I think it all comes down to the economics of the given situation, and the
function the 'windows router' will perform.
Now days, the term router is a rather broad term. It could be an OpenBSD
machine running Zebra, routing between two lan segments, with a piece of
cisco hardware routing between a lan segment and some sort of connection to
the Internet. It could mean a huge piece of Cisco hardware serving several
asynch dialins, hooking up to an ATM network, and providing QoS, etc. I
say, if a given organization needs a way to route between two Ethernet
segments, a windows box with two nics and static routes would work, and work
fairly well. Don't get me wrong, I would do this with UNIX, but we all know
there are many people out there that don't deal with UNIX based systems,
only M$ systems. On the converse, if you're wanting to route millions of
packets per second and provide QoS, use the trusty Cisco hardware..the
hardware was _DESIGNED_ for this, the IOS was designed strictly for this,
it's the boxes job, low overhead, fast, IOS has several features a Win2k box
doesn't, and will never have. So a win2k router will serve specific
situations well, so will a cheap UNIX machine, but hardware routers will
always have that "hey, I was designed to do this" aura about them, making me
love the hell out of them.
Richard Holland
CCNP,MCSE,OpenBSD
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Wu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'Marlon Brown'"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: Microsoft 'Routers'
> Don't count on Win2k or future releases of NT based networking OS to
impact
> the hardware based routers.
> OSPF and RIPv2 are the only 2 Routing protocols in Win2k/RRAS and not many
> firms are implementing it. The OSPF code is based on the Bay Networks
design
> in NT4-RRAS and now that Nortel has assumed ownership, I don't see any
hope
> in it.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "'Marlon Brown'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 8:19 PM
> Subject: RE: Microsoft 'Routers'
>
>
> > I seriously don't think MS will hurt Cisco's routing business. Are you
> > telling me that ISP, Corp will start using MS as a router? MS may be
used
> > as access point (hmmm, think of all the hole you can use). Can MS use
> QoS,
> > VoIP, Multicast, ......? It is a big part for us here. Only if you
> cannot
> > afford "real" equipment than you will you use it for everything. Think
> > about it, you use printserver for the printer. "Jack of all trade and
> > master of none"
> >
> > Albert
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
> > Marlon Brown
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 4:12 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: RE: Microsoft 'Routers'
> >
> >
> > I disagree with you regarding the support issue. They
> > could call the MCSE 2000 people :-)
> >
> > I just want to see where they want to go with this routing idea. John
> > Chambers mentioned during an interview that he is aware that Microsoft
> might
> > hurt Cisco routing business in the future.
> >
> > I know that MS Routing and Remote Access team is making huge
investiments
> on
> > these Routing features.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "Chuck Larrieu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >To: "David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Billy Monroe"
> > ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >Subject: RE: Microsoft 'Routers'
> > >Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 15:57:34 -0700
> > >
> > >Assuming one wants to use MS products as routers, the same concern
> applies
> > >-
> > >what is the box capable of supporting? Are there cards for real WAN
> > >routing?
> > >Or is this just another cheap routers for use on LAN segments?
> > >
> > >And of course, there is always the issue of support. Who ya gonna call
> 3:00
> > >a.m. Sunday when your mission critical network is down?
> > >
> > >Chuck
> > >
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of
> > >David
> > >Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 11:47 AM
> > >To: Billy Monroe
> > >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >Subject: Re: Microsoft 'Routers'
> > >
> > >FYI, unix has also had routing capabilities inherent in the operating
> > >system, as well as software for BGP, OSPF, RIP and friends in free
> > >software like routed/gated since the beginning of the Internet. But,
> > >would I ever use any unix box for a router? Not unless it was five
> > >years ago, it was linux, and I was starting up an ISP with pocket
> > >change. That was the trend while companies were out there providing
> > >descent T-1/ISDN/PRI/Frame Relay cards and drivers for Linux x86
> > >machines. The good thing about this setup, is that Linux can route a
> > >full T-1 without any trouble using aging 486 hardware (ie: very very
> > >dirt cheap router... $50?). But what's that , you want to route a
> > >DS-3? Unlikely. I don't know anyone that makes DS-3/HSSI cards for
> > >PCs. Anyone want to jump in on that?
> > >
> > >But, I've never trusted Windows NT/98 etc to do any routing, unless I
> > >wanted it to crash all the time -- and no I'm really not wanting to
> > >start a discussion about which is better or anything. I'd be
interested
> > >to see how much microsoft has cleaned it up in 2000. I really have a
> > >lot of hope for this OS in terms of functions (ie: active directory)
and
> > >hopefully a newfound stability.
> > >
> > >In general any PC is not built for high speed routing. There will be
> > >hardware architecture limitations to it's performance. Also, since the
> > >operating systems are so bloated (compared to something streamlined for
> > >routing like IOS), and running tons of applications at the same time --
> > >unless you have a dedicated box -- a server will have a lot of other
> > >things to do other then route packets. If you have no needs for real
> > >performance, perhaps you could use a windows platform as a router, but
> > >considering the resource needs of Windows in terms of hardware, you'd
be
> > >better off buying a real router instead.
> > >
> > >There is an interesting Linux mini-distribution out there called LRP,
or
> > >The Linux Router Project. It's a linux OS that fits onto a floppy (or
> > >it did at least) and has full capabilities for routing and other things
> > >like firewalling I'd assume. I haven't looked at it for a long time.
> > >
> > >It's at http://www.linuxrouter.org although the server doesn't appear
to
> > >be accepting connections right now. hmmm, I hope it's not running on a
> > >LRP distribution hahaha.
> > >
> > >David
> > >
> > >
> > >Billy Monroe wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I see that Microsoft has provided resources to configure OSPF and
RIP
> in
> > > > Windows 2000 servers
> > > > to provide routing capabilities.
> > > >
> > > > Has anybody evaluate this ? Do you think this could substitute
'real'
> > > > routers ?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > >
> > > > ___________________________________
> > > > UPDATED Posting Guidelines:
http://www.groupstudy.com/list/guide.html
> > > > FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com
> > > > Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > >___________________________________
> > >UPDATED Posting Guidelines: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/guide.html
> > >FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com
> > >Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________________
> > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
> >
> > ___________________________________
> > UPDATED Posting Guidelines: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/guide.html
> > FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com
> > Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > ___________________________________
> > UPDATED Posting Guidelines: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/guide.html
> > FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com
> > Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> http://im.yahoo.com
>
> ___________________________________
> UPDATED Posting Guidelines: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/guide.html
> FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com
> Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________
UPDATED Posting Guidelines: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/guide.html
FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com
Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
