The official answer: commodity hardware doesn't handle all the features needed at "line rate".
The (more often than not) unofficial answer: using a custom platform raises the entry barrier for cloning/abuse/etc. It's a bit hard to run your appliance MIPS software on an off-the-shelf PC; but it (used) to be possible to run PIX software on a PC (and in a VM too, IIRC.) Fun times, Adrian On Sun, Jul 25, 2010, Tarig Yassin wrote: > > Dear all > > > > Greetings > > > > I'm wondering why the software based router is not preferable in business > even if they have high featured Processers, and high capcity of memory. > > > > What is the main deferent between Appliance router and Software based routers? > > > > thank you all in adavance. > > -- > Tarig Y. Adam > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. > https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969 -- - Xenion - http://www.xenion.com.au/ - VPS Hosting - Commercial Squid Support - - $24/pm+GST entry-level VPSes w/ capped bandwidth charges available in WA -