From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 28 14:45:00 2008 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 25239106566B for ; Wed, 28 May 2008 14:45:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rvm@CBORD.com) Received: from smssmtp.cbord.com (mx1.cbord.com [24.39.174.11]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C8DF08FC0C for ; Wed, 28 May 2008 14:44:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rvm@CBORD.com) X-AuditID: ac1f0165-0000135000000330-68-483d70166973 Received: from Email.cbord.com ([10.1.1.100]) by smssmtp.cbord.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Wed, 28 May 2008 10:45:41 -0400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 10:43:14 -0400 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <2b677bda0805280731x45fc2dd4ra62a2657e11641c1@mail.gmail.com> X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: FreeBSD based router ... Thread-Index: AcjAz2dEvr9RgefRRROzLrxJaOt+6QAACqCw References: <18493.25160.836101.941905@jerusalem.litteratus.org> <20080528140856.GA30599@owl.midgard.homeip.net> <2b677bda0805280731x45fc2dd4ra62a2657e11641c1@mail.gmail.com> From: "Bob McConnell" To: X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== Subject: RE: FreeBSD based router ... 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: Wed, 28 May 2008 14:45:00 -0000 From: Jerry B. Altzman > On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 10:08 AM, Erik Trulsson wrote: >> (Putting a total of 6 quad-port NICs on a single PCI-bus would totally swamp >> that bus though, so if one were to actually use so many NICs I would rather >> recommend e.g. the Asus P5BP-E/4L motherboard. It has 3 PCI slots and 3 >> PCI-E slots in addition to the four gigabit LAN ports included on the >> motherboard - so you can get a total of 28 ports if you fully populate all >> slots with quad-port NICs (not counting any USB-connected ethernet ports one >> might add.) It also has built-in graphics so one does not need to waste >> one slot on a graphics card.) >=20 > And all this just to *pass packets*; if you're making real *routing* > decisions based upon that (i.e. you're making a router rather than a > switch), which requires that packets take a trip to the CPU, you'll > find yourself coming to the realization that Cisco and Juniper might > actually be on to something, there, and that ASICs might actually be > worth what you paid for them. >=20 > YMMV, HTH, HAND. I don't need that many Ethernet ports, but I do need most of those PCI slots. I was unable to locate a box with more than four slots and a warranty that was acceptable to our Production group. I'm still not sure about the warranty or that we can buy it in a case with power supply. But at least I have a vector to resume my search. Thanks, Bob McConnell