Project: Sentinel

This project is something I started quite a while ago, but am now looking to finish it. Ironically, I no longer need it, but I'm still going to finish it anyway...... Some of you may have seen the start of this on another forum, but it's new here and as I'm about to start working on it again, I figured it was as good a time as any to start my own log here on TBCS....

I'd been thinking, for a while, about building a dedicated firewall PC based on the excellent Smoothwall linux distro, and as I recently got my hands on some spare (ancient) hardware, there is no longer any reason not to....

The basic task comes down to getting this PC....

Into this CD Case....

With a few tweaks along the way (the original case IS almost double the size of the new one....

So, first things first - find out what needs to move. As it's a dedicated firewall, it doesn't need an optical or floppy drive - just the mobo, cpu, ram, vga card and hard disk out of this little mess here, along with a pair of new 10/100 NICs, some cooling, a new PSU and some lighting too I expect.

I was hoping just to basically move the guts across and lock them against the side and base of the new case, but that won't be possible as some essential connectors are on the BACK of the daughterboard. (For those of you young un's who have never heard of a daughterboard - its a smaller board which plugs into the motherboard and provides additional functionality - in the case of this old Compaq, the Motherboard has the standard I/O ports, processor, ram, and thats about it - the daughterboard provides PCI slots, IDE ports and the main connector for power)

So before I get started with anything more drastic, I figured I should make sure the damned thing will physically fit inside - one stripped down compaq and 5 minutes of drilling out rivets on the Aluminimum case and....

It fits - JUST - now I just have to figure out where I can sneak in the drive and PSU.

More coming (fairly) soon - I've never been one to rush these things....

I just changed the name of the project from Hardcase to Sentinel - however, I'm still open to other suggestions, although I admit I DO like Sentinel. In the meantime, if anyone can think of a decent name for the project, feel free to suggest it - remember its a dedicated firewall, and I'm pretty much decided on red lighting and a fire style etch on the window I'm putting in the top of the new case, so something to do with fire or protection or the hard case or somethin - idn - thats why I'm askin you guys :p

I remember thpse things.... my friend got one (and wanted to know if it would play Doom3 better than he's P4 system :D) and I pulled it apart...... to clean the damn thing.....

Yeah it was pretty mucky when I got it - think it's a PII 366 with 32MB ram originally - guy I got it from had added another 32 and I stuck in a 3rd os it'll be up to 96MB. Still no rocket but more than enough to run a dedicated linux firewall on :)

Quick Update:

I got on with stripping out the (soon to be) new case, and found, to my disappointment that it isn't aluminium at all, but cheap nasty wood with a metal layer over it so a little more work to do now making it safe (ie fire-resistant and properly grounded)

As for CPU cooling, as you can see from this pic....

The CPU is actually passively cooled with a shroud over it designed to draw in cool air coming in through a front intake. As I don't want the thing to melt on me, figured I should re-create the intake in roughly the same place, so I cut out a blowhole in the side panel under one of the handles (Hmm, it's going to be an intake, does that mean I should call it a suckhole?)

And as I'm obsessed with tidiness, I fitted what is actually meant to be a subwoofer air intake tunnel (courtesy of www.maplin.co.uk) to keep it neat

Looks neat and tidy, which is never a bad thing... While I was cutting, I also took the time to cut a hole in the lid for a window - you'll notice it's well off-centre - I plan to mount the hard disk and or PSU in the lid next to the window... Time will tell what actually ends up in there but at least I definitely have the space available - after all, it's a LOT easier to make a window bigger than it is to make it smaller!!!

You can just see the inner tunnel of the intake thru the window, but that won't be staying - it needs to be cut down or I can't fit a fan!

Note to all - spend the money, get a diamond dremel bit - they're expensive but they just go and go. I went thru 3 normal cutting disk cutting 2 INCHES of the internal chassis of this old compaq - the diamond one so far has cut about 2 feet of steel, and altho it looks a lil charred, it's still going just fine...

While I was already chopping chunks out of the outer case, I quicky fitted a power switch and a couple of chrome LED holders. The original PC has no reset button, nor any connectors for one, so power is all thats needed. To keep with the shiny metal outer style, I used a nice little vandal-resistant switch along with the Chrome LED holders...

Next I'm going to have to do some semi-minor surgery on the internals - need to be able to get a exhaust fan in there somewhere, and the current mounting for the daughterboard blocks about 1/3 of the window...

Anyway, enough for now - back soon :D

Comments always welcome, of course :p

Slave,
Where did you get your power button from? (link to website if possable!)
I've got 2 bumps the go on the back of R2's head and those would look Great there (painted blue of course! :p ) I've seen others use them but never asked.

