Issues with Fedex Shipping and Customs?

mikeynags

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Yes - I ended up having to tell them the contents of the package though. FedEx mentioned the description was inadequate for customs reasons. I told them it was a weather cam. Once I updated them with that info, FedEx updated the tracking info.


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A little off subject. I ordered a 'mini pc' through AliExpress. (It has 6 network ports and I am going to use it as a box for a pfSense router). I ended up paying $55 for DHL shipping and then afterwards they said I was responsible for any customs fees? Anyone have an idea how much I am looking at - the pc was approx. $350 with shipping, How do you pay custom fees?

Also, in looking at DHL Tracking, it looks like they are shipping it to France (I am in S Cal), is that normal or did this get screwed up?

This is the min-pc, about $200 cheaper than the Protectli 6 port vault

Yanling

Protectli



View attachment 72854
I am running this Protectilli as PF sense for quite a while now. I replaced an Edge router X and won't go back.
We are using the 4 port for some of our customers, including some with multiple VPN's that are up 24/7.


Looks like difference is
$197.70 + Shipping $52.63 Alixpress and $379.00 Amazon with 4G and 32G SSD for celeron CPU
$331.77 + shipping $114.89 Allixpress and $539.00 Amazon Intel i5 with no memory.
 
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eeeeesh

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I have read good things about Protectli and when I found out that it appears their devices are made by Yanling, I thought I would take a chance and order direct. I am currently running pfSense on my Home Server but I decided I wanted a standalone device 'just in case'. I plan on installing ESXI on this and running pfSense in a VM like I am doing now
 
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For what it's worth, I've picked up a DT122-BE mini PC ($90) and you can also get HP 730 mini PCs pretty cheap to run pfSense you really don't need a full blown Intel i5. For anyone other than a BUSINESS you just (ideally) need 2 ethernet ports (or more) and something that can run 24x7 with pretty low power since it's basically an always-on appliance. I'm running an i3-6100T as per my signature, and CPU hovers between 0% and 2% on a 1Gbe connection, and maxes out around 5% during a full-speed speed test (i.e. i5 would be incredible overkill).
 

eeeeesh

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For what it's worth, I've picked up a DT122-BE mini PC ($90) and you can also get HP 730 mini PCs pretty cheap to run pfSense you really don't need a full blown Intel i5. For anyone other than a BUSINESS you just (ideally) need 2 ethernet ports (or more) and something that can run 24x7 with pretty low power since it's basically an always-on appliance. I'm running an i3-6100T as per my signature, and CPU hovers between 0% and 2% on a 1Gbe connection, and maxes out around 5% during a full-speed speed test (i.e. i5 would be incredible overkill).
Actually, I need 5 ports, and since I couldn't find one, I went with the 6 Port Protectli/Yanling device
  1. WAN
  2. LAN (Secured)
  3. WIFI-1 (Secured)
  4. CAMS (Dirty - no access to internet or any other network)
  5. WIFI-2 (Dirty - IoT, Amazon Echo's, Thermostats, etc etc can only access internet and nothing else)
Sure, you could get by with just a single port and use a managed switch with vlans, but I prefer separate, physical cabling, switches, etc. etc. So, keeping in mind that I wanted a 6 port, a bare Protectli Vault with their lowest processor (Celeron 3865U) is currently selling for $289 plus tax and shipping. Those HP 730 mini PCs were release in 2015 and personally, I don't really want to use something that old for my network, besides, they don't have enough ports or the ability to add extra ports for what I want.

I received the Yanling device today directly from Hong Kong and I am very pleased. There is not doubt in my mind that the Protectli devices are rebranded Yanling. You can even see in this video the Yanling name on the motherboard and the motherboard model number is exactly the same as my device. Of course I don't have the warranty and support that Protectli offers, but I only paid $377 total for it, versus the $560 the Protectli Vault costs.

No your right, I probably don't need an i5 processor, but since I was saving almost $200 - why not? I plan on running ESXI on it and will virtualize pfSense and probably at least one Win10 machine probably for my HomeSeer automation and Veeam for backups. But again, very few devices actually have 6 ports and just as important, Yanling uses Intel ports which ESXI is supposed to be pretty picky about

Youtube showing the Protectli 6 port

Lastly - didn't pay any customs fees and so far I am very pleased with this transaction. Here is a link to the "Official Yanling' store where I bought my 6 port

and here is a link to the Protectli Vault website for comparison
 

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Actually, I need 5 ports, and since I couldn't find one, I went with the 6 Port Protectli/Yanling device
  1. WAN
  2. LAN (Secured)
  3. WIFI-1 (Secured)
  4. CAMS (Dirty - no access to internet or any other network)
  5. WIFI-2 (Dirty - IoT, Amazon Echo's, Thermostats, etc etc can only access internet and nothing else)
There is a cheap way to cheat on ports. It's called V-LAN and you can put out several networks on one port
by tagging the packets to show where to go.
Then pick up a switch that will split your VLAN back out.

This switch is cheap at $30 for doing VLAN. You set up the ports and what VLAN you want to come out on what port.
I use this to pass more then one network over a wireless connection, or even a wired to another building.

FYI: I have companies running 2 internet connections with load balancing, and fail over, using the Dual Core Celeron CPU.
I have never seen the CPU be above 12%, even with over 100 employees at work. Average is probably around 3-4%.
It is the 6 port with all ports full, and 2 VLAN on one port. It splits out the networks for controlling VPN access and
other restrictions.
 
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