AppNeta M50 Fanless and M70 for pfSense and OPNsense

[MiniKnight]

They're cheap on ebay:

M50 $229
OPNsense: AppNeta M50 Fanless Gigabit OPNsense Firewall Intel Atom Quad Core C3558 AES-NI | eBay
pfsense: AppNeta M50 Fanless Gigabit PFsense Firewall Intel Atom Quad Core C3558 AES-NI | eBay

M70 $349
OPNsense: AppNeta M70 Gigabit OPNsense Firewall Intel Atom Eight Core C3758 AES-NI 8GB RAM | eBay
pfsense: AppNeta M70 Gigabit PFsense Firewall Intel Atom Eight Core C3758 AES-NI 8GB RAM | eBay

The M50's come with the Intel Atom C3558. M70 C3758. M50 is 4GB and 16GB but fanless. M70 has a fan it looks like but is 8GB and 32GB.

The bad part is that they're only 1g not 2.5 or 10. But that's still less than a supermicro mobo with the chips.

AppNeta was bought by Broadcom.

 

[BoredSysadmin]

The bad part is that they're only 1g not 2.5 or 10.

You could say that again. with 10gig nic and existing support for QAT these could've been very sweet high-speed VPN end-points.

 

[BlueFox]

$50 cheaper here.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fs-atom-c3558-fanless-network-appliance.36161/

Been using one as my home router for years. Happy to answer any questions regarding it. Also note that the eBay listing is not mine.

 

[CRasch]

Thougt the X553 SoC was a 10G?

 

[BlueFox]

Thougt the X553 SoC was a 10G?

Integrated MAC does, however, that's only half of the equation. Still dependent on the PHY in use, which in this case is a Marvell 88E1543 (supports 4 x 1GbE). 10GbE PHY commands a price, space, and power premium, so, it's not always offered by default.

 

[ant0shka]

Hey folks,
Dumb question: why this AppNeta M50/70 can be better than the modern new Intel N5105 / Celeron J4125 or similar 2.5G fanless systems like this?
CPU benchmark shows that C3558 is obsolete in comparison to others, but price is the same for systems:

 

[BlueFox]

QAT support for one (and maybe ECC RAM). The hardware you're going to find the other CPUs in from Aliexpress (or similar) is going to be of low quality compared to industrial/embedded systems (Aaeon is owned by Asus after all) and is a bit of gamble long term.

 

[Mark]

Potentially an option for adding 2.5GbE support would be this: MPX-225 - 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Mini-PCIe Module - Global American

It's the only non-realtek 2.5GbE option I could find. I reached out for a price and it's just a little over $60 for this card. I honestly don't need 2.5GbE for my use cases where 1GbE will be more than sufficient for a long time.

Looking at Netgate's published numbers for their own box running the same CPU it packs a big punch and the cost is a decent amount less.

L3 Forwarding

• IPERF3 Traffic: 18.50 Gbps
• IMIX Traffic: 6.08 Gbps

Firewall
(10k ACLs)

• IPERF3 Traffic: 9.93 Gbps
• IMIX Traffic: 2.73 Gbps

IPsec VPN
(AES-GCM-128 w/QAT)

• IPERF3 Traffic: 1.77 Gbps
• IMIX Traffic: 552 Mbps

Not sure how the Aliexpress specials fair but knowing QAT on the Atom will get me over 1GbE of IPSEC traffic for very low power is what I was looking for.

 

[jei]

Got AppNeta M50 off eBay and just my luck, LAN ports seem to be dead. If I had to guess, the relays switching between Bypass and Passthru have become stuck. Otherwise seems like a quality hardware.

 

[foureight84]

The Datto DNA-VZ5 is a good alternative. I have two of these and they use the Atom C2758 C0 stepping (C2000 bug fixed), not sure if all of them are using the C0 stepping. You can find them as low as $75 on eBay at the time of writing. They're semi-customized Axiomtek NA361 Network Appliance boxes. The major difference is that the DNA-VZ5 only has 1 DDR3 dimm slots installed instead of 4. I do have spare DDR3 dimm slots that I will solder on to see if that would allow for additional RAM.

