I would like to set up a DHCP (with MAC-bound allocation to mimic static) + DNS(SEC) router at home. I'm looking for hardware and software suggestions that fit into a small enclosure, approximately large enough to house a regular home router/AP.
HW Requirements:
- Completely silent
- Small power consumption
- 2+ NICs running at gigabit speeds.
- Access-point capabilities
SW Requirements:
- Support for Open Shortest Path First or a similar interior routing protocol.
- An operating system here: http://www.sixxs.net/tools/aiccu/
- Full IPv6 stack including Teredo, 6to4 and possibly ISATAP (bonus).
- Capable for partitioning some traffic through a VPN and some traffic through the SixXS handle.
- Stable
I don't need a firewall in this thing: they are pretty evil, slow and prone to errors (NAT-reflection anybody?). I trust I can secure the systems in the network instead.
Software - FreeBSD or a linux variant? Which? I don't want cumbersome GUIs running on it nor do I want any sort of web server on it. It would be nice to be able to run some other things on it though, like an erlang server, or a VPN tunnel. The point, anyway, would be that while the operating system should be addressable, I want it to work as a NAT for IPv4 and as a DHCP + router/switch for IPv6. I'm not afraid to do things on my own, but I don't want to get stuck in a corner like I have before:
- Windows Server 2008 + HyperV + FreeBSD -> fail because HyperV doesn't relay DHCP messages properly.
- Incomplete IPv6 stacks or GUIs that overwrite manual changes to support IPv6.
- The computer dying of overheating (currently the case)
One idea would be to use a very small ARM processor with a linux compiled for this -- e.g. if I could get a NVIDIA Tegra system-on-a-chip up and running with a slew of NICs. This system doesn't even need cooling (draws 6W) but has a clock frequency of 1 GHz. While not fast enough for most routing tasks, it's the general direction I want to go for -> silent 'enough' hardware with no electricity bill that doesn't die of overheating. I have a switch for switching internal data streams at gigabit; that's not the router's job.
