Routers vs. PC's for routing - was list problems?

Thu May 23 18:30:16 UTC 2002

"Not to say you can't route well with a linux or bsd system you can but 
at the high-end probably not as well."

Tell that to Juniper.

Scott Granados wrote:
> Remember that a pc may have some certain functions that are "more 
> powerful" than a router but a pc is a much more general computer.  
> Routers are supposed to be and usually designed to do one thing only, 
> route, not play quake, balance your check book, browse the net, etc etc. 
>  So although for example a gsr-12000 may hhave a slower cpu than the 
> machine on your desk it probably will route and pass more traffic than 
> your pc ever will because of its design.  Not to say you can't route 
> well with a linux or bsd system you can but at the high-end probably not 
> as well.
> 
> On Thu, 23 May 2002, Vinny Abello wrote:
> 
> 
>>I would have to say for any Linux/BSD platform to be a viable routing 
>>solution, you have to eliminate all moving parts or as much as possible, 
>>ie. no hard drives because hard drives will fail. Not much you can do about 
>>the cooling fans in various parts of the machine though which routers also 
>>tend to have. Solid state storage would be the way to go as far as what the 
>>OS is installed on. You have to have something to imitate flash on the 
>>common router. Otherwise, if you can get the functionality out of a PC, I 
>>say go for it! The processing power of a modern PC is far beyond any router 
>>I can think of. I suppose it would just be a matter of how efficient your 
>>kernel, TCP/IP stack and routing daemon would be at that point. :)
>>
>>At 10:48 PM 5/22/2002, you wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Wed, 22 May 2002, Andy Dills wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>From the number of personal replies I got about these topics, it seems
>>>>>like many people are interested in sharing information about how to do
>>>>>routing on a budget, or how to avoid getting shot in the foot with your
>>>>>Cisco box.
>>>>
>>>>Routing on a budget? Dude, you can buy a 7200 for $2 grand. Why bother
>>>>with a linux box? Heh, at least use FreeBSD :)
>>>
>>>Before the dot com implosion, they weren't nearly that inexpensive.  The
>>>average corporate user will also need smartnet (what's that on a 7200, a K
>>>or a few per year?) for support, warranty, and software updates.  Some
>>>people just don't appreciate being nickled and dimed by cisco and forced
>>>to either buy much more router than they need, or risk ending up with
>>>another cisco boat anchor router when the platform they chose can no
>>>longer do the job in the limited memory config supported.
>>>
>>>I have a consulting customer who, against my strong recommendation, bought
>>>a non-cisco router to multihome with.  It's PC based, runs Linux, and with
>>>the exception of the gated BGP issue that bit everyone running gated a few
>>>months ago, has worked just fine.  It's not as easy to work with in most
>>>cases, but there are some definite advantages, and some things that Linux
>>>actually makes easier.  They'd initially bought a 2621 when multihoming
>>>was just a thought, and by the time it was a reality, 64mb on a 2621
>>>couldn't handle full routes.  The C&W/PSI depeering (which did affect
>>>this customer, as they were single homed to C&W at the time and did
>>>regular business with networks single homed to PSI) was proof that without
>>>full routes, you're not really multihomed.
>>>
>>>--
>>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Jon Lewis *jlewis at lewis.org*|  I route
>>> System Administrator        |  therefore you are
>>> Atlantic Net                |
>>>_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________
>>
>>
>>Vinny Abello
>>Network Engineer
>>Server Management
>>vinny at tellurian.com
>>(973)300-9211 x 125
>>(973)940-6125 (Direct)
>>
>>Tellurian Networks - The Ultimate Internet Connection
>>http://www.tellurian.com (888)TELLURIAN
>>
> 
> 