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From: Chris Ziomkowski <czim@summit.bigbear.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD as a router - 2 T1 / 2 Ethernet - BGP / OSPF
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 21:48:55 -0800
Organization: Summit Computing/Big Bear Online
Lines: 108
Message-ID: <32BE1D47.12CA@summit.bigbear.com>
References: <58g3cs$h5m@palan.palantir.com> <58h0fc$joh@stargate.stdio.com> <58hse8$5hv@nntp1.best.com> <32b07f34.273273152@news.csd.net> <58rqec$l30@mozart.jlc.net> <58rud1$78o@samba.rahul.net> <58s09j$n9o@mozart.jlc.net> <59gv1s$92s@pelican.unf.edu>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:32997
Cliff Addy wrote:
>
> Jason T. Nelson (jtn@frodo.mc.com) wrote:
> : On 13 Dec 1996 15:57:21 GMT, dhesi@spams.r.us.com <dhesi@spams.r.us.com>
> : scribbled:
> : > [ refering to ETinc's sync cards ]
> : >What sort of loads can it handle?
>
> : According to their web page, the ET/5025-25 can handle external (which I
> : will assume means line) speeds of up to 16Mbps while the ET/5025-16 "only"
> : goes to 7Mbs. There is an ET/5025 plain-jane card that handles line speeds
> : of around 1Mbps. They support FreeBSD and NetBSD as well as other OSes.
>
> Our own personal experience with ET was not good, even though we never bought
> anything from them. We were ready to purchase one of their dual t-1 boards
> and had some questions on configuration. The email responses were snide and
> condescending. Then we subscribed to their user mailing list. The final
> straw was an abusive post from ET, hammering on one of their customers and
> telling them to leave because "you have nothing to contribute here." We
> rapidly backpedaled and are now purchasing a Cisco. We really think the
> ET stuff would have met our needs better, but Cisco's people met our needs
> better.
>
> All these interactions were with one person (Dennis) and may not reflect
> the entire operation. However, since he is the *only* person to post/respond,
> perhaps he's the only one there? It just scared us that a company would
> allow employees to treat customers (and potential customers!) in this way.
> As always, YMMV, this is just a story of *our* emperiences and impressions.
> (I'm afraid Dennis will read this and sue me!)
>
> Caveat emptor (however you spell it).
>
> Cliff
I run a small ISP in the mountains of Southern California. We have
purchased
2 cards from ET now, and it is also my belief that Dennis is the only
employee
of this company. It also true that Dennis can be a smartass and is rude.
What
do you expect though...he's from the east coast. :-) However, I also get
the
impression he's very intelligent, and if you can ignore his demeanor,
he'll
usually help you out after insulting you. It's taken us about a week
after
receiving each card to get it working. We have a dual 5025-25 card and
an
8 bit 5025 card. The only serious problem we have right now is that we
haven't
been able to make both cards work in one machine, although I suspect we
have a
slightly incompatible motherboard. (We also have a lesser problem where
the
machine hangs on the first reboot, but comes up fine the second time
when
you hit the reset button.)
We're running 2 T1's on our dual port card with no difficulties. 1 of
the
T1's is our primary link, and so gets very heavy use. The other is to a
local business, and tends to get traffic in a bursty fashion. Once you
get
these cards running, they'll easily keep up with a Cisco, and the
software
is significantly more configurable. Our 8 bit card is running a
dedicated
56K backup link. All of our FreeBSD machines are AMD 5x86's.
We only have 1 ethernet card, but the machine is continually routing
from
ethernet to the T1, and is still very spritely when accessed. I suspect
there'd be no problem adding a second on any Pentium class machine.
We're using FreeBSD as a router in a professional manner and have had
good
success with it, although the configuration has always been a bitch. I
have
yet to install a card and not have it panic my kernel. It usually turns
out
to be some undocumented "feature" that I eventually come across by trial
and
error. For instance, accidentally configuring eth1 before eth0 causes
very
nasty behavior, but this isn't mentioned anywhere in the install
manuals.
There are also a number of typos in the manual which will panic your
kernel
if you type them exactly, so you're better off following the example
files
that are sent with the cards. (I reported one of these discrepencies to
Dennis, but he said he checked it there and it didn't cause a kernel
panic,
so it may be machine or OS version dependent.)
Hope this helps and good luck.
Chris.
--
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Chris Ziomkowski / |
Software Consultant | | _______
|___| |____/-| / |
czim@summit.bigbear.com --- ---- - *|__| |____---- \_/
| | | \-|
"Flying is more fun anyway" | | --------
\__|
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