Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 17:49:05 +1100 From: Kal Torak <kaltorak@quake.com.au> To: Dan Shearer <dan@tellurian.com.au> Cc: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 2 cisco's and a fbsd box running bgp Message-ID: <3A52CB61.5657375@quake.com.au> References: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0101031635450.23776-100000@calulu.shearer.org>
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> 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. True... But is it needed? Quad ethernet cards are around now... > - fringe features. IOS implements some things that free routers > don't. Yep, but again how often dose anyone use these? > - 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. Maybe with the higher end ciscos, but Im not so sure about the lower end ones... Obviously a device dedicated to a small range of things can do it more efficiently than a system doing a wide range, but I dont think this is such a big issue with a fast cpu + ram... I would like to test it, but I dont have any spare ciscos sitting around I can mess with... > - 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. It will cost you a small fortune but you will get support :) And you can get free, but slower support for software via the mailing lists! It would be pretty hard to beat a 7xxx cisco, but personally I think a well setup FreeBSD system can replace the lower end ciscos and save you a lot of money unless it breaks :O To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
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