Which software router are you looking at? Coyote? Most of the
software routers I have used are no longer being supported or developed.
Nothing has been recommended by our consultants yet. I'm trying to
prepare in advance.
The choices in hardware router/firewall devices are not that great.
I've been using a Zyxel 1000G for a few years and it has been,
mostly, reliable. I've had it get wonky and require a reboot twice
in 6 years. The interface is very very different...completely
object-oriented. Fortunately Zyxel provides excellent tech support,
they'll even log in to your router and configure it for you if needed.
The CISCO was rock solid for quite a while. However, a couple years
ago its memory failed and was replaced with a used substitute. Since
then we've had to cycle the power on it about once every 2-3 months
to restore connectivity.
Its web interface is horrendously byzantine in terms of its
"security" features, which did not behave well in IE, and even worse
in Firefox. It could take 10-15 minutes of going through various
windows and resubmitting credentials before it would give up the
goods and show me something.
I don't think you'll run into any throughput issues with your load
on any device, or software-based system.
That's good to know.
Thanks very much, Mike.
Ken
Ken Dibble wrote:
Hi folks,
Looks like our "ancient" (2008) CISCO router has died.
I would appreciate the benefit of your experience regarding
hardware vs software routers/firewalls to help me evaluate replacement options.
Our current network uses 1 GB switches and has about 150 machines,
and there can be at least that many people simultaneously using the
network and our 25 mbps synchronous internet connection (including
people hooking into our internet from smart phones and tablets).
Most servers, including the domain controller, are virtualized and
we are using a SAN for storage (two identical Synology Linux NAS
devices). We have a 10 GB switch for virtual server/storage connectivity.
We do not host external (internet) email or websites on our network.
We've had slow growth in the number of machines and users (+/- 5%
per year) over the past decade.
We've always used the NAT functionality of the CISCO to provide a
firewall and we only rarely allow anything to punch through it. The
main exception would be our RDP server, which is in frequent use by
between 5 and 10 simultaneous connections.
My understanding is that a software router/firewall running on an
ordinary PC is likely to be slower than a dedicated hardware
device. However, is the difference so significant for a network
like mine as to rule out a cheaper software solution?
Do you have preferences for specific devices or software packages?
What do you all think?
Many thanks.
Ken Dibble
www.stic-cil.org
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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