[leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion?
Hi folks, I read the article in last month's Linux Journal about LEAF -vs- Cisco but unfortunately, I don't think they came to any real conclusions. I was particularly interested because I would like to use LEAF (Bering in particular) at my company (and I was hoping the article would provide some credible statistics)...but I'm afraid management will sneer and poo-poo my decision to implement it. I think they feel, like I'm sure other businesses feel, that because they've heard their competitor Brand X uses a Cisco router (oooh, ahhh), that it MUST be the smart thing to do. So, I thought I would ask so many of you who probably know both of these products like the back of your hand, and probably use them on a daily basis. So...how DOES Linux/LEAF compare to Cisco? Do you think that Linux/LEAF can handle most business scenarios? I know Charles says that he uses Dachstein at his businesses. What do you think are its limitations? Other comments? Thank you as always. Craig --- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1refcode1=vs3390 leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html
RE: [leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion?
Well, first of all, What does u're buisness expectations are.. LEAF can do lots, if it's just plain routing u doing, then with LEAF, u saves lots of Money, if u want some complicated routing, leaf can also do it... I think as long as it's not a corparte buisness, but just a buisness, with about 10-100 employees per location, I'll go with the LEAF, for simple routing, cause as far as I can see, it works perfect.. I have 3 leaf routers running, and never had a problem from day 1, and we talking like 2 years now running LEAF, and my config is: 2x 486 DX 100Mhz 24 mb ram 1x P1 120Mhz 32 Mb ram... And I have no regrets... -Original Message- From: Craig [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 21:28 To: LEAF Subject: [leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion? Hi folks, I read the article in last month's Linux Journal about LEAF -vs- Cisco but unfortunately, I don't think they came to any real conclusions. I was particularly interested because I would like to use LEAF (Bering in particular) at my company (and I was hoping the article would provide some credible statistics)...but I'm afraid management will sneer and poo-poo my decision to implement it. I think they feel, like I'm sure other businesses feel, that because they've heard their competitor Brand X uses a Cisco router (oooh, ahhh), that it MUST be the smart thing to do. So, I thought I would ask so many of you who probably know both of these products like the back of your hand, and probably use them on a daily basis. So...how DOES Linux/LEAF compare to Cisco? Do you think that Linux/LEAF can handle most business scenarios? I know Charles says that he uses Dachstein at his businesses. What do you think are its limitations? Other comments? Thank you as always. Craig --- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1refcode1=vs3390 leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html --- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1refcode1=vs3390 leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html
Re: [leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion?
Craig wrote (on Wed, Aug 21, 2002 at 12:28:01PM -0700): | Hi folks, | I read the article in last month's Linux Journal about LEAF -vs- Cisco | but unfortunately, I don't think they came to any real conclusions. I | was particularly interested because I would like to use LEAF (Bering in | particular) at my company (and I was hoping the article would provide | some credible statistics)...but I'm afraid management will sneer and | poo-poo my decision to implement it. I think they feel, like I'm sure | other businesses feel, that because they've heard their competitor Brand | X uses a Cisco router (oooh, ahhh), that it MUST be the smart thing to | do. So, I thought I would ask so many of you who probably know both of | these products like the back of your hand, and probably use them on a | daily basis. So...how DOES Linux/LEAF compare to Cisco? Do you think | that Linux/LEAF can handle most business scenarios? I know Charles says | that he uses Dachstein at his businesses. What do you think are its | limitations? Other comments? Thank you as always. | | Craig I've used both PIX 506 and Bering for the same purpose. Cisco costs a little more (1,000 - 1,500) but the main difference is power vs. configurability. Cisco has a nice, polished CLI - still a steep learning curve. But there are somethings it just will not do (in my case, Static NAT port forwarding), and then you are SOL. Linux, on the other hand, lets you do whatever you want to, but the learning curve is steeper still for a newbie. Support is better on the Cisco side, but Linux has the power of the internet. If you have a gearhead in your shop, Linux is a clear win. Otherwise, buy both - very much not a waste of money. If Linux wins, you can always find something for Cisco to do. If Cisco wins, well a good Linux box can always do something else. And it doesn't hurt to have two firewalls, right? -- _ Nachman Yaakov Ziskind, EA, LLM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Attorney and Counselor-at-Law http://yankel.com Economic Group Pension Services http://egps.com Actuaries and Employee Benefit Consultants --- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1refcode1=vs3390 leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html
Re: [leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion?
