Cisco Systems Is there a market for an open source router?

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Subject Author Date
Is there a market for an open source router? Ramon F Herrera 06-30-08
Posted by Doug McIntyre on July 1, 2008, 1:27 pm
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>> Are you sure that you're talking about a router and not a firewall?

> The only real difference is the software it's running. The fact
>that a router anymore is just a specialized PC of sorts has caused
>that line to blur considerably.

This is only true for the lowest end cisco devices. Most midrange and
highend routers have lots of ASIC gear in them to do lots of nice things.

Even most firewalls have lots of ASICs in them to get the throughput.
A pure CPU based router/firewall is only the most basic, slowest box
in cisco/juniper's product line.

> Does Cisco even sell "real routers" anymore (running IOS or whatnot)
>that don't have some sort of firewall capacity?

Define firewall. Even the most basic low-end cisco has always had ACLs
going way way back in history.
But you do have to license the stateful inspection FW feature.

Posted by Homer on July 1, 2008, 2:58 pm
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Verily I say unto thee, that Doug McIntyre spake thusly:

> But you do have to license the stateful inspection FW feature.

Licensed from whom?

--
K.
http://slated.org

.----
| "Stallman has frequently pointed out, Free Software is by no means
| antithetical to making money: it's just a question of how you make
| money." ~ Glyn Moody: http://tinyurl.com/4wn2l2 (ComputerworldUK)
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Posted by The Ghost In The Machine on July 1, 2008, 3:13 pm
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In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Homer
wrote
on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:58:08 +0100
> Verily I say unto thee, that Doug McIntyre spake thusly:
>
>> But you do have to license the stateful inspection FW feature.
>
> Licensed from whom?
>

AFAICT, Cisco. Google coughed up

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=MME6778043

which might be relevant. Pricey beast.

--
#191, ewill3@earthlink.net
Linux. Because it's not the desktop that's
important, it's the ability to DO something
with it.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Posted by Homer on July 1, 2008, 5:04 pm
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Verily I say unto thee, that The Ghost In The Machine spake thusly:
>> Verily I say unto thee, that Doug McIntyre spake thusly:

>>> But you do have to license the stateful inspection FW feature.
>>
>> Licensed from whom?
>
> AFAICT, Cisco. Google coughed up
>
> http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=MME6778043
>
> which might be relevant. Pricey beast.

Oh I see. He's talking about /buying/ a /product/.

For a minute there I thought he was implying that implementing SPI
technology in general required some kind of patent licensing.

--
K.
http://slated.org

.----
| "Stallman has frequently pointed out, Free Software is by no means
| antithetical to making money: it's just a question of how you make
| money." ~ Glyn Moody: http://tinyurl.com/4wn2l2 (ComputerworldUK)
`----

Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.23.8-63.fc8
22:04:26 up 193 days, 18:40, 3 users, load average: 0.83, 0.32, 0.14

Posted by The Ghost In The Machine on July 1, 2008, 2:08 pm
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In comp.os.linux.advocacy, JEDIDIAH
wrote
on Tue, 1 Jul 2008 08:35:08 -0500
>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Snit
>> wrote
>> on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:14:34 -0700
>>> a1bb0bfb-07ef-4d67-bef5-2f82875b2dd4@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com on 6/30/08
>>> 6:07 PM:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> "While Cisco accidentally created an open source router a few years
>>>> ago, getting caught with Linux in its Linksys, the company never
>>>> exploited this as a feature, but treated it as a bug, blaming chip
>>>> supplier Broadcom.
>>>>
>>>> Netgear is definitely treating this as a feature."
>>>>
>>>> http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2612&tag=nl.e550
>>>>
>>>> -RFH
>>>>
>>> That is an area where Linux and OSS should shine...
>>
>> Why? A router's a router. Granted, I'd probably trust a
>> Linux-based router a little more, since I can readily get
>> the source code for it -- but what does a router do? It
>
> It's a gatekeeper for your physical network.

Maybe at the circuit layer.
The actual gatekeeper is a laminated door. :-P

>
> As such, there's a lot of traffic that can be blocked at
> the gateway that doesn't need to ever make it's way into
> the rest of your physical network.

True.

>
> Ethernet is a broadcast medium, so the advantage of this is blatantly obvious.

Not any more it's not. Look up "hub" versus "switch";
the switch makes it point-to-point. A little odd, I know,
and I frankly don't know exactly what it does in there but
I suspect switches are now vulnerable to the teardrop IP
fragmentation attack, whereas hubs were not.

Of course switches are also more efficient. ;-)

>
>> routes. Could be Linux. Could be Windows. Could be BSD.
>> Could be a custom solution that is specific to that router
>> hardware, though nowadays microprocessors are extremely
>> common anyway, making a software solution practical.
>>
>> (Also problematic if there's a bug therein.)
>>
>>> set it and, for the most
>>> part, forget it... or even when you have to tinker there is a very limited
>>> amount of functionality you expect from a router... UI issues become less
>>> important (though, obviously, still are important just not as much as, say,
>>> on a desktop computer).
>>>
>>
>> The standard "router UI" nowadays would probably be web-based.
>>
>
> Basically, a better appliance means you are less inclined to roll your own.
>

--
#191, ewill3@earthlink.net
Windows Vista. It'll Fix Everything(tm).
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

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