Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 08:21:27 +0100 (BST) From: Jim Dixon <jdd@vbc.net> To: Jacob Suter <jsuter@linus.intrastar.net> Cc: isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Cisco vs gated (WAS: Multi-homed - Load Balancing ...) Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.91.970815080007.17345H-100000@avon-gw.uk1.vbc.net> In-Reply-To: <33F3C879.AC7828DA@linus.intrastar.net>
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On Thu, 14 Aug 1997, Jacob Suter wrote: > Too expensive... but isn't there a way to do two ethernet networks on > small subnets to a single FreeBSD box and two low end (IE Livingston > OFfice Routers) to do BGP? I'd rock if it did because you could always > settle back to a single line (on your normal ethernet) if something > went wrong.... You've got it back to front. The FreeBSD box gives you cheap and reliable BGP4 routing. The low-end boxes are OK for customer sites and other places where you want absolute reliability at the price of inflexibility and poor performance. Two FreeBSD based routers, each with 64 MB, a sync serial card (we use SDL PCI-based "WANics" but I suppose there is an ET equivalent), and a PCI Ethernet card (Tulip based or one of the Intel 10/100 cards) give you a very reliable setup and they are _cheap_ To get anything similar in performance you need a Cisco 4700 series router which will cost you something like ten times as much. Yes, you do have to use gated. And yes they are changing the way that gated is licensed. But Merit is working on a special deal for ISPs, details out Real Soon Now. I would just use the newest release (see www.gated.org for source code) and wait. The BSD-based solution is so much cheaper that you can build it as an experiment. If you don't like it, all of parts except the sync serial card are standard, so you can just use the box for something else. If you prefer to pay ten times as much and like being locked into a proprietary routing solution, sure, buy Cisco. But if you prefer source code and don't mind having a wonderful high performance system that you build from off the shelf parts whose price goes steadily down and quality goes steadily up -- go FreeBSD. The problem used to be that there was no upgrade path. However, the Ascend GRF 400 now gives you one. It's a gated box and runs a BSD variant. But it can handle multiple HSSI, ATM, FDDI, etc ports. Of course it's a lot more expensive, but it's still a lot cheaper than -- and outperforms -- Cisco. > > > What are you guys using for T1 cards and/or routers to do > > Multi-homing & > > > load balancing and no single point of failure? > > > > Go buy some Cisco equipment. :) Only if you have to. -- Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015
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