Anyone using the Zebra Linux Router? It looks very promising to be able to do OSPF and BGP4. I looked at FREESCO for its ease of setup/admin, but it is really only a NAT/Firewall/DCHP server.

I want to get a second Bandwidth provider in my current colo, and they said "sure, no problem", but now a BGP router is a little steep in $$$. I want to BGP between my current Bandwidth (which went down last night for 50 minutes) and another transport in the same facility. So I'll have a primary provider and my current provider will become secondary. They claim to provide BGP4 aggregation of 3 tier one providers, but last night only 1/3 of their "BGP4" network went down. If they were truly BGP routed, we'd never have seen a thing.

I'll be asking for some QoS refunds tomorrow, and shopping for another host. I just need access to my servers and co-loing out of town isn't an option, and local loop here is $2500/month for DS-3.

Zebra will probably work well for you, however when routing data streams larger than 200 mbit/s over multiple cross connects you may experience intermittent transport failures.

My suggestion would be if you do not have the cash on hand at the moment to pick up a Cisco 7206 VXR NPE 300/400; look into the ImageStream routers. They are very stable and many larger colo facilities use them. More information on a model I have used is available here: http://www.imagestream.com/GatewayPro.html

Yeah, just looking at 12-15 mbit/s right now, getting above that I'd probably go with something bigger, and the $$$ wouldn't be that big of a factor anyway:D

Would a PC running 2 DS-3 WAN PCI cards (http://www.sbei.net/pages/products/wanadapt1t3.htm) and a 10/100 ethernet card do the trick?

You can do it with a Cisco 36xx and they are pretty cheap, ever looked at them?

It's my understanding that the Zebra development group has extensively tested their software with the SBEI DS3 line cards. However I do not have any personal experience with that vendor. If the cards don't do what you would like I am sure you can return them within 10 days.

A single PIII 1.26 GHz box with 1 GB ECC RAM should do you just fine. Even though you aren't pushing a load of traffic, I would recommend a couple 9 GB SCSI drives running RAID 1 just in case. FreeBSD would be the OS of choice for this application.

Yeah, I just love the DIY route when I can take it, and it's a lot of times better that way. You seem to understand the problem you're trying to solve better when you do it yourself, and you have more "ownership" in the product. a pair of DS-3 cards in linux boxes aren't that much cheaper than cisco, but when it breaks, you sure can fixe a linux box quicker. Spares come off the shelf!

Cisco will probably be the way though, they're pretty easy to get used on ebay.

Originally posted by nikko
Yeah, just looking at 12-15 mbit/s right now, getting above that I'd probably go with something bigger, and the $$$ wouldn't be that big of a factor anyway:D

Would a PC running 2 DS-3 WAN PCI cards (http://www.sbei.net/pages/products/wanadapt1t3.htm) and a 10/100 ethernet card do the trick?

You can do that with a Cisco 2948

Originally posted by nikko
Yeah, I just love the DIY route when I can take it, and it's a lot of times better that way. You seem to understand the problem you're trying to solve better when you do it yourself, and you have more "ownership" in the product. a pair of DS-3 cards in linux boxes aren't that much cheaper than cisco, but when it breaks, you sure can fixe a linux box quicker. Spares come off the shelf!

Cisco will probably be the way though, they're pretty easy to get used on ebay.

I know a Regional ISP which uses Zebra the engineers who are friends of mine cant stand it and always have issues with it. Although I like the Linux community.. It will have to get better on this aspect before I could let my business rely on it