From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Aug 18 4:27:54 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8744E37B400 for ; Sun, 18 Aug 2002 04:27:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: from perimeter.co.za (obelix.perimeter.co.za [209.212.102.154]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7C48143E42 for ; Sun, 18 Aug 2002 04:27:43 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bsd@perimeter.co.za) Received: from asterix (ndf-dial-196-30-124-25.mweb.co.za [196.30.124.25]) (AUTH: LOGIN bsd@perimeter.co.za) by perimeter.co.za with esmtp; Sun, 18 Aug 2002 13:27:39 +0200 Message-ID: <002f01c246aa$459b8580$0200000a@perimeter.co.za> From: "Patrick O'Reilly" To: "Grant Cooper" Cc: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org References: <063501c2465d$9604b930$2afececd@TCOOPER> <1029622354.12169.7.camel@markx.vladsempire.net> <067701c24694$e8c58c80$2afececd@TCOOPER> Subject: Re: Natd and IP interfaces Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 13:27:39 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG From: "Grant Cooper" > Yeh it's resolved. I was thinking (hoping) FreeBSD had some algorithm magic. > How is it not possible to turn your computer into a switch by adding more > networking cards. Hubs and routers are so small. Yes - Hubs, routers and switches can be quite small - because their tasks are relatively simple compared to what a computer can do. FreeBSD can behave like a Router. In this case each NIC has a unique IP on a different network, and the server can route traffic between theses networks. Hubs and switches are usually devices which are transparent to the network, and which simply echo messages between the hosts on a network (with varying degrees of intelligence and speed). Using FreeBSD as a router does make some sense, especially if you also make use of other features like firewalling, proxying, caching, etc. Switches and Hubs are so cheap that I cannot see any reason to try to replace them with a computer. In fact, I know there are other on this list who would even question the wisdom of using a computer for a router, given that Hardware-based routers (Cisco, 3Com, etc) are supposed to be faster and less prone to failure. --- Regards, Patrick O'Reilly. ___ _ __ / _ )__ __ (_)_ __ ___ _/ /____ __ / __/ -_) _) / ~ ) -_), ,-/ -_) _) /_/ \__/_//_/_/~/_/\__/ \__/\__/_/ http://www.perimeter.co.za To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message