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Re: What is performance of router based on Linux?




On Mon, 2 Nov 1998, Ze'ev Maor wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 01, 1998 at 07:46:17PM +0200, peter@nct.netline.co.il wrote:
> > (I need practical answers 
> 
> Here's a practical answear, don't do it. Unless you're trying to save some
> bucks for a home-use-only router, for corporate use, get the real thing.

can you back that up with numbers? I can assure you that a Cisco's CPU is
lower in performance than a 486, and a linux box can be pretty optimized.
I never done any serious testing but I can tell you the following: our
network has a cisco router and a T1 to UU.net. I have a few servers out in
the open and a few behind a linux masquarading firewall.

this is from a 486 outside the firewall:

--- www1.yahoo.com ping statistics ---
21 packets transmitted, 21 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 6.6/9.9/18.3 ms

(damn, the average is usually 7.5 ms, must be a busy day)


and this is from inside the net, going through the firewall, which is a
NexGen 5x86 90, i.e. a pentium clone with no FPU, w/32 megs, non-2.1
kernel, running also squid for 45 people, a mail gateway and name
services:

--- www1.yahoo.com ping statistics ---
16 packets transmitted, 16 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 9.0/13.2/23.2 ms

3ms delay on average, during the evening it drops to 1ms when no one is
around.


what's that you say? Linux's IP stack is still less optimized than the
Cisco's?

here's a ping from that 486 I mentioned across the LAN to the DMZ
interface of the firewall:

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1.1/1.3/2.4 ms

and here is the same host pinging the cisco on the same LAN:

--- gonzales.interhdl.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 2.6/2.6/2.9 ms


how about stability and packet loss?

here's a ping -f THROUGH the firewall from a machine on the inside to the
router (Cisco...) on the outside, 15 second burst:

7601 packets transmitted, 7598 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 3.7/5.5/169.7 ms

only 3 packets lost, and the delay is pretty impressively low... 


So, Mr. Maor, as a guy who already installed quite a few Linux firewalls
and 3-4 Linux routers (two of which were proxy-router-firewall in one box)
I pose this question to you: what's WRONG with installing linux router,
other than the fact the ISP on the other side won't have access to it (oh,
is that a bad thing?) 


-- 
Ira Abramov          (°-               L I N U X              -°)
whois: IA58          //\                                      /\\
www.scso.com         v_/_ Because a 486 is too good to waste _\_v