Hardware

I have been running a Soekris net5501 with m0n0wall for about 6 months now, connected to a 'consumer' wired ADSL router as a stepping stone to adding an ADSL modem and effectively building my own router.

martin42's thread showed me that it was possible with the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card, so I ordered this ADSL2 card recently and now have everything working. Much credit to martin42 for trailblazing.

I took a slightly different approach and I thought it was worth writing up in some detail, partly so I could retrace my own steps and partly in the hope it would help others to build this combo - or similar - and get it working quickly without having to learn a few things the hard way.

The Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card hosts a complete ADSL2+ router. martin42 chose to configure the router as a bridge and use PPPoE on the m0n0wall WAN interface. The difficulty, which martin42 acknowledges, is that you cannot access the configuration interface of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card while the m0n0wall WAN interface is configured for PPPoE - so you cannot see any line or error stats while the link is live.

I have left the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ configured as a router. Assuming it has enough processing power, this should not affect the throughput capabilities. [Although I have tried my card as a modem, I have not tested whether throughput is affected.] I think thank the only adverse effect may be for gamers who are bothered about their ping stats. A router configuration should make setting up and troubleshooting simpler.

Ultimately, if there is some way of configuring which allows the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ to be configured as a modem while still being able to access the configuration interface, I would like to revisit my setup.

I have divided my notes into several posts and I realise as a complete noob here that I am presuming on Manuel Kasper and the m0n0wall team for the space I am taking, so thanks in advance for letting me put this up here. And of course thanks for m0n0wall and what it has enabled me to do.

[Setting up Soekris net5501, Traverse ADSL2+ card and m0n0wall as ADSL Router and Firewall – My How To]

Setting up Soekris net5501, Traverse ADSL2+ card and m0n0wall as ADSL Router and Firewall – My How To

0] Acquire your hardware, software, set up PC and installation information

This How To assumes a Soekris net5501, a Traverse Viking ADSL2+ PCI card, that m0n0wall 1.32 is to be loaded and that a Compact Flash of sufficient size to contain the m0n0wall image will be available. Obviously, the more you vary from these assumptions the more divergence you can expect from this How To. However I would hope that it would still be helpful in the main even for quite different hardware if this How To identifies most of the major issues which crop up.

I used a Linux computer to set it all up. Linux is far from essential, all the tools you require are available for any modern major operating system, but sorting out alternatives for your choice of operating system is left as a problem for the reader. The essential programs are a serial port terminal and a web client such as Firefox.

I used PuTTY as my serial port terminal to access the serial console of the net5501. It is available for Linux, Unix in general and Windows. As well as doing serial comms, it will do telnet, making it useful for accessing the Traverse telnet interface if you wish to experiment beyond the scope of this How To.

This How To does not stand alone - use http://m0n0.ch/wall/documentation.php. and the m0n0wall quick start guide http://doc.m0n0.ch/quickstartsoekris/ [ http://m0n0.ch/wall/quickstart.php for other platforms]. Also martin42's thread http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php?topic=4094.0 provides a different approach. You may also need to refer to documentation for the  Traverse Viking ADSL2+ PCI card http://www.traverse.com.au/downloadlist.php. Unfortunately, Soekris don't seem to have a manual for the Soekris net5501, but their website is http://soekris.com.


1] Make Compact Flash Software Image

The Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card attaches to the Soekris board as if it were a Realtek RTL3189 ethernet controller [and to the rest of the world as an ADSL2+ modem]. The Soekris net5501 carries 4 VIA VT6105M Ethernet ports. M0n0wall is based on FreeBSD, which has drivers for both the Realtek controller and for the VIA VT6105M controller.

However, not all m0n0wall images contain the necessary drivers. The m0n0wall image selector at http://m0n0.ch/wall/downloads.php suggests the embedded-1.32.img. This is no good, because the Realtek drivers are not present. Use the generic-pc-1.32.img instead, which has all required drivers. Or build your own image if you must.

