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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!chi-news.cic.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.sprintlink.net!wizard.pn.com!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!sun4nl!geertj From: geertj@ripe.net (Geert Jan de Groot) Subject: Re: configuring BSD/OS to use PC as a router X-Nntp-Posting-Host: belegen.ripe.net Message-ID: <DGGIrH.pK@inter.NL.net> Sender: news@inter.NL.net (News at news) Organization: RIPE Network Coordination Centre References: <45jaic$7hm@news.duke.edu> <bswDGFF9F.Jr9@netcom.com> Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 21:09:17 GMT Lines: 32 In <bswDGFF9F.Jr9@netcom.com> bsw@netcom.com (Bruce Sterling Woodcock) writes: >In article <45jaic$7hm@news.duke.edu> gallatin@davinci.isds.duke.edu (Andrew Gallatin) writes: >>We don't have the budget to install a 'real' router, and I was hoping >>we could get adequate performance from a PC w/2 ethernet cards running >>BSD/OS. >Forget it. A UNIX-based or DOS-based box isn't capable of being a "real" >router like real routers are. Don't let anyone tell you different; it will >work moderately well for a while, but in the end you'll just have headaches. That is an interesting comment. I'm using two of them currently (one running full routing using BGP4 with 6 peers or so). Works like a charm, but keep in mind that: 1. this box has a harddisk, and is thus slighly less reliable than a solid-state box. It is perfectly OK for routers-in-the-engineroom, but don'n install one in unattended locations 2. If you run full routing, install enough memory 3. Use quality components. Some cheap boards have bad caches (which amazingly enough work good enough for windooze, but not for real work) but you'll lose if you run BSD/OS on them. You may want to check out www.vix.com for some hints on this. >There are "real" routers that are fairly inexpensive. Check out Livingston. I suggest against Livingston unless they finally managed to implement classless routing on their boxes (i.e. NOT RIP). I know of one large ISP here that replaced all it's Livingstons. If reliability is important, you might want to look at Cisco. Geert Jan