RE: Soekris 4801 vs 4521

Let me verify the statement commercial grade.

I would say that the SOFTWARE is commercial grade.  Meaning it wasn't
designed to work 1500 feet from the AP, but rather several miles away.

The hardware from both Mikrotik, and Teletronics is what I would consider
commercial grade.  I like the router board!  Thinking of buying one, but
like others I don't like the problems they have with shipping.  For example
a friend of mine bought something about 6 months ago from Mikrotik and he
had to go to US Customs at the airport and pick it up...big pain in the
butt!  I hear they have fixed a lot of this, and it is easier to get parts
from them.  There site even shows a drop in shipping, but it is still
expensive.  So the real question is who else makes boards similar to the
routerboard in the US to buy from??

The StarOS stuff is deployed in a lot of places, but I don't consider it to
be commercial grade.  Mainly because it is just a motherboard and nothing
special.  BUT, it is deployed by a lot of WISP's. So that has to say
something about it.

Sorry, I should have just said the SOFTWARE is commercial grade.

If you want just a mobo, check this bad boy out!
You still need cards and etc to make it work though, so you will end up
around the routerboard price when you are done.  Something I have found out
with this MB is that Mikrotik doesnt like my Flash drive i bought, which is
plugged into the IDE port.

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3529384  Its about $130.00.

VIA EPIA ME6000 Motherboard

EPIA Motherboard :
Outpost #: 3529384
Chipset: VIA CLE266 North Bridge
Processor Support: VIA Eden Processor 600MHz CPU Included
Memory Support: Up to 1GB PC2100 DDR
Expansion Slot: 1 PCI
Other Features: AC 97, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, VGA Intergrated, LAN, S-Video



Another note is that both the Mikrotik, and the StarOS/Teletronics software
should run on just about any PC.  So you can get a regular computer if you
want to.


-----Original Message-----
From: talk-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:talk-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jason Floyd
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 3:54 PM
To: 'Dennis'; 'SeattleWireless Talk List'
Subject: RE: Soekris 4801 vs 4521


I wouldn't call the board itself 'commercial grade', it's a typical consumer
level VIA motherboard.  I thought it was an ITX board too (smaller) but it's
just an ATX board.

Cons:
 - It's a lot bigger, clunkier and probably draws more power than the
Soekris or Routerboard.
 - It needs an ATX power supply instead of POE or just 9v.
 - It doesn't have built-in pc-card slots, and a dual adapter is $80
 - It doesn't have MiniPCI slots, so you'd need a PCI card or an adapter.
 - Only 1 onboard 10/100 ethernet port.

Pros:
- Video (who cares if it's on your roof)
- Sound (*cough*)
- Standard components (ide, sdram, pci)

The $165 StarOS board price tag does include 128mb RAM and the StarOS Server
License on a DOM compact flash.  You can probably get this motherboard & CPU
for ~$100.

If you're looking for a shrink-wrapped solution for software, StarOS might
be the way to go, but for hardware, I'm still pretty keen on the
Routerboard.  An ATX solution isn't nearly as compact, low power and
geek-k0re.  The StarOS lists supporting the Routerboard in their latest
release.

The Routerboard has 2 Ethernet ports, 2 pc-card ports AND the PCI and
MiniPCI slots, which gives you more room to expand than the ITX board does.
These boards were designed specifically to act as wireless routers and
appear to have all the right features I've been looking for.

________________________________
Jason Floyd


-----Original Message-----
From: talk-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:talk-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dennis
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 1:28 PM
To: 'SeattleWireless Talk List'
Subject: Re: Soekris 4801 vs 4521

No.  I'm probably the one who is missing something.

I should have referred to the ITX board (which I assumes runs StarOS).  I
also assume(d) that the ITX board performs the same functionality as the
Soekeris and the Routerboard.  Are my assumptions correct?

And if my assumptions are correct.  That brings me to Tom's statement about
the ITX being commercial grade.  If this is true, why wouldn't we want to
use that, since at $165, it appears to offer more for the money.

Dennis

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