On Monday 17 August 2009, Nick Floersch wrote:

> While the $300 router might solve the problem, and looks nice, it is sort of 
> a black-box. If it doesn't do what you need, or behaves oddly, you'd have to 
> hack it to get inside and figure out what is going on, probably voiding 
> warranty, and ending up with a firewall setup where far less paid and free 
> support is available. We have been wary of this.
For about 2x the price you can go with a linux-based Vyatta router, which, i on 
a quick google search indicates it  handles LB nicely:

Aug 13, 2008 ... Vyatta offers hardware and open source software for ... MLPPP 
and ECMP for load balancing; priority and classful queuing for QOS; ...
linux.com/feature/143998

Vyatta Routing Basics, Vyatta Firewall and NAT, Vyatta VPN Intro, Vyatta 
Intrusion Prevention, Vyatta WAN Load Balancing. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS. 
DATASHEETS: ...
www.vyatta.com/products/online_demos.php


 features in Community Edition 3 (VC3) include IPSec VPN, multilink PPP, and 
BGP scaling and security, the vendor says.
quoteth:
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5500382710.html
Despite the high geek factor of Debian, VC3 is easy to use, Roberts said, 
especially for network operators accustomed to IOS, tftp, and so on. "We want 
to build open source networking software and hardware systems that a normal 
Cisco/Juniper-trained network manager could sit down at and be very comfortable 
with. You don't have to know anything about LInux system administration if you 
don't want to. It's a benefit, not a requirement," he said.

VC3 can be run from a live CD, or installed to hard disk or flash memory. 
"We're essentially a stripped-down version of Debian, with network-specific 
stuff, and the kernel is custom," Roberts noted.

The biggest new feature appears to be support for multilink PPP. This feature 
enables companies to aggregate multiple smaller leased lines, typically T1s, 
instead of springing for a T3. Most ISPs support multilink connections, he 
said. Alternatively, Vyatta routers at either end of a leased line could enable 
enterprises to create a dedicated network pipe -- for example to India, he 
suggested.


> 
> Pick your poison, I 'spose.
> 
> -Nick
> 



-- 
                                     3010 Rte 109
                                     Waterville, VT 05492
                                     email: rion_at_dluz.com
                                     web: http://dluz.com/Rion/
                                     AIM/Jabber/Google: riondluz
                                     Phone: 802.644.2255
                                     http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/126/769


                 L I N U X       .~.
                  Choice         /V\
                 of a  GNU      /( )\
                Generation      ^^-^^
                                POSIX
                                RULES

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part.

Reply via email to