Router hardware recommendation - > 1 Gbps WAN

[oneplane]

The alternative would be getting (often available for free to IT guys during server room changes/moves) a switched PDU, like APC AP7900B.
I won't pay any more than $50 for such a device but even used ebay prices are too crazy. With this, you could reboot remotely the modem/router separately or together without going down to the basement. Source: this is what I do

I have similar setups as there are a bunch of legacy PDUs out there (even with A and B feeds) that have ethernet and telnet and aren't supported by crappy enterprise tools anymore but still work perfectly fine. It seems like those have flooded the local remarketing companies over here at far lower prices than APC and Eaton stuff. Make sure everything is configured with auto-boot/auto-power-on and a reset is a single command away

Some of the avocent models also come with per-port power logging, voltage monitoring, quality detection etc. Totally overkill for small setups but for the price of a high end extension cord it becomes a "why not" very quickly

 

[danb35]

@danb35 Is this Comcast Xfinity service by any chance? They, along with other cable providers, support up to 1.2 Gbps overprovisioned docsis 3.1 service.

It is. "Installation" is next Thursday afternoon, so I'll see what I get then.

Other than the initial BIOS/UEFI configuration and OS installation, how much use would you get out of IPMI other than restarting if the unit becomes unresponsive?

The cases where I've wanted it have been when there's trouble on restart. Since my Protectli box doesn't have it, I have a 7" LCD screen hooked up to it, and I can plug in a keyboard when needed, but it's kind of awkward. It isn't a frequent need, but there have been a few occasions where I've needed it. And, of course, in such cases you can't just ssh into the box. But installation is another point; with IPMI I can just remote-mount the installation media without needing to go to the great trouble (/sarc) of burning an installation USB--obviously not a major, nor a frequent, issue.

I've also had IPMI email me notification of hardware errors that the OS didn't see, so that can be handy. But the primary use, for me at least, has been "remote console."

 

[oneplane]

Personally, for local debugging I just use a serial console and a laptop. Much easier to carry around. But in the end it's about personal preference. The only cases where I had the need for an actual 'console' (as in graphics output) was with windows without a hypervisor.

Perhaps a TinyPilot is the solution here? That way you get the best of all worlds while still being very much on a small budget.

 

[danb35]

Perhaps a TinyPilot is the solution here?

At $400? Ouch. At that plus one of the 2.5 GbE units, I'm bordering on the price of that SuperMicro unit I mentioned in the OP. But more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.

 

[oneplane]

Oops, perhaps the PiKVM instead, I always mix them up. That (the bare HAT) is just 170 or something like that.

 

[Markess]

Pi-KVM is one of several RPi based KVM solutions. Buying the complete plug-and-play unit based on a Pi3/4 isn't all that cheap. But depending on the implementation, some of the roll your own solutions aren't super expensive. There's a DIY hardware version that uses a cheap (~$20 US) HDMI to USB capture device with the Pi (plus microSD, power supply, and a couple hacked USB cables). The apparent downside with this version is that its got a lot of lag. But for ~$30 over the price of the Pi, I suppose you can't expect a lot.

 

[aero]

Ok, I just couldn't help myself...after a bit of reorganizing my network...
It's actually significantly more than being bottlenecked at 1G. Apparently the service is 1.2Gb/s, with overprovisioning putting it at 1.4Gb/s.

