIOS is thorougly designed, revised, updated. As a plus, it’s opensource, so it has way less flaws than any consumer grade device, even branded one.
On top of that that’s the profit of LightningWire Labs and the producer. But again, there’s more thinking and revisions in that box that into the one of Moginsok. Wishing all the best for this OEM from Shenzen, devices are looking nice.
By the way… the box is still on sale, they’re not afraid to deliver this old device because… It will work for a long, long time.
Last but not least.
I googled for MT7922 used on linux. Seems needed a blob file for work (containing the firmware), on most linux distros don’t work out of the box or with “small” driver. And that seems unfortunate.
It’s not the only source, but give some gist.
I googled also for MT7922 and ipfire. No trace.
If you’re willing to using anyway that Moginsok box with IPFire (which by the way is not mentioned into Amazon page) go for it.
I don’t think that wireless will work, and if your Asus router pleased you enough as wireless coverage (and you don’t need multiple SSIDs on separate vLans) could be reconfigured as Access point while connected to the Blue interface.
Please, come back to tell us your experience on these boxes. (Intel connections should work just fine)
Hello @nicopelle welcome to our community. The answer has already been offered by @pike_it and @bonnietwin but I would add this link as it is my go to place to check for Linux hardware support.
Hi all,
all advices, especially coming from by professionals in the sector, are ALWAYS welcome of course.
Really thanks @pike_it
Really thanks @bonnietwin
…and thanks to cfusco (i can only mention two users, because i’m a newbie)
The advice is… take yourself out of the middle ground.
You need a small virtualization lab? Increase CPU power, RAM, place for have “enough” storage.
You can run virtual instances of firewall distros (it gets a bit trickier to match virtual nics, and switches, but after enough mistakes makes more sense), you can have some sort of disaster recovery options (aka VMs/Guests backup), and you can do more things. More money, more power, but also… more feature.
IPFire project suggest against using virtualized instances, however supports that (check documentation). I can see why could be a good Idea to have the firewall virtualized, but it’s a personal and experience choice.
You need a proper firewall-related hardware? After figuring out quite frankly with yourself how many interfaces you need now, and how many you could possibly need, including a reasonable room for improvement, and stick to it.
As hardware, a not old enough thin client like HP T730 or T740 with a 4 port intel NIC could do wonders as firewall. It is delivered with 90w Power adapter, but the power budget usually is around 35 watts (no sale pitch here, i have none of these). It’s business grade hardware, it’s quite reliable and the bios is usually better polished and/or more updated for vulnerabilities than OEM grade hardware.
Or you can look for a really “flavoured” box among all chinese brands, the Youtube channel ServeTheHome have reviewed a lot of these during 2023. I’m sure you will find something suitable and more firewall-focused on that reviews. IpFire is not among the suite of software tested over there.
Buy new might deliver more peace of mind, I can second that.
Buying new wrong stuff or unreliable stuff is costier than go used (with reason) or reuse something you already having (with backup/disaster plans realized and updated).
Buy good, new and powerful hardware usually is not cheap. If done in a needs-suitable and proper way, usually is never wasted money.
I hope you can see what I’m trying to say: think and design. Then question yourself, then think and design again if you see something wrong.
It’s about your needs and your future needs, more than buy cool cheap stuff.
Please, come back to tell your choice and experience, if you go IPFire.
