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macallah
join:2003-01-22
Wichita Falls, TX

1 recommendation

macallah

Member

Re: What to get for the house

This is going to be more of a problem in the near future as cable companies finally arrive at and slowly pass 100mbit connections. The costs for routers/firewalls that support that fast a connection is going to be very high.

What would one do in Kansas City with 1GB connections for $70? Buy a $20k router? I guess everyone will need a PC with 2 interfaces doing firewall and routing. I wonder how much a PC could pump out? Perhaps someone could make some bucks with a generic Linux build with an easy to use router and firewall configuration interface.

Fiber to the premises is just being installed around my area now, it is not at my house yet, but probably in the next couple years. So, I expect speeds to increase, not to KC's 1GB, but probably over 100mbit. So, I really do not want to limit myself to equipment that only does 100mbit.

sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD

sk1939

Premium Member

Your best options are a Cisco 1941, Juniper SRX 210 or higher, or a purpose-built box (Atom or E450 based).
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer to macallah

Premium Member

to macallah
That's exactly what they'll do... build their own. Cisco/Juniper gear is Enterprise Class hardware with an Enterprise Class price tag. While I use Cisco (and Sun) gear at home, all of it is ancient.

You aren't going to get 100M+ speeds with services (esp. IPS/IDS) on a Cisco router -- for less than 5 figures. They simply aren't designed for that. That's the market for dedicated firewalls -- 5510 and above with an SSM to do full traffic inspection.

For the money... build it yourself. Any linux/*bsd box can do it with ease. ('tho full gig will take a bit more power, but even an old P4 should handle it.) However, this is trading money for effort.

Da Geek Kid
join:2003-10-11
::1

Da Geek Kid

Member

I highly agree. I use »www.smoothwall.org/ which is very capable of pushing those speeds and more...
aryoba
MVM
join:2002-08-22

1 recommendation

aryoba to cramer

MVM

to cramer
said by cramer:

You aren't going to get 100M+ speeds with services (esp. IPS/IDS) on a Cisco router -- for less than 5 figures. They simply aren't designed for that. That's the market for dedicated firewalls -- 5510 and above with an SSM to do full traffic inspection.

A Juniper SRX 100 costs significantly less than 1K and is able to push 700 Mbps firewall traffic throughput. A Cisco ASA 5505 (comparable price of the SRX 100) is only able to push up to 150 Mbps. These numbers came from the their websites.

»www.juniper.net/us/en/lo ··· 1-en.pdf
»www.cisco.com/en/US/prod ··· 0c5.html

We did some internal testing between Juniper SRX and Cisco ASA where the ASA took significant load with IPS work while SRX did not even blip. The choice then was no brainer

So with the right solution, you could get decent firewall for less than 5 figures
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer

Premium Member

Indeed. And none of those are Cisco ROUTERS. The 5505 is tiny, underpowered (cheap) SOHO device. Powered by a 500MHz GEODE, it's not designed for IPS -- there's an SSM for that, but it's WAY expensive. Plus, the 5505 only has 100meg interfaces, so 150Mbps is sufficient.

Gig speeds means much more expensive Cisco kit, or looking at non-Cisco stuff. Cisco is shooting themselves in the foot here, but they have so many cooks in so many kitchens they don't know where they are or need to be.

Da Geek Kid
join:2003-10-11
::1

Da Geek Kid

Member

welcome to walmart forum folks...
aryoba
MVM
join:2002-08-22

aryoba to cramer

MVM

to cramer
said by cramer:

Gig speeds means much more expensive Cisco kit, or looking at non-Cisco stuff. Cisco is shooting themselves in the foot here, but they have so many cooks in so many kitchens they don't know where they are or need to be.

There are a lot of companies that feel comfortable only when they deal with Cisco equipment, either because Cisco is the only standard network gear of the company, the company consists of engineers and managers that only know "the Cisco way", or of Cisco brand marketing. In some ways, Cisco counts on these companies to keep buying Cisco and only Cisco though Cisco has been competing head-to-head with Juniper especially when Cisco lost contract to Juniper with one of the Cisco's giant customers