When you put the image on to the Compact Flash, bear in mind that it is an image of a partition rather than an image to go on to a partition. Read that again if it didn't quite sink in! So, under Linux, the unwritten Compact Flash may appear as /dev/sda once connected to the machine you will use to write the image. It is to /dev/sda that you would then write the image. Once the image is written, /dev/sda4 for example will appear, because you will have written a complete partition to the Compact Flash. Although this issue is described in Linux terms, it could be an issue in any Operating System - in summary, don't be tempted to partition the Compact Flash and write the image to a partition.


2] Assemble Hardware

Soekris net5501, Traverse Viking ADSL2+ and Compact Flash can now be assembled. Leave the lid open for the the next step.


3] Reset Traverse ADSL2+ card

Unfortunately, the Traverse Viking I received comes with DHCP disabled as the factory default. Configuration therefore depends upon initially knowing the IP address of the router part of the card and remaining in charge of the IP address subsequently.

Read the Traverse documentation for the complete description of how to reset to Factory Default configuration. In summary, with the unit powered down, place a shorting link across JP3 on the card and power up for a minute. Remove the shorting link and wait for all 4 LEDS on the card to flash once.

The card should now be reset to factory configuration, with the router part of the card set to an IP address of 192.168.1.1 . You may spot that this conflicts with the m0n0wall LAN interface IP address, but don't worry about that for the moment, it will be dealt with later in step 9].

If you are confident, you can fit the lid - you will only need access again if you lose track of the IP address to access the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card and you need to repeat this step.


4] Boot and configure Soekris net5501 serial line speed

As mentioned in http://doc.m0n0.ch/quickstartsoekris/, use a null modem cable.

It will be quite likely that the Soekris net5501 and the m0n0wall image will actually be set to put boot messages to the serial line at different linespeeds, which will cause either or both to be corrupted on display. Additionally, across m0n0wall 1.3 and 1.32 and embedded and generic images, I encountered different linespeeds of 19200 and 9600. Because of how I worked with the Soekris net5501, I am not certain what speed the serial port operated at initially. The Soekris net5501 linespeed can be changed, however the m0n0wall image linespeed remains fixed.

This is just a matter of trial and error to set the linespeed on your terminal program to match the boot messages from m0n0wall. Once you discover the linespeed of your m0n0wall installation, you can go on to set the Soekris net5501 to match. First, set your terminal by trial and error to match the speed of the Soekris net5501. Then at the 5 second timeout at the end of the Soekris net 5501 boot process, press <ctrl> + P to gain entry to the Soekris net5501 monitor program and reset the line speed to match that of your m0n0wall image.

Use '?' at the Soekris monitor prompt to show the available commands. You require 'set'. But use 'show' to show the adjustable parameters. You require 'ConSpeed'. So at the Soekris monitor prompt, enter 'set ConSpeed 9600' or whatever speed you require. Use 'show' again to verify that your speed change has taken. Note that the Soekris monitor program seems to have the peculiar behaviour of sometimes expecting 'set ConSpeed 9600' and sometimes rejecting that in favour of 'set ConSpeed=9600'.

Finally, with the terminal set to the linespeed of the m0n0wall serial interface, both sets of boot messages should display correctly.


5] Identify m0n0wall LAN and WAN interfaces

This is described in http://doc.m0n0.ch/quickstartsoekris/ under m0n0wall Console Setup. Obviously, you will want take the opportunity to reset the m0n0wall webGUI password. But the essentials are to assign network ports [option 1] and to set the LAN IP address [option 2] described in step 6].

Using Option 1 from the m0n0wall serial console to assign interfaces to m0n0wall. There should be 5 interfaces available. vr0 - vr3 represent the 4 VIA VT6105M Ethernet ports on the Soekris net5501 and re0 represents the Realtek RTL3189 ethernet controller on the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card. Select 1 of the 4 interfaces vr0 - vr3 as your LAN interface and select re0 as the WAN interface.