Thanks,
Crazybillybob

Something like this, CBB?

http://www.frozencpu.com/ele-70.html

I got mine in a trade with a guy on another forum - he got a Belkin 5 port 10/100 switch and I got 2 of those switches and 2 coolermaster Red LED fans. You can get em all over the place though - just look for vandal resistant or vandal proof. They are, unfortunately, stupidly expensive here in the UK, and I think there in the US its worse if that link is anything to go by - although I saw them incredibly cheap on an Australian website not so long ago - meant to buy a dozen or so and completely slipped my mind until just now lol

[EDIT]: Ok, so I decided on a new name - this is now called Project: Sentinel - other suggestions are still welcome, but to be honest, I do kinda like the name Sentinel

[SECOND EDIT] Vandal Proof Switches from Australia - http://www.ozgear.com.au/electronicp...ays_Fuses1.htm - $5AU is about £2UK or $3.75US - might be worth seeing if they'll ship internationally at that price.....

[THIRD EDIT] Dammit, the site says they only accept orders from within Australia - dunno if you know anyone over there who'll do the business for you - I just emailed the ex and asked her if she'd pretty please get me 10 and mail em to me

Smallest update I'll probably ever put up but.... Just realised that there's nothing to attach anything to. The wood the case is made up of is extremely thin so screwing into it will almost definintely result in coming straight out the other side, so I dropped a sheet of nice thick 9mm MDF into the bottom - the extra weight should help reduce vibrations, and hopefully it'll also help keep the noise down too.

I also got my hands on some sound deadening pads from a auto-repair centre - I'm going to line the whole case with them - they're black, sticky-backed, fire resistant and flexible so they should keep down noise, look pretty good, and help solve the safety issues I was concerned about when I first realised what the new case was made of....

[EDIT] CrazyBillyBob - try this - http://www.action-electronics.com/switches.htm#Push - $3.75 US each - a little cheaper than the $20 on that other link, although these are solid metal, they don't have that illuminated ring on them....

Need ya help people - I was originally planning on making a custom etch for the top window - I was going to base it on the chemical warning symbol for flammable as it's a firewall, but now I'm thinking about maybe something like a knight with a shield - something more like a sentinel - except I'm not even sure what a sentinel really would look like - any ideas?

do a google image search for "centurion" that will give you some good stuff

As I already put in space for an 80mm intake fan, into which I'm going to put a coolermaster 80mm Red LED fan I figured it'd make sense to put in an 80mm exhaust fan. Due to the size of the case, there is no practical way to fit a PSU to the outer walls of the machine, so I'm going to mount a small one inside the case, probably above the RAM sticks on the motherboard, or against the side without the daughterboard, with a power extension going out to the outer shell but that may well change depending on the shape and size, as well as available space. As there is going to be a pretty good flow of air front-back inside the case I don't think the PSU being internally mounted will matter - it'll draw air from inside the case, and expell it back into the case. I wouldn't dream of doing that with anything more powerful, but I think it'll be ok due to the low thermal demands of this system. What I will do is make sure the exhaust on the psu is closer to the case exhaust to increase cool air going in and reduce the amount of time the hot expelled air hangs around.

There's a problem though. The rear of the case isnt big enough to mount the motherboard as it stands, in it's chassis part, and an 80mm fan without going into the edge of the lower part of the case. Solution - dremel time...

And at the same time, might as well get rid of a load of the excess metal on the daughterboard tray too - it was important to the original chassis, but in this case, it's just adding weight...
So we go from this....

To this....

And before anyone starts screaming about iron filings and cutting heat - yes I did remove the daughterboard before cutting :p
I left a little of the top section in for structural rigidity - it actually has a small part which prevents flex on the daughterboard, but took out as much as possible.

Then I had one of those annoying thoughts you wish you'd had BEFORE you cut somethin.... The original plan was to simply put the power and HD activity leds on the front. But then I realised... the HD won't be used at all except for during boot - and the power should be pretty obvious from the LED fans that'll almost certainly end up in here - so now I'm considering running cables from the NIC activity LEDS - one to a red, one to a green LED - red being external internet NIC or dangerous part, and green being the internal LAN or safe part of the system. Spose i'll have to dig out my multimeter and fire up a card to see what voltage LEDS they use - see if it's a practical idea or not...

Further to this, I also thought about making a little alu panel for the front of the case - only about 2 inches square - and re-mount the power button and leds on that. Even if it isn't going to see much activity, I'd like a HD access LED anyway. I am also considering mounting that panel on a piece of 3mm plexi with a angled edge, sanding the edge of the plex a-la defyants frosting, and having a glow all around the panel for a power light, then the button, hd access and NIC activity lights inset on the panel....

