From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 10 17:11:39 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 53A09106564A for ; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:11:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from oproxy5-pub.bluehost.com (oproxy5-pub.bluehost.com [67.222.38.55]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 1F1B78FC19 for ; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:11:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 9826 invoked by uid 0); 10 Jun 2011 17:11:36 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO box543.bluehost.com) (74.220.219.143) by cpoproxy2.bluehost.com with SMTP; 10 Jun 2011 17:11:36 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=default; d=apotheon.com; h=Date:From:To:Subject:Message-ID:Mail-Followup-To:References:Mime-Version:Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To:User-Agent:X-Identified-User; b=Qe2lts6V8+WV17DysJ4vF2WQXfRygPKy706YOt9GwGYrrMrDWOhPHKs5SDOnyM+LJyChL6YJRVvl4+xAcbSdWffYUTZk0AsqWwCMl4Z81R7UPzdUu8FdvBt45CrCgpZu; Received: from c-24-8-180-234.hsd1.co.comcast.net ([24.8.180.234] helo=kukaburra.hydra) by box543.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QV5F8-0005fP-QC for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:11:35 -0600 Received: by kukaburra.hydra (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:56:39 -0600 Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:56:39 -0600 From: Chad Perrin To: FreeBSD Message-ID: <20110610165639.GA38479@guilt.hydra> Mail-Followup-To: FreeBSD References: <20110609005656.GA9183@thought.org> <15630_1307624948_4DF0C5F4_15630_82_1_D9B37353831173459FDAA836D3B43499BF89C4A2@WADPMBXV0.waddell.com> <20110609184829.GC33714@guilt.hydra> <20110609222807.GA34570@guilt.hydra> <20110610075943.497793ee@scorpio> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="YZ5djTAD1cGYuMQK" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Identified-User: {2737:box543.bluehost.com:apotheon:apotheon.org} {sentby:smtp auth 24.8.180.234 authed with ren@apotheon.org} Subject: Re: Long Day's Journey into X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:11:39 -0000 --YZ5djTAD1cGYuMQK Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 08:34:06AM -0400, Daniel Feenberg wrote: >=20 > I wouldn't think the OP was interested in saving money, there are > other reasons for building your own switch. For example, there is > a famous article "Tricks you can do if your firewall is also > a bridge": >=20 > http://www.usenix.org/events/neta99/full_papers/limoncelli/limoncelli_h= tml/ I'll read that. Sounds interesting. To be perfectly clear, the reason I'm looking into this is that I tend to like to understand how things work, and to know how to build things I need (most of the reason I got into programming in the first place). Toward that end, I've decided to look into how one would build a switch, and discovered that -- for the most part -- it seems one *wouldn't* build a switch, so I decided to ask here since the subject of switches came up. Obviously, a switch needs some kind of software running on it; it seems reasonable to me that FreeBSD should be able to serve as the necessary software, if only I can figure out how to build a switch from commodity parts without completely breaking the bank. In addition to that, it would be kinda nice to have a switch whose internals I understand so that port-by-port failure of a switch will not occur as a mysterious process I don't quite grasp, as so often occurs with dedicated switches. The fact any switches built after the turn of the century seem to start dying within three years seems like a big problem (I have one 10/100 Linksys switch from before the turn of the century that still works great), after all. --=20 Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] --YZ5djTAD1cGYuMQK Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAk3yTMcACgkQ9mn/Pj01uKVPvgCfdeaeQYJ83Gw8N28+LhMuIoOD NVcAn0hpM6lcD/SOZ4Mbnj9s6WfIojQo =Dwnt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --YZ5djTAD1cGYuMQK--