 

[JonTron]

$50 cheaper here.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fs-atom-c3558-fanless-network-appliance.36161/

Been using one as my home router for years. Happy to answer any questions regarding it. Also, note that the eBay listing is not mine.

Regarding the M50, because you have been using one as your home router for years, Could you help me get ports 3 and 4 functioning for Opnsensee? I believe they are stuck in bypass mode, as the corresponding light is solid green. I will be setting up a dual-wan configuration, requiring at least three working ports. I hope this is possible. Otherwise, I may have to return it. Or resell it to someone who doesn't have a dual-wan setup in mind.

 

[jei]

Got AppNeta M50 off eBay and just my luck, LAN ports seem to be dead. If I had to guess, the relays switching between Bypass and Passthru have become stuck. Otherwise seems like a quality hardware.

Got replacement from seller. New one works as expected.

 

[BlueFox]

Regarding the M50, because you have been using one as your home router for years, Could you help me get ports 3 and 4 functioning for Opnsensee? I believe they are stuck in bypass mode, as the corresponding light is solid green. I will be setting up a dual-wan configuration, requiring at least three working ports. I hope this is possible. Otherwise, I may have to return it. Or resell it to someone who doesn't have a dual-wan setup in mind.

It's a setting you need to toggle in the BIOS. Have you tried that?

 

[JonTron]

It's a setting you need to toggle in the BIOS. Have you tried that?

No, I haven't tried that, however, just hearing that is a BIOS setting elevates all my concerns Thank you. However, I assume the BIOS is accessed via the console port? unfortunately I'm having problems communicating via serial connection which is why I ended up installing OPNsense via the live instance and SSH rather than pfSence.

Would you mind provideing me with a recommended serial cable?

Thanks again for the info.

 

[BlueFox]

No, I haven't tried that, however, just hearing that is a BIOS setting elevates all my concerns Thank you. However, I assume the BIOS is accessed via the console port? unfortunately I'm having problems communicating via serial connection which is why I ended up installing OPNsense via the live instance and SSH rather than pfSence.

Would you mind provideing me with a recommended serial cable?

Thanks again for the info.

Yes, serial port for BIOS. It's a standard serial/rollover cable you would use with any other network device (e.g. Cisco). They run about $5 on eBay (or $10 if you prefer USB over DB9). Baud is 115200.

 

[quintosol]

$50 cheaper here.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fs-atom-c3558-fanless-network-appliance.36161/

Been using one as my home router for years. Happy to answer any questions regarding it. Also note that the eBay listing is not mine.

Any tips on installing OPNSense? What image do I download? Do I need a serial cable? Any how-to guides? My Google searches are fruitless.

 

[quintosol]

No, I haven't tried that, however, just hearing that is a BIOS setting elevates all my concerns Thank you. However, I assume the BIOS is accessed via the console port? unfortunately I'm having problems communicating via serial connection which is why I ended up installing OPNsense via the live instance and SSH rather than pfSence.

Would you mind provideing me with a recommended serial cable?

Thanks again for the info.

How do you install with live instance and SSH? Any guides you can point me to?

 

[BlueFox]

Any tips on installing OPNSense? What image do I download? Do I need a serial cable? Any how-to guides? My Google searches are fruitless.

Serial image. Yes, you will need a serial cable. Installation is the same as VGA, you're just using a serial console instead of a monitor and keyboard.

 

[quintosol]

Any tips on installing OPNSense? What image do I download? Do I need a serial cable? Any how-to guides? My Google searches are fruitless.

I used serial USB installer and then SSH'd into LAN port. Installed and all is good. No serial cable required. Thanks!

 

[quintosol]

How do you install with live instance and SSH? Any guides you can point me to?

I figured it out. Thanks!