On Fri, Sep 24, 2004 at 01:54:22PM +0100, Paul Jakma mentioned:
> You really dont want a Linux switch, least not with common
> desktop/server orientated NICs. You'd want the actual switching
> offloaded. (funnily enough, Linux /used/ to be able to do something
> vaguely like this, with certain NICs, but that's deprecated now,
> possibly gone completely - direct NIC to NIC transfers, tulip
> supported it - no idea if it worked well, and you obviously couldnt
> do anything firewalling.).
Yeah, I thought all the cards had NIC-to-NIC transfers.
I'm not envisoning a switch like this sustaining 100mbit inbound on all
ports. But, if you have a box like Nexcom sell, with a their nics on 64
bit/66Mhz buses, you shouldn't have a problem pushing 10mbit on all ports.
You don't want Linux on a switch for performance. You want it for
control.
> What you /really/ want is a good L3 switch, or a pair of them, that
> speak a decent routing protocol so that your linux boxes can tell
> them where to direct traffic..
I've been down that route. Switches crash & burn. At least a Linux
switch, I could try & fix them. But, it's mainly so I don't need a linux
router and a separate switch.
john
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