I need kind of a programmable router running on Linux or FreeBSD based on an x-86 arch-type box that should comsume the minimal amount of power (like a basic router) ... ~ Ideally I shouldn't even need a fan. Just the most minimal hardware to run networking, a firewall, rated DHCP (some internal ports get more bandwidth than other), port redirection ... ~ The thing is that most routers come programmed with their software or firmware and are hard to tinker with ~ How do you think I could/should go for it? ~ Do you know of people doing these kinds of things? ~ lbrtchx
Well, you could get a router running on GPL code like some routers from Linksys, Netgear, Buffalo, and others.
I have a Linksys WRT54G flashed with a 3rd party firmware HyperWRT+Thibor. The web configuration is extended but most important you have shell access on the box. For instance, I can configure the packet filter directly with iptables. If you need something special you can also compile your own binaries and install them.
A good starting point for reading is the web site of DD-WRT, another 3rd party firmware project for the WRT54G and more routers (other brands, too).
formatting link
In particular look at the Wiki where you can read which routers and brands can be flashed with DD-WRT (and other
3rd party firmware).
For the WRT54G you should also read
formatting link
If you buy the WRT be sure not to buy one of the versions with less memory like the WRT54Gv5,v6,v7.
It's not always easy to find older hardware. The WRT54GL is a current model that supports DD-WRT as well as OpenWRT. It's not x86, but it is very simple hardware that supports linux readily.
For quite some time, my home router was an old DEC machine - a dual Pentium 133 with 96 megs, and no hard drive. It ran Coyote Linux which I modified to use an SMP kernel just for kicks. While saturating a 6-megabit line with multiple bittorrents, I measured the electrical draw from the wall at 45 watts.
I have a couple of Via C3-based machines now which don't do any better, and one draws MORE power from the wall. Between having a hard drive, CD-ROM, and seemingly much lower-efficiency power supplies, the actual power draw is often 65 watts. A P3-650 with three hard drives in use as a file server only drew barely more than that.
As another comparison, I have some Athlon64 3800+ machines which, when under easy usage (say, surfing), only draw about 60 watts from the wall. In fact, in planning for UPS capacity, I found that those machines WITH a 19" LCD would only draw more than 100 watts together a few times during the "usage cycle" - startup, network login, normal usage, shutdown.
In any event, ANY of those machines will have much more than enough power for routing - the dual Pentium 133 very rarely exceeded a load of .02, and CPU time spent in system usage was rarely more than 1% or 2%.
As others have said, to get power levels much lower than those, you'll have to go to non-x86 hardware. One of the routers on which you can put Linux (and hence, customize to a great extent) will probably use 1/4 of that power.
I put a meter on my WRTSL54G (or whatever alphabet soup Linksys came up with) and it metered at a whopping 70 ma booting and about 140 ma when the radio came on.
I could be wrong on those numbers by a few ma, but work out the math:
Take something that can measure AC power, and see what it actually draws from the wall. I'm sure you lose more in conversion, rectifying, and filtering than you actually use for the router! :-)
That is pretty nice. Even if it's 1.7 watts, it wouldn't take much of a battery to keep that running for quite some time. The units from mini-box that someone pointed out look pretty sweet, too... I'll have to see if I can think up a use for one of those.
Well, if you're really looking to power something off a battery for a long, long time check out the TS-7260 from embeddedarm.com . You can selectively slow the CPU, turn off various things, and do all sorts of power conserving tweaks. I think they got it down to something like 40 ma at 5V with everything turned off and the CPU slowed to next-to-nothing....
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