Craig wrote about [leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion?: daily basis. So...how DOES Linux/LEAF compare to Cisco? Do you think that Linux/LEAF can handle most business scenarios? I know Charles says Yes, it can. I'd say 95% of the stuff can be done with Linux. If you want high-end solutions, you have to go with Cisco. For example, you cannot use it as a backbone router for ATM or Frame Relay network. ATM/FR support in Linux is not mature enough for backbone use. I used to have an ISP in Russia totally on Linux. Linux routers (using flash disks, Cronyx sync serial cards etc) and Linux servers. that he uses Dachstein at his businesses. What do you think are its limitations? Other comments? Thank you as always. The main limitation in case of LEAF, or any hand-made Linux solution, is that there is nobody to blame if it doesn't work. In case of Cisco, I just say it doesn't work, blame Cisco (and it does fail quite often). In case a Linux system fails, I get my hands dirty and try to fix it. :-) If you're not sure you can fix it, then its better to secure support from somebody else. Linux can, and will work for business use. And it also will give you flexibility which no proprietary device can give. As an example, here is an uptime of a server which does routing for 100+ workstations/devices (between VLANs and network segments): $ uptime 11:00pm up 481 days, 20:37, 3 users, load average: 0.54, 0.32, 0.29 $ /sbin/arp -a -n | wc 116 8065945 We were going to move routing to our Cisco Catalyst 6000 ($30k+ piece of hardware), but were unable to configure routing the way it is done by a Linux box - it just lacks the flexibility required (I admit that our routing setup is quite weird). Just my $0.02. -- Best Regards, Vladimir Systems Engineer (RHCE) --- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1refcode1=vs3390 leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html
Re: [leaf-user] LEAF -vs- Cisco...what's YOUR opinion?
I read the article in last month's Linux Journal about LEAF -vs- Cisco but unfortunately, I don't think they came to any real conclusions. Opinions on this subject are in the (recent) archives of the mailing list. It could have been far more of an actual comparison if they would have liked it to have been. I was particularly interested because I would like to use LEAF (Bering in particular) at my company (and I was hoping the article would provide some credible statistics)...but I'm afraid management will sneer and poo-poo my decision to implement it. I think they feel, like I'm sure other businesses feel, that because they've heard their competitor Brand X uses a Cisco router (oooh, ahhh), that it MUST be the smart thing to do. So, I thought I would ask so many of you who probably know both of these products like the back of your hand, and probably use them on a daily basis. So...how DOES Linux/LEAF compare to Cisco? Do you think that Linux/LEAF can handle most business scenarios? I know Charles says that he uses Dachstein at his businesses. What do you think are its limitations? Other comments? Thank you as always. Before you start deploying LEAF routers in a production environment, make sure that *YOU* truly understand WHAT you are doing and HOW to do exactly what needs to be done. It can be rather easy to get over your head in this environment unless you realize all that needs to be done, the hardware requirements, and have setup machines for this environment before. Many of us have test networks to test and learn on, I would highly suggest this for any newcomers to expand their current knowledge of commercial networking. There are a couple of links that pretty much sum up my comparisons. To add to the links, LEAF generally doesn't include any application layer filtering that Cisco and Checkpoint routers *can* offer, however this filtering can be done easily on another Linux machine behind the firewall where IMHO this filtering belongs. http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/7232/2002/1/0/7709572/ http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=1739group_id=13751 -- ~Lynn Avants aka Guitarlynn guitarlynn at users.sourceforge.net http://leaf.sourceforge.net If linux isn't the answer, you've probably got the wrong question! --- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1refcode1=vs3390 leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html
