Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 29 Nov 1995 18:33:21 -0800
From:      gpalmer@westhill.cdrom.com
To:        Ron Steele <rjs@infi.net>
Cc:        question freebsd <freebsd-questions@freefall.freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: IPX status and routing 
Message-ID:  <9543.817698801@westhill.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 29 Nov 1995 21:22:33 GMT." <Pine.BSF.3.91.951129203120.1582A-100000@localhost> 

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Ron Steele wrote in message ID
<Pine.BSF.3.91.951129203120.1582A-100000@localhost>:
> We are interested in using a FreeBSD box as a dedicated router.  A
> couple of questions come to mind.  How many ethernet interfaces can be
> reasonably supported?  Is there a significant performace penality
> verses using a "real" router?  Finally is there support for routing
> IPX packets, and if so what version of FreeBSD is need for IPX
> routing?

1) I dunno about ``reasonable'', but we have a machine here with 3
   10b2 cards, 2 10bT cards and one 100bTX card... :-)
   (Okay, it's a P5-90, and the 100bTX & 3 of the other cards are PCI)

2) I doubt it. Dedicated routers can do slightly faster packet
   switching as they start routing when they've recieved the header,
   whereas BSD has to wait for the entire packet.

3) FreeBSD-current has IPX routing code
 
> If anyone else is doing this, are you happy with the performace?  Any
> suggestions for ethernet cards to use in this application.

Try to get well supported cards, e.g. DEC 21040 or 21140 based
chipsets or something.

Gary




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?9543.817698801>