From owner-freebsd-isp Tue Jan 2 22:19:12 2001 From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 2 22:19:10 2001 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mail.shearer.org (unknown [139.130.30.173]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6238037B400 for ; Tue, 2 Jan 2001 22:19:08 -0800 (PST) Received: from calulu.shearer.org ([192.168.1.1]) by mail.shearer.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1) id 14DhEB-0002DS-00; Wed, 03 Jan 2001 16:46:51 +1030 Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 16:46:51 +1030 (CST) From: Dan Shearer To: Kal Torak Cc: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 2 cisco's and a fbsd box running bgp In-Reply-To: <3A52C152.A75D1882@quake.com.au> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, 3 Jan 2001, Kal Torak wrote: > Nope you will just have to take my word for it :P Well, this is what I'm trying to get at. In fact I have used free software to do routing before, and would do so again in the right circumstances, just as I happily use Ciscos in the right circumstances (and I'm no routing guru, far from it. But I know when something works and when it doesn't :-) I know of a small number of sites who are using free software for routing BGP and OSPF, and I am pretty sure that there is a very much larger number of sites represented on this list, the Zebra list, the LRP list and the mrtg list. But I'm looking for a really good answer to give to people who snort "Oh but nothing but a Cisco can reliably route packets at ethernet speeds in a BPG/OSPF environment". After debate here and plenty of other places, and from personal experience, it seems to me that the issues are: - port density. Ciscos are much denser. - fringe features. IOS implements some things that free routers don't. - top end performance. Ciscos win when the packets flow fast because of their custom packet processing cards. Equivalents can be bought for PCs but they are expensive. - support. If you are a big Cisco customer you can usually expect quite good customer service, and may even get good service if you are a small customer. If you don't want or need these four things then free software should do the trick. On problem people have cited that demonstrably doesn't exist include hardware reliability. PC-based 1/2RU firewalls are sold for mission-critical purposes, and have been delivering for years. Nokia is perhaps the best-known big brand that sells FreeBSD inside a very reliable Intel box for this purpose. -- Dan Shearer Open Source Manager dan@tellurian.com.au To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message