:~$ iperf3 -c nyc.speedtest.clouvider.net -R -P 8 Connecting to host nyc.speedtest.clouvider.net, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host nyc.speedtest.clouvider.net is sending [ 5] local 192.168.1.2 port 37242 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 7] local 192.168.1.2 port 37244 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 9] local 192.168.1.2 port 37246 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 11] local 192.168.1.2 port 37248 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 13] local 192.168.1.2 port 37250 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 15] local 192.168.1.2 port 37252 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 17] local 192.168.1.2 port 37254 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 19] local 192.168.1.2 port 37256 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 328 MBytes 275 Mbits/sec 9 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 324 MBytes 272 Mbits/sec receiver [ 7] 0.00-10.00 sec 233 MBytes 195 Mbits/sec 7 sender [ 7] 0.00-10.00 sec 229 MBytes 192 Mbits/sec receiver [ 9] 0.00-10.00 sec 204 MBytes 171 Mbits/sec 7 sender [ 9] 0.00-10.00 sec 200 MBytes 168 Mbits/sec receiver [ 11] 0.00-10.00 sec 210 MBytes 176 Mbits/sec 9 sender [ 11] 0.00-10.00 sec 206 MBytes 173 Mbits/sec receiver [ 13] 0.00-10.00 sec 175 MBytes 146 Mbits/sec 4 sender [ 13] 0.00-10.00 sec 171 MBytes 143 Mbits/sec receiver [ 15] 0.00-10.00 sec 142 MBytes 119 Mbits/sec 5 sender [ 15] 0.00-10.00 sec 138 MBytes 116 Mbits/sec receiver [ 17] 0.00-10.00 sec 277 MBytes 233 Mbits/sec 6 sender [ 17] 0.00-10.00 sec 274 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec receiver [ 19] 0.00-10.00 sec 122 MBytes 102 Mbits/sec 8 sender [ 19] 0.00-10.00 sec 118 MBytes 99.0 Mbits/sec receiver [SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.65 GBytes 1.42 Gbits/sec 55 sender [SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.62 GBytes 1.39 Gbits/sec receiver

 

[zer0sum]

Ok, I just couldn't help myself...after a bit of reorganizing my network...
It's actually significantly more than being bottlenecked at 1G. Apparently the service is 1.2Gb/s, with overprovisioning putting it at 1.4Gb/s.

:~$ iperf3 -c nyc.speedtest.clouvider.net -R -P 8 Connecting to host nyc.speedtest.clouvider.net, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host nyc.speedtest.clouvider.net is sending [ 5] local 192.168.1.2 port 37242 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 7] local 192.168.1.2 port 37244 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 9] local 192.168.1.2 port 37246 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 11] local 192.168.1.2 port 37248 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 13] local 192.168.1.2 port 37250 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 15] local 192.168.1.2 port 37252 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 17] local 192.168.1.2 port 37254 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 [ 19] local 192.168.1.2 port 37256 connected to 94.154.159.137 port 5201 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 328 MBytes 275 Mbits/sec 9 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 324 MBytes 272 Mbits/sec receiver [ 7] 0.00-10.00 sec 233 MBytes 195 Mbits/sec 7 sender [ 7] 0.00-10.00 sec 229 MBytes 192 Mbits/sec receiver [ 9] 0.00-10.00 sec 204 MBytes 171 Mbits/sec 7 sender [ 9] 0.00-10.00 sec 200 MBytes 168 Mbits/sec receiver [ 11] 0.00-10.00 sec 210 MBytes 176 Mbits/sec 9 sender [ 11] 0.00-10.00 sec 206 MBytes 173 Mbits/sec receiver [ 13] 0.00-10.00 sec 175 MBytes 146 Mbits/sec 4 sender [ 13] 0.00-10.00 sec 171 MBytes 143 Mbits/sec receiver [ 15] 0.00-10.00 sec 142 MBytes 119 Mbits/sec 5 sender [ 15] 0.00-10.00 sec 138 MBytes 116 Mbits/sec receiver [ 17] 0.00-10.00 sec 277 MBytes 233 Mbits/sec 6 sender [ 17] 0.00-10.00 sec 274 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec receiver [ 19] 0.00-10.00 sec 122 MBytes 102 Mbits/sec 8 sender [ 19] 0.00-10.00 sec 118 MBytes 99.0 Mbits/sec receiver [SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.65 GBytes 1.42 Gbits/sec 55 sender [SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.62 GBytes 1.39 Gbits/sec receiver

Just an fyi...but iperf tests to clouvider are really slow for me and I only hit 800-1200 Mbps.

If I use speedtest.net or fast.com I can do 2300-2500 Mbps on my AT&T 2G symmetric fiber, and that is through a tiny m920q with an i5-8500t

 

[aero]

Thanks for the tip…fast.com worked great as well and has a Linux cli binary available from GitHub