[ale] RE: [OT?][ale] smart routers?

[Stephen Turner]

sorry to take such a large message but my post is in relation to all :)
anyways, i was looking into turning a pc into an industrial strength
router but it seems that the pci bus limits it to 33 mhz which is pitiful
compared to routers. just as well i wouldnt want to include a full fledged
computer in the mix, i looked at some embeded and sbc's and they didnt
turn up much either, very limited in thier support for my idea, ive come
to the conclusion a new mother board or sbc will need to be constructed
using cheep pc parts and with the ability to use pci card slots they will
be quite expandable and versetile, i believe with a design i have in
progress i can have a 1u supporting a wider range of ports and many more
ports than current routers however by what i hear to fully deck it out
would be quite over kill. :) needless to say im looking into it, i wonder
how long this project will last tho, in most cases i find a dead end and
quit. if i can get this going tho by theory it would offer much more
through put and flexability and give networking a power it has yet to see
:) yet just one more step on the evolutionary ladder of computers eh? my
objective is to get a 1u pc to replace a router and be better in every
way. not sure if its possible but eh, :) and with the wide range in
vendors it should make routers cheeper. i hope :-p



-- Geoffrey <esoteric at 3times25.net> wrote:
> Hey, a cdrom has ~650 meg.  These days you could put together a box with
> 
>   a gig of memory.  Run everything from memory, no media. :)
> 
> Jonathan Glass wrote:
> > <stream of consciousness>
> > Interesting that you'd mention this.  My business partner and I have
> > been looking into this.  We have been trying to figure out how the
> best
> > way of deploying a 1U firewall/router.  The major point we've been
> > discussing is whether to make the router diskless or not.  I was
> > thinking it would be awesome to have the router software running off a
> > Bootable cdrom, but then I need to figure out how to update things
> > dynamically.  Some distros use a floppy...hmm.  I still have to be
> able
> > to redirect all logging to another host, as well as redirect all HTTP
> > traffic transparently to a squid circle.  
> > 
> > I wonder how small a linux install with squid, snort and iptables?
> > 
> > Anyone else feel like playing with something like this?  Any thoughts
> on
> > how to best deploy linux from ROM media while allowing customization? 
> 
> > </stream of consciousness>
> > 
> > Jonathan
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jonathan Rickman [mailto:jonathan at xcorps.net] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 8:56 PM
> > To: Christopher Fowler
> > Cc: Stephen Turner; ale at ale.org
> > Subject: Re: [ale] smart routers?
> > 
> > 
> > On Tue, 6 Aug 2002, Christopher Fowler wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>Look at the Rebel routers.  My belief is that a properally executed 
> >>Linux embedded implementation can beat Cisco.  Problem is that many 
> >>people including me through together PC's to do the job.  This is fine
> >>
> > 
> >>at home but for business you need to get something that is reliable, 
> >>functional, secure, and has good warranty and support.  Cisco has all 
> >>these but some Linux firewall vendors have even better stuff.
> >>
> > 
> > I have no doubts that embedded Linux could theoretically topple IOS.
> But
> > in the context of Stephen's question, that's irrelevant. I also have
> no
> > doubts that Cisco engineers are studying open source code and
> borrowing
> > ideas for IOS. Sometimes I wonder why Cisco doesn't just open up IOS
> for
> > the community to poke, prod, hack, and improve. Sooner or later, the
> > Linux firewall vendors are going to put together a full featured
> router
> > that can act as a drop in replacement for Cisco equipment. Personally,
> > I'll be the first one in line to get one. IOS is a royal PITA. I'd
> much
> > rather see a bash prompt.
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net
> 
> I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
> to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?
> 
> 
> ---
> This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
> See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems
> should be 
> sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
http://health.yahoo.com

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.