Axiomtek NA-806D Network Appliance

Review

Author: Benjamin Luck – Synworks Development Group

Synworks DG Website http://www.synworks.info/

Email: contact@synworks.info
 Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 The Equipment

3.0 Testing Reliability and Speed

4.0 Product Support

5.0 The Conclusion

6.0 Product Review Rating

7.0 Contacts for the Product

1.0 Introduction
Over the months, I have been deploying the Axiomtek NA-806D to various locations, running a
special Linux firmware I have design for a flash environment. But less about my products and more
about the Axiomtek NA-806D unit.

The Axiomtek NA-806D network appliance, is a fanless, rack mountable and wall mountable
network security hardware platform. The unit is suitable for UTM applications, network security
applications and embedded box solutions.
For more technical information and ordering options, take a look at the NA-806D datasheet from
the Axiomtek site. Also, the Axiomtek site contains many other network appliance equipment to suit
your needs.

2.0 The Hardware

The Axiomtek NA-806D comes in a very sturdy metal case, with mounting parts for rack and wall
mounting. The unit is totally fanless and is cooled by are large heatsink built into the top of the
casing.
The case is nice and clean, with easy mounting parts and a good LED status display on the front.

The compact flash card socket is easily accessible from the bottom of the NA-806D, with just a
small panel that needs to be removed. Also a 3.5" hard drive can be installed inside the unit if
required.
Standard X86 Intel hardware is used for the motherboard's chipset and it's four LAN interfaces This
makes it easy to install most operating systems and drivers for the hardware are easy to find for the
system. I found Linux to install very easily onto the system by using a USB CDROM drive.
A console port located on the front is available for easy access to Linux shells and terminal
information. Another RS-232 port is also on the back of the unit, allowing serial communications
for automation and HMI type systems.
The VGA port can be used for HMI or kiosk type interfaces and the two USB ports allow for a
multitude of devices to be plugged into the NA-806D.

3.0 Testing Reliability and Speed

The units that are being tested are configured with 1GB of RAM, 512MB of compact flash hard
drive and 1.3 GHz Intel Pentium M processors.The test will be done with the standard Intel 10/100
NICs on both the NA806D and testing hosts.

I have several Axiomtek NA-806D units working for clients with out any failures. The uptime of
these network appliances are excellent, and with our uptime of over 10 months (Since I started
deploying these units).These units have been deployed in VPN Router and packet inspection duties
in heavy data traffic conditions, with mission critical requirements.
For our tests, I used the OpenVPN software on a Linux image installed on two NA-806Ds,
connected together with 100Mbps Ethernet. Two test host were then connected to the each of the
network appliances. The NA-806D Intel network interfaces came up without any issues and showed
correctly on the front interface.
I used a Linux server with ProFTPD on one end of the tunnel and a Linux laptop using WGET and
WPUT for the other end. While moving data test using 256 AES encryption with LZO compression,
I was getting around 88Mbps with only 20% CPU usage.

4.0 Product Support

Axiomtek's support and sales for the NA-806D product is done by their various regional
headquarters. and product partners Worldwide technical support and sales service is done through
16 offices located in Taiwan, America, Europe, Japan and China ensure prompt service to
customers.
Their technical and sales staff are helpful and quick to resolve any issues and handle any
requirement requests.
5.0 The Conclusion
The NA-806D is an excellent product for security applications and embedded box solutions. Fast,
reliable and with trusted X86 hardware, this makes the unit very useful for mission critical
applications.
I have deployed many of these units and have found them to be easy to image, supporting USB
bootable CD's. The mounting is a breeze, with good quality mounting components. I have found the
units useful in harsh environments due to the lack of fans, meaning that dust is not pulled through
the system.
The support for the product is good, with sales and engineering staff quick to solve technical
support issues and field product orders.

NA-806D Features
• Low power fanless and high performance Intel Pentium M processor.
• Supports four Ethernet ports through PCI interface.
• Supports LAN bypass and BIOS redirected to COM port.
• Supports one 2.5" HDD.
• Supports accelerated IPsec security engines and wireless module through mini-PCI.
• Suitable for VPN, UTM, Network Bandwidth Controller, SSL/TLS, Firewall applications as
well as other embedded box applications.

6.0 Product Review Rating

This is a rating from my in-house and field testing. With a rating out of 5 stars.
Reliability:

Ease of Setup:

Performance:
7.0 Contacts for the Product
Name: Axiomtek Taiwan
Company Profile: AXIOMTEK design, manufacture, and support award-winning versatile and
modularly designed Embedded Computing Platforms and Applied Computing Platforms, so that
customers have a single, reliable, cost-effective source. AXIOMTEK's wide array of CE, FCC
& UL certified products include single board computers, embedded systems and barebone
systems, panel computers, medical PC, human machine interfaces, and network security appliances.
Website: http://www.axiomtek.com.tw