One other idea I had but I'm not 100% on this one yet - I don't really want the harsh lighting from a cathode in there - I figure a combination of LEDs from the fans and other ones I'll put in will be enough lighting for the case as it's so small... The heatsink on the CPU has a black plastic shroud on it...

And I was thinking about removing it and replacing it with one made from plexi, again sanded to get a frosted look, and with a couple leds embedded in it to give it a glow...

i know some people like to plan every aspect of every mod before they start, but I kinda like lettin chaos have SOME say in the process lol

EDIT: Actually, just had a thought of sorts - if I get a mini-atx power supply like the seasonic I keep finding on the net - that has an 80mm fan in it - that'd fit where I was planning on having an exhaust fan, it'd act AS an exhaust fan, I'd be able to mount it directly on the outer wall too, and most of it should be hidden by the bit of the top cover I didn't cut out for a window - might just solve about 3 problems in one :D

EDIT 2: Got one of those lil seasonic psus - tis a lil longer than i'd hoped but it'll do nicely :D Now I just need some extra length screws to get thru the 4mm sides of the case....

Whats the specs 4 that thing ? :? ;)

I'm not 100% sure as I havent booted it up in over a year now. Things (like moving, twice) got in the way but I'm about ready to start up on it. I THINK the specs are as follows. Bear in mind tho, before you think "Well that's no good for anything" this is designed, from the ground up, to be nothing more than a Linux based dedicated firewall....

Celeron 400Mhz
3x32MB SDRam (96MB total)
ATI 32MB VGA
6.4 (or maybe 4.3) GB hard disk
2x Belkin 10/100 NICs

Note: I MUST update my sig lol - they changed the background color of the forums, it DID look good, now it looks terrible!!! :p

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I'm not even sure what a sentinel really would look like

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Its basically any guard or lookout.

A watchtower might be neat. It could be modern or mideval.
Also a cool sentinel was the one described in the lord of the rings (not the movie) which was a statue of a 3 headed vulture. Sam had to get past it when he resqued Frodo. The thing controlled a force field at the entrance to Cirith Ungol. (I may be a little fuzzy on the description it might have 2 heads its been a few years since reading the book)

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The thing controlled a force field at the entrance to Cirith Ungol.

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You remembered Cirith Ungol, but not how many heads the thing had? Nice!

-Dave

Where did you get that CD case? I've got a file server I'm going to be doing in a few months that I'll need to build in a briefcase-type thing like you have there, adn the only ones I found were far too thin to work - the one you have there is perfect!

I bought it at a local computer shop for about $18 - place is out of business now, but they're pretty easy to come by - I've seen them elsewhere since - you might want to try DJ supply places as it's supposed to be for 500 cds or somethin like that

That's a cool idea, nice work!

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Originally Posted by slaveofconvention

Bear in mind tho, before you think "Well that's no good for anything" this is designed, from the ground up, to be nothing more than a Linux based dedicated firewall....

Celeron 400Mhz
3x32MB SDRam (96MB total)
ATI 32MB VGA
6.4 (or maybe 4.3) GB hard disk
2x Belkin 10/100 NICs

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Sounds perfectly adequate to me. I have a PIII500/192MB/3.2GB doing a similar job.
It's not actually routing/firewalling/proxying just yet though. It's only running my webcam and serving up some html pages on my LAN. Way over specced actually, but I've found that if you use older stuff, things like memory become harder to find.

Damn, you got me thinking now. I have a perfectly good cyrix 333 mobo in a cupboard somewhere, with I think, 32MB ram... :rolleyes:


BTW, the power connector is on the riser card? :eek:
Blimey, trust Compaq to be different... Imagine trying that with today's 'waffle irons' (I like that analogy), you wouldn't get enough current through the edge connectors. It would weld itself in place!

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Where did you get that CD case?

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Found this 17-1/2'' x 12-1/2'' x 7-1/2'' ALUMINUM TOOL CASE at harbor freights webpage. might be tight.

Quick Update (Mainly just to bring this back into the light as I'm workin on it again now) but I managed to get a couple other bits and pieces to make it a lil more reasonable - the 32mb sticks are history now as I came across 3 64's (and they all memtested out perfectly - and work in the board) Will have some pics online soon. I also found out that a local signwriter will make me a transfer out of "fogged" adhesive vinyl so it'll look like the "etches" you can buy, but with pretty much any 2 colour design on it - so that'll be somethin to bear in mind too. Said he'd do pretty much anythin up to 12" square for £10 as long as I provide the original artwork in vector based eps format - or for £15 if i send him a .jpg - think I'll be goin with the latter - not sure it's worth learnin all about vectors just to save a fiver!