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Software for home-built L3 switch?
- Thread starter Order
- Start date
Order said:
NO, you can build a router (using a spare PC and as many NIC's as you require), but you will not be able to build a switch out of a PC. There are some PCI based switch cards on the market, but I can not comment on how well they work or if they would work at all for what you are trying to accomplish...
Speaking of, What are you trying to accomplish?
Well a true switch would be almost impossible, since there are almost no real many port (ie more than 2) based NICs. If you just want L3 routing at gigabit, then install 2 or more nics and then plug them in to L2 Gigabit switches, then just install some linux varient of routing software. Although you will need to put it on a decently beefy machine if you want to be able to route at full gigbit speeds.
nebruin said:
Can you better explain "almost no real many port (ie more than 2) based NICs" , when a froogle turns up a good selection of 4 port ones. We use a lot of them as well at work. Am I missing something concerning multiport NIC's ? Is there a throughput issue ?
moetop said:
Notice in the link you have, they are all 100Mbps(at least at a quick glance). 1000Mbps Ethernet completely saturates a standard 32bit 33MHz PCI slot. You need more bandwidth to even fully use 1 port, much less 2 or 4. You also need a lot of cpu power to get full use out of those Gbit ports, since there are so many interrupts due to the frame size being the same as 10 and 100Mbit cards. A standard PC simply does not have anywhere near the IO bandwidth to do any heavy duty switching.
PHUNBALL said:
I know this as well. He said layer 3 which is typicaly routing, not general store and forward/cutthrough,ETC MAC based switching.
Maybe he is talking about one of those PCI Routers with built in switch
I have all the media (ie: educational DVDs) stored on the server and will be streamed via the network to whichever client requests it. It might be concurrently, it might not, but I need the bandwidth to handle that along with usual file transfers, backups, and eventually VOIP.
Order said:
Just an FYI, but VoIP is not exactly a bandwidth hog, especially on a LAN, and especially at a private school where IP handsets are most likely not that prevelant, but either way, if IP Communications is in your future you may want to plan accordingly (your layer 2 network plays a big part in IP Communication implementations)...