6] Configure m0n0wall LAN interface

The LAN side of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ router has an IP address of 192.168.1.1 as a factory default. This is also the default for the LAN interface on m0n0wall. Obviously, these IP defaults cannot coexist, as they preclude routing from the m0n0wall LAN interface to the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ LAN interface. At this point, you will not have access to the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ router to change its setup, so you should set the IP address of the m0n0wall LAN interface and its subnet away from 192.168.1.1/24 , which will allow the m0no0wall to do its business and route to the router on the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ on its WAN interface.

Use Option 2 from the m0n0wall serial console to set the LAN interface IP address and ideally configure the DHCP server at the same time to give an IP address to the computer you will use to configure your m0n0wall and your Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card.

If you need to use a subnet on your LAN which conflicts with the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, stay with these instructions to step 9]. At that point you can configure the IP address and subnet of the LAN interface of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card to another private network as specified in RFC1918.


7] Configure m0n0wall from web GUI

Now you can connect your m0n0wall box and the PC you are going to use for configuring via the web interfaces of the Soekris net5501 and the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card. Work with an isolated network for this, particularly if there are any IP address conflict issues with your network or if there are any active DHCP servers.

At this point, it is probably worth outlining the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ hardware and explaining how it fits into your m0n0wall on Soekris net5501 combo. The Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card hosts a complete ADSL2+ router and, as already mentioned, attaches to the Soekris board as if it were a Realtek RTL3189 ethernet controller. It is nearly obvious, but it is probably worth labouring the point - the router is not under the control of m0n0wall. In contrast to most computer interface cards where the host computer has control over the complete card, in the case of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card, host computer control extends only to its own interface on the virtual ethernet connection to the onboard router.

Looking out from an installation of m0n0wall on a Soekris net5501, you will see first of all the software interface of the Realtek RTL3189 and then a virtual ethernet connection to the LAN interface of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ router. Beyond this, you see the WAN interface and then the ADSL connection. Of course, the Realtek RTL3189 interface is under the control of m0n0wall. But the rest of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card is an autonomous ADSL router.

That is a long way around to clarifying that the WAN interface of the m0n0wall is the Realtek RTL3189 on the Traverse Viking ADSL2+, which is separate from but connected to the LAN interface of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ router, which has a factory default IP address of 192.168.1.1 and subnet /24. Remember that DHCP is not enabled on this interface as a factory default.

So, set the m0n0wall WAN interface to Static IP with IP address and subnet 192.168.1.2/24. And otherwise configure m0n0wall according to http://doc.m0n0.ch/handbook/.


8] Access and configure Traverse Viking ADSL2+

You can now power down your m0n0wall box and restart. If m0n0wall is configured correctly for routing, you should be able to access the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ web GUI on 192.168.1.1 .

Go to Configuration -> Quick Setup and fill out the details according to how your ISP has advised you. Don't forget to select 'Enable NAT' and 'Set Default Route'.

While in Quick Setup, you can optionally enable the DHCP server on the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ LAN interface. If you do this, you can then go to the m0n0wall WAN interface setup and configure m0n0wall to use DHCP to get an IP address from the Traverse Viking ADSL2+. If you require to use subnets containing 192.168.1.1 in your own network, complete optional step 9] while in Quick Setup.

Complete this stage by powering down and rebooting. If you have assigned a new IP address under optional step 9], you should now be able to access the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ web GUI on the new address and you can continue to step 10].


9] [Optional] Final IP address configuration

While in the Quick Setup pages in the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ web GUI on 192.168.1.1, you can set a private IP address and subnet for the LAN interface as specified by RFC1918 which does not conflict with your network.

If in step 8] you did not set up the m0n0wall WAN interface to use DHCP, you must now either configure for DHCP or change the static IP address from 192.168.1.2 to a value compatible with the IP address and subnet you have just configured on the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ LAN interface.


10] Completion

This should complete the setup of your m0n0wall box.

Connect to an ADSL line. In due course, the LEDs on the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ card should indicate a working ADSL line. And the Overview page of the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ web GUI should indicate upstream and downstream data rates. You should now be able to access the internet from a connected PC. Your m0n0wall box is now complete.


11] Save all configurations

Both the m0n0wall webGUI and the Traverse Viking ADSL2+ router web GUI contain options to save configuration files.