Firewall throughput question

[sp0ng3b0b]

Darryl Hoar wrote:
> Greetings,
> I have had a Freebsd firewall (Older computer with (1) 3com 10Mb 
> ethernet PCI card, and (1) 3 com 10/100 Mb ethernet PCI card).  
> The firewall croaked on me (motherboard died).  As a quick fix, 
> I plugged in a Linksys BEFSX41.
> 
> My Question is, should I build a new Freebsd firewall or just 
> continue using the Linksys ? Throughput and security are my 
> concern.  I can have up to 20 machines on the LAN at one time
> using the internet, so traffic throughput is a factor.
> 

You should use the Linksys if you are comfortable with it. It does use 
less electricity.

If you are really concerned with security and perforance, I recommend at 
least 500 MHz and 256 MB RAM. I have used Intel/3Com cards and both are 
reliable. I recommend using PF though.

I am working on a replacement firewall right now. I am using a Sun Ultra 
5 (360MHz) with a quad ethernet card. It will be running OpenBSD and PF.
I may using FreeBSD though, because I want to use ntop and ntop does not 
work on OpenBSD.

Hope that helps.