On Feb 16, 2004, at 8:51 PM, Mike M wrote:
On Mon, Feb 16, 2004 at 02:16:47PM -0500, Ryan Leathers wrote: Why not just use a Linux/*BSD box with two NICs for a router/firewall/VPN tunnel?
You bring up good points about the consumer grade router - I don't know
if I trust it. It's a black box with no debugging. I'd rather use an OSS
that let's me control every aspect of operation.
The only reason I bought an applicance was that several years ago I had more money than time or experience and lower requirements. Now I have more experience and higher requirements and old Linux boxes just lying about.
It seems that the appliance router doesn't bring any value that can't be supplied by the *nix box.
There's no network functionality that can't be duplicated by a *nix box. I've been using an old P100 for years now as my NOC-in-a-box, but I'm seriously considering getting a VPN Wireless Cable/DSL router/switch. Netgear has a new one I've seen for between $135 (outpost.com) and $190 (Amazon.)
The advantages:
One electrical outlet instead of three (switch, wireless AP, *nix box
Lower power draw
Less real estate consumption
Quieter
Easier to set up VPN tunnelsDownsides:
Interfaces are often lacking.
Must port forward any inbound port you want to serve
Don't have complete control of the box
The more functionality they pack in, the higher the chance they botched something.
Cases in point with the last bullet:
* The Cable/DSL router that set its time from a hard-coded IP, and had a one-second timeout/retry.
* Belkin's once-in-a-while-http-redirect/hijack.
* http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AR8Z1/ & click "Customer Reviews"
jf -- John Franklin [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICBM: 38� 56' 32.6"N 77� 24' 47.7"W Z+62m
-- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
