On Sun, 15 Aug 1999, Beau Kuiper wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Aug 1999, Alan Cox wrote:
> > Bench it and guess again. Except for real high end stuff a PC typically
> > outperforms the 'dedicated router' products. The PC is a high volume product
> > with cost scaling advantages nothing else can touch.
> >
> > A PC is a hammer, but its such a big hammer...
>
> A PC is closer to a swiss army knife IMO :)
>
> Count me as wrong then (except bout the NT part, because it is true when I
> tested it). However there are other reasons to choose a dedicated router over a
> full computer:
>
> 1) Better security: There arn't many things running on a router to go wrong and
> to let people in (although they are not invulnerable).
Does a Cisco 2506 support SSH? (last time I did an NMAP on the router at
the school I am doing a bunch of linux work for, the router was running
Telnet and Xwindows).
The only service our firewall is running is SSH v2 (we are an educational,
so ssh is free of charge). No other services running.
> 2) Better reliabilty: Routers have no hard drives AFAIK or other PC
> components that could unexpectedly fail. If it does acutally fail, just unplug
> it and replace it. PCs tend to need long configuration phases.
Did you even take a look at the Linux router project page I posted???
www.linuxrouter.org. All you need is a floppy drive. You can also get a
small disk on chip (flash device), even ones that will "look" like a hard
disk drive, resonably cheaply. Try write protecting (hardware) a cisco's
flash ram? With a floppy just pull the tab, and the wouldbe cracker can
only modify the ram disk (what lrp runs out of), you are a reboot away
from a clean system.
> 3) Smaller: when you have 6-7 servers in a room, you are really happy for small
> devices, and if routers are anything like switches in size, they are much
> smaller than any computer.
The Gateway 2K 486 I am using as a firewall (capable of 5 ports, but only
using two) is aobut 4" tall, and fits on a shelf on our 19" rack. We have
a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch on order, so we will have a monitor
on it, but for now it's a headless box. Also you could get something like
the calbri servers (check the LRP mailing list archive for the URL),
admitidly they are more expensive than a PC, but cheaper than a cisco.
> 4) Lots of pretty lights (not sure if routers have them though): Pretty lights
> send people into trances, great for bosses :).
Hook up some LEDs to the LPT port on the router, and write a script to
drive them, showing load, or trafic, or something like that...
> Of course, all of my arguements are probably bogus or can be worked around.
>
> Keeping the flames burning,
> Beau Kuiper
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Harry
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