From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 28 16:23:22 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 DBC91106578A for ; Wed, 28 May 2008 16:23:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1D528FC1B for ; Wed, 28 May 2008 16:23:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDSK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id m4SGN9xU035450; Wed, 28 May 2008 09:23:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "Jerry B. Altzman" , "Erik Trulsson" Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 09:24:21 -0700 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1914 In-Reply-To: <2b677bda0805280731x45fc2dd4ra62a2657e11641c1@mail.gmail.com> Importance: Normal X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]); Wed, 28 May 2008 09:23:19 -0700 (PDT) Cc: Bob McConnell , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 16:23:23 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Jerry B. > Altzman > Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 7:31 AM > To: Erik Trulsson > Cc: Bob McConnell; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: FreeBSD based router ... >=20 >=20 > On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 10:08 AM, Erik Trulsson=20 > wrote: > > (Putting a total of 6 quad-port NICs on a single PCI-bus would=20 > totally swamp > > that bus though, so if one were to actually use so many NICs I=20 > 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=20 > populate all > > slots with quad-port NICs (not counting any USB-connected=20 > 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 If it's purely ethernet-to-ethernet routing, and a lot of ethernet ports, then he should check into the layer-3 switches on the market and see if they will work for him. Much cheaper than a "real router" Ted