> Yes - it has the ability to do BGP but you won't be loading even a > full domestic route table into this puppy. Good to learn BGP on only. > Oh so much fun to try out protocols and configurations that would > normally cost you several appendages. ;-)
> If the day had 36 hours, ... > What device would you recommend for domestic purposes? I guess 256MB should be about right. 64Mb (or even less) is fine for domestic... You would need to talk nicely to your ISP to get a BGP table delivered to you anyway... Depends on what you want said device to do... I wanted a decent wifi range without buying another accesspoint, I wanted the chance to play with BGP, OSPF, MPLS and a few other technologies without buying a Cisco or Juniper, and I liked the idea of playing with layer 7 filtering. And I wanted it cheap and cheerful. > Yes - then again, almost all devices have the problem of how to > connect to them when you are attempting to rearrange the LAN interface > that you initially connect to them on. ;-) > Even the dumbest devices respond on a factory-set IP address with a web interface that allows you to enter a new IP. The connection then goes sort of dead - but it'll respond instead on the one you just entered. > Can't Mikrotik even manage that? That's ridiculous - and they want me to trust them with my security?!??? Volker...take a step back...that's because the dumbest devices give you a static LAN interface that you can not change. If you ripped out the config of your local Ethernet card so you could then bond it with two others in your computer and give it an IP address across all cards (bonding requires that no IPs are assigned to the card), you would be without network access while that occurred too. ;-) Now imagine doing that on an appliance. That's the issue. > Pfsense lets you and gets around that issue with a handy serial-based shell. > That's only one option. VGA + keyboard is another. The headless ones (embedded version) may have a default IP set. Sure, the serial port might work too. ;-) Yes - the more serious Mikrotiks have a serial port. But you need physical access of some kind OR do something clever over layer2 which is the approach Mikrotik took. > You need a managed switch (or at least a VLAN aware one) as a normal > switch will drop VLAN-tagged packets. Not a cheap option. > Hence not so prevalent in homes... > However dare I say http://routerboard.com/RB250GS About $90 into your hand from gowifi. > They say managed switch with VLAn support - but don't say how many ports can be VLAN managed. If it's only the uplink port then it's only slightly better than an unmanaged switch. > Are you able to tell? All ports are VLAN capable. Documentation here : http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/SwOS. As you can see it's pretty easy to configure. However, I would go the way Craig hinted at and buy yourself a second hand Juniper, Cisco, HP or even a 3com at worst pinch (what I have at home). More for familiarity with how the real world does it... :-) > Again, they have that one annoying limitation on setup (or if ssh or > the web-based administrator fails) in that you will need the windows > app to access the device. > I will not be creating a dependency on Mickey Mouse. That's best for the childrens' room. Fair enough. > They do sell the software only for use on a PC and that would get rid > of almost all the issues with it as you could use a serial interface > to reconfigure the LAN ports. That immediately loses the low-power > option though. :-( > Yep - and the bonus over pfsense would be...? And that license is damnably expensive. Absolutely none except the extra protocol support. I regard them as really good power-home-user routers and awesome to learn some advanced networking on but overkill for most. Brat. _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
