On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Bryan Catlin wrote:
> We are expanding and wanting a smaller unit, instead of our normal regular
> pcs, for in the field installs.  Most will be in semi weather proof areas
> like outdoor enclosures or at least protected from the elements but not
> necessarily heat and cold.
>
> So what I want to know is, is the Wrap or Soekris board more
> flexible/reliable to use?  We may need the 3rd LAN port and have a thru put
> of about 10Mb and 45Mb in the future.

Each company makes a variety of products.  I also don't know how price 
sensitive you are.

I am price sensitive (home user) which lead me to purchase a WRAP. 
Specifically I got the WRAP 1C-2 (3 LAN port model).  This worked great 
for months, and then I ran into some stability problems.  Pascal (from 
PCEngines) sent me a replacement WRAP 1D-2 which solved the problems.  The 
company was very easy to work with.  I don't think that hardware failures 
for the WRAP boards have been common, I only have read about one other 
incident.

There isn't a completely comparable product from Soekris.  The WRAP boards 
have a faster processor than all Soekris boards except for the 4801 and 
4826.  The Soekris 4801 boards have some additional features over the WRAP 
1D-2 such as a IDE port and USB 1.1 ports.  Neither of these are necessary 
for m0n0wall, so I ignored them.

The PCEngines stuff is much cheaper than Soekris.  The Soekris 4801 is 
$222 vs $147 for a WRAP 1D-2.  The cheapest Soekris is about the same 
price as the WRAP 1D-2 but uses a CPU with about half of the speed.  This 
is probably fine for m0n0wall today, but I preferred to have the extra 
headroom.

I don't think that you can really go wrong with products from either 
company, it is just a matter of comparing features to cost for your 
specific application.

alex