Recovering a Packeteer Packetshaper 6500

[Stonent]

I picked up a Packetshaper 6500 for what I thought was a good deal for $25. I had assumed with was 2007/2008 vintage, but turns out it was built in 2001. It has a Socket 370 processor, 30GB IDE drive, 16MB compact flash and 64MB ram.

It does not boot up because I think the previous owner wiped the flash card and hard drive. (The LCD panel just shows a black bar and never changes). I tried to get on the BlueCoat forums (the company that now owns Packeteer) but you cannot even post a question unless you have an active support contract.

I'd love to get the original OS reloaded since that was the main reason I got it. The RAM is way too low to install PFSense on it unfortunately.

Any ideas or sources for getting it going?

 

[dswartz]

Best use = doorstopper

 

[Stonent]

Yes, but I would like to at least get something working on it since we use these at work. If absolutely not able to get Packetwise OS reloaded. I may end up trying bump up the ram to 1GB and try to get PFSense on it.

However having access to the stats and graphs that Packetwise gives you would be interesting.

 

[Stonent]

Ok now I'm pretty sure they didn't wipe it because I pulled the drive and flash card and they have a file system with HTM files for the web interface. So looks like I need to investigate other things.

 

[maze]

If you use Them at Work, why not ask whoever is in charge of the service contracts (assuming you have one there) for permission to use the Company service info to get on the forums?

Or try calling bluecoat, being persistent in asking people often does wonders

 

[cheezehead]

It's been awhile since i've used the 6500 but afaik the max ram is 512MB....chipset limitation. You could always try replacing the guts and modding the inside of the case a bit for it to use more modern hardware but keep the look.

 

[Stonent]

If you use Them at Work, why not ask whoever is in charge of the service contracts (assuming you have one there) for permission to use the Company service info to get on the forums?

Or try calling bluecoat, being persistent in asking people often does wonders

As absolutely my last resort I would ask for someone at the company. We used them but do not manage them directly. We are allowed to watch but not change anything so basically it makes for a cool display of the pie charts moving back and forth as traffic ebbs and flows.

 

[Stonent]

It's been awhile since i've used the 6500 but afaik the max ram is 512MB....chipset limitation. You could always try replacing the guts and modding the inside of the case a bit for it to use more modern hardware but keep the look.

I have considered that. I have a Wyse terminal that is essentially a full PC in a tiny formfactor that would fit inside.

 

[Stonent]

It's been awhile since i've used the 6500 but afaik the max ram is 512MB....chipset limitation. You could always try replacing the guts and modding the inside of the case a bit for it to use more modern hardware but keep the look.

I have considered that. I have a Wyse terminal that is essentially a full PC in a tiny formfactor that would fit inside.