[ale] RE: [OT?][ale] smart routers?

[Geoffrey]

Hey, a cdrom has ~650 meg.  These days you could put together a box with 
  a gig of memory.  Run everything from memory, no media. :)

Jonathan Glass wrote:
> <stream of consciousness>
> Interesting that you'd mention this.  My business partner and I have
> been looking into this.  We have been trying to figure out how the best
> way of deploying a 1U firewall/router.  The major point we've been
> discussing is whether to make the router diskless or not.  I was
> thinking it would be awesome to have the router software running off a
> Bootable cdrom, but then I need to figure out how to update things
> dynamically.  Some distros use a floppy...hmm.  I still have to be able
> to redirect all logging to another host, as well as redirect all HTTP
> traffic transparently to a squid circle.  
> 
> I wonder how small a linux install with squid, snort and iptables?
> 
> Anyone else feel like playing with something like this?  Any thoughts on
> how to best deploy linux from ROM media while allowing customization?  
> </stream of consciousness>
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Rickman [mailto:jonathan at xcorps.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 8:56 PM
> To: Christopher Fowler
> Cc: Stephen Turner; ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] smart routers?
> 
> 
> On Tue, 6 Aug 2002, Christopher Fowler wrote:
> 
> 
>>Look at the Rebel routers.  My belief is that a properally executed 
>>Linux embedded implementation can beat Cisco.  Problem is that many 
>>people including me through together PC's to do the job.  This is fine
>>
> 
>>at home but for business you need to get something that is reliable, 
>>functional, secure, and has good warranty and support.  Cisco has all 
>>these but some Linux firewall vendors have even better stuff.
>>
> 
> I have no doubts that embedded Linux could theoretically topple IOS. But
> in the context of Stephen's question, that's irrelevant. I also have no
> doubts that Cisco engineers are studying open source code and borrowing
> ideas for IOS. Sometimes I wonder why Cisco doesn't just open up IOS for
> the community to poke, prod, hack, and improve. Sooner or later, the
> Linux firewall vendors are going to put together a full featured router
> that can act as a drop in replacement for Cisco equipment. Personally,
> I'll be the first one in line to get one. IOS is a royal PITA. I'd much
> rather see a bash prompt.
> 
> 


-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net

I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?


---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.