Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 09:12:11 +0100 (BST) From: Manar Hussain <manar@ivision.co.uk> To: freebsd-ISP@freebsd.org Cc: linuxisp@friendly.jeffnet.org Subject: Re: Router Cards? Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.93.971022090517.18208B-100000@stingray.ivision.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19971021182012.0098ad50@bailin.lan>
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>To: linuxisp@friendly.jeffnet.org
^^^^^^^^
Hmm
>Does any one have any experience or knowledge about the Emerging
>Technologies ET/5025x or the SDL Communications WANic or RISCom boards
>insofar as their suitabilty as a router is concerned?
>
>Both companies basically claim that you pop it in either your server or a
>spare system and through the wonders of software and technology ... bingo
>... instant router.
>
>Seems like a VERY attractive alternative to a VERY expensive Cisco on the
>surface especially for a startup like me.
We've been using an ISA based RISCom card for about 18 months now with no
problems at all. The driver for it back at the start was a bit ropey so we
used Linux but switched to FreeBSD a while back when that was more
resolved. Never given us any trouble.
We only plug into a 64K line but I wouldn't expect any trouble for anything
up to T1 with the current crop of cards you'd be looking at.
That said - in terms of price there isn't all that much in it. What's a
Cisco 2501 - about $1600. You do get potentially much more flexibility with
a unix box though and you could also run services on it (rolling your mail
and DNS server with the router into one box the early days of an ISP may be
totally viable and sound attractive - you could probably also add a web
server on there too if it was reasonably spec'd/setup)
Manar
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