Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 09:24:21 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Jerry B. Altzman" <jbaltz@gmail.com>, "Erik Trulsson" <ertr1013@student.uu.se> Cc: Bob McConnell <rvm@cbord.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: FreeBSD based router ... Message-ID: <BMEDLGAENEKCJFGODFOCIEKKCFAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <2b677bda0805280731x45fc2dd4ra62a2657e11641c1@mail.gmail.com>
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> -----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 > <ertr1013@student.uu.se> 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
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