[X-post] Better AES software or 3DES hardware?

In article , AM wrote: :On a 837 doing only one VPN to headquarter is better using AES via software or

3DES via hardware :accelerator? I heard AES is quite faster rather then 3DES.

3DES.

7 Mbps 3DES, 2 Mbps AES-128

I have some concerns regarding 837 crypto performance however I have not proved the issue by any means.

In summary I seem to see consistent drops at the rate of about

1 in 1000 over the VPN. One end is 837 and the other end is firewall 1.

There are some numbers reported by the 837

router#sh cry eng acc stat .... 3061179 packets in 3061179 packets out tx_lo_count 2833

router#sh proc cpu | inc cry PID Runtime(ms) Invoked uSecs 5Sec 1Min 5Min TTY Process 140 575164 2720 211457 0.00% 0.05% 1.09% 0 crypto sw pk pro router#

This process runs for 211457 micro seconds at each invocation which is an eterntiy in CPU terms.

More details in thread "IOS Crypto drops" March 15 2005 in this group.