FreeBSD based router ...

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Jon Radel
> Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 5:24 PM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: FreeBSD based router ...
> 
> 
> Tom Van Looy wrote:
> > 
> > Wojciech Puchar wrote:
> >>> been happy with using soekris net48XX boxes using m0n0wall
> >> small but expensive. used 486-pentium hardware is for free.
> > 
> > No it's not, they consume electricity. Soekris boxes are designed for 
> > low-power. I had a 4501 and now have a 5501.
> 
> And, other than in hobbyist's private networks and things built with 
> volunteer labor, there are generally labor costs.  Rummaging in the junk 
> pile can get pretty expensive if you have to pay somebody to do it....
> 

That really depends on both the organization and the worker and
what their job is and a lot of other things.

For example, I manage people at an ISP.  Their jobs are to run the
network and answer customer support calls.  If they are doing their
jobs then the ISP runs well and we don't get many support calls.  Thus
some of their time they will be sitting idle.  I don't adjust their
job descriptions to permanently increase the amount of work they
do because I don't want them tied up doing more work when a customer
does call for support, and also because it is punishing them for
doing a good job in the first place.  Yet I don't want them sitting
around playing computer games while they are waiting for a
support call, either. In this case, if they are working on building
some junk computer into a router then it is not critical work that
they cannot set down immediately at any time if a customer calls.  Yet
it also keeps them busy and out of trouble, and contributes something
to the business.  And it teaches them something so their brains don't
rot.  My labor costs are going to be the same whether they are
resurrecting some old PC or whether they are sitting twiddling their
thumbs, so now please explain to me how it is that I am incurring
expense paying someone to rummage in a junk pile?

And there are also the cases of the government organizations who
have money budgeted to upgrades but not capital expenses, and
every expense over $500 must be justified to the nth degree.  In
those organizations you can spend $2K USD without seeking second
level approval if you write a series of PO's for under $500 each,
getting a hard disk on one, a power supply on another, a motherboard
on a third, etc.  But if you try to simply buy a PC all put together
for less money you will get it slapped down.  Dilbert even had a
series of cartoons about this, one of the few series I've read that
I didn't think was funny, as it simply described reality for
a lot of people.

So, yeah, there are a lot of organizations that do not function
nice and neat like it says they should in the MBA courses.

Ted