I wondered that as well, but there appear to be lots (so it appears from other postings I found using google) of 4801s in use with OpenBSD, doing essentially the same thing as myself (Soekris w/ carp/pf/pfsynch). Yet, AFAICT, I'm the only one who's posted about this symptom. Since there are lots of people who do what I do, and if the problem were indeed that the 4801 processor is too wimpy, then wouldn't there be more problems like mine mentioned in the lists? And I'm running into high interrupts with only about 4Mbs throughput while others have claimed much higher values.
Before I used this firewall that I have now, I used m0n0wall on FreeBSD. I chose OpenBSD over m0n0wall/FreeBSD due to m0n0wall state table limitations and lack of mature redundance features. But the m0n0wall handled this much traffic, and more, with a relatively low interrupt mode. As widely as OpenBSD is used on Soekris for firewalling compared to m0n0wall/FreeBSD with relatively few problems, I'm still not quite ready to decide that I haven't gotten myself a setup flaw somewhere. Just can't figure out where it could be. Bill Theo de Raadt wrote: >>>If the Soekris did not come with ethernet chipsets which are just >>>slightly over the bar of rl(4), the wimpy processor in the machine >>>might be able to cope. >> >>Throughput is only marginally better using an em in the pci slot of a >>4801. I think there's some other problem. > > > Yeah -- the super wimpy processor. -- William Bloom| Snr Systems Engineer|M P H A S I S Architecting Value | Eldorado Computing 5353 North 16th Street, Suite 400 Phoenix, Az 85016 | Direct: +11-602-604-3100 | Fax: +11-602-604-3115| http://www.eldocomp.com -- CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE -- Information transmitted by this e-mail is proprietary to MphasiS and/or its Customers and is intended for use only by the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient or it appears that this mail has been forwarded to you without proper authority, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this information in any manner is strictly prohibited. In such cases, please notify us immediately at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and delete this mail from your records.