FreeBSD as router - performance vs hardware routers

[Kenneth Culver]

> What I'm not sure about is performance. Has anyone built a cable modem
> gateway router using FreeBSD and "low-end" hardware like this? If so,
> what were your results?
>
I'm using mine for DSL on a PII 333 and I've not seen any performance
problems other than some that were the ISP's fault (recently fixed). I'm
running FreeBSD-CURRENT on that machine, and aside from the once per month
that I update it to the latest -CURRENT, I have no problems. You'd
probably want to use one of the -RELEASE's or -STABLE if you want it to
"just work." On my router I'm running postfix (actually writing the mail
on that machine right now), dhcpd, DNS, and using ipfilter/ipnat for NAT
and firewall capabilities, and using dummynet for some basic QoS type
stuff. Works great with no performance problems.

Ken