Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 16:54:13 -0500 From: "Dave VanAuken" <dave@hawk-systems.com> To: "Steve Curry" <scurry505@yahoo.com>, "FreeBSD Questions" <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Software vs Hardware Router (was: What name brand would you buy for a firewall/router) Message-ID: <DBEIKNMKGOBGNDHAAKGNGEDFEGAA.dave@hawk-systems.com> In-Reply-To: <20010321205647.63298.qmail@web13102.mail.yahoo.com>
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By edge routing, I am referring to the edge or outer limit of our network, where we, and all subnets managed by our clients or ourselves interact with other carriers (Sprint, UU-Net, PSI Net, and so forth). This may be a POP location for broadband and dialup(T1-T3), or a central connection (T3-OC3). In reviewing the network layout, if we were to go with entirely Cisco products we would be looking at the routers mentioned (2651, 7204) with the integrated CSU/DSU modules. Would love to test out the implementation of replacing a planned 2651 with a FreeBSD/CSU/DSU solution and see how it fares. Traffic consists of broadband access(piles of junk), private network traffic over provisioned T1 and DSL links to clients, dialup, and a decent availability for hosting traffic. Routing tables could get heavy, and redundancy over networks is an issue. We would be pairing any solutions with single point of failure. Again, easy solution is plug the appropriate Cisco "appliance" in at each location... that ends up being a wack of cash, and then dealing with different(even slightly at times) configurations for each type of hardware. The last thing I want is to come up with the great idea of plugging in FreeBSD based solutions and they end up being the weak link. There is also the question of loadout. I have seen FreeBSD operate on some pretty scantily clad systems quite hapilly... Assuming that each box will have routing, nat, and firewall duties, what load will say a mid range PIII system, 256/512 RAM, IDE HDD handle? At what point will that system be the choke point of the network? Or better yet, what loadout do you recommend for various traffic loads? Hope that gives sufficient information. The short of it is, looking for bang for buck. Profitability is the key word in today's market and everything is under the looking glass. :) Dave -----Original Message----- From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Steve Curry Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 3:57 PM To: Dave VanAuken; FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Software vs Hardware Router (was: What name brand would you buy for a firewall/router) Dave, First of all I appoligize if in a previous email you described what type of environment you are in. I've been busy and I haven't had a chance to read each and every email on this busy list. I'm in a environment that uses tonz of Cisco, tonz of Foundery, and *TONZ* of freeBSD. I use a freeBSD router in my job-domain here at Yahoo and it works great. It gets hammered and often and is always a happy little box. However my job is not to sell you on a BSD box or a job specific <brand-name-goes-here> router. I also use a box at home to do the whole filter packets/firewall/port-forwarding role and once again it works fine. I use a BSD box because it's cost effective, reliable and I understand it. I can't see spending the money to buy a job specific router although if I did I wouldn't hesitate to using it. You mention edge routing, are you doing this? What is your application? Cough up some details and maybe we (the list) can help. Steve Curry Technical Yahoo Yahoo! Inc. --- Dave VanAuken <dave@hawk-systems.com> wrote: > I would love to see some real stats (not claims to > fame by someone in > thier basement with a couple of systems who dables) > on the > effectiveness and capabilities of a FreeBSD Router > vs say a "Cisco > 2651", or the "7204VXR" which are some edge routers > we are looking at > for routing T1, T3, and OC3 connections. > > At what point it a FreeBSD Box (or Boxes) just not > up to the task > capability wise (ignoring the previous thread on > reliability of > componants, and moving parts). > > At about 3k for the 2650 (with appropriate loadout) > to close to 15k > for the 7204 I could see a FreeBSD box decently > loaded out capturing > the low end, but wonder where the divide would be on > the higher end of > the scale. > > Any first hand experience or thoughts on this? > > Dave > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of > the message > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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