could someone provide information about the specs that would be desirable for a router used for a colocation web hosting setup?

the cisco 2611 is inviting(cheap), but i am not sure if it will become a bottleneck.

tia.
-jim

use a freebsd router.

Really depends what you're hosting behind it. Do you really need a router? Why not just a switch? How much traffic will you have? What sort of traffic? Do you want the firewall feature set or are access lists fine?

I've got a 2600 with a average of 3mb/s going through it (a few access lists/serial interfaces) and averaging ~15% CPU load.

The 2611 is a good base router, and they can be picked up pretty cheap on ebay :). These are pretty much the standard for most T1 customers and can push 3-6 megs of bandwidth pretty consistently.

Usually you only need a switch for co-lo.. check with your provider :D

Originally posted by Dotcomsnz
Usually you only need a switch for co-lo.. check with your provider :D

Personally, I prefer a router over a switch. I feel more comfortable isolating my network :D, but YMMV.

Do you really need a router?
i questioned that myself. the colo company said we do.

Why not just a switch?
could you explain under what circumstances i would need a router and not just a switch:confused:

How much traffic will you have?
nowhere near what you are doing...around .5mb/s ave.

What sort of traffic?
web, mail for 70 sites...none are high volume.

Do you want the firewall feature set or are access lists fine?
yes we are looking for the firewall features.

i will check again with our provider about the requirement for the router...after reading the posts and considering the traffic we expect the 2611 appears to be a good candidate if we are required to have a router.

thanx.

It totally depends on your usage. don't forget that the 2600 series only has a single 10mbit ethernet port and you'll have to purchase WIC cards seperately depending on what kind of connection you're running to your provider.

Aaron

elizabeth hurley says routers that end with a 1 (http://routergod.com/elizabethhurley/) have 2 ethernet ports ;)

Originally posted by WII-Aaron
It totally depends on your usage. don't forget that the 2600 series only has a single 10mbit ethernet port and you'll have to purchase WIC cards seperately depending on what kind of connection you're running to your provider.


The 2611 has two 10 meg ethernet cards and the 2621 has two 100 meg ethernet cards standard.

Originally posted by sunpost
Do you really need a router?
i questioned that myself. the colo company said we do.


Your colo provider probably provides you with a netblock that they expect you to terminate in your rack, just a like a traditional leased line connection.

In that case you would need a router as opposed to a switch.

You can use a freebsd box as a router and firewall to do all your looking for plus some. You can run zebra for the cisco like cli. This will also be able to push more traffic then a 2600.

Originally posted by zerphyte
You can use a freebsd box as a router and firewall to do all your looking for plus some. You can run zebra for the cisco like cli. This will also be able to push more traffic then a 2600.

Just because you can do something, does not mean you should :D. Others may disagree, but router and firewall services should be separated -- shoving too many services on one box can create problems.

When you are larger yes. When you are small its not much of a problem to have router/firewall services on one device. It is also quite easy to do HA with it.

that brings up a good point...is using the IOS firewall feature putting too many 'services' on the router?

what kind of machine would it take to run FreeBSD solution that would meet or exceed the 2611 performance?

Originally posted by sunpost
that brings up a good point...is using the IOS firewall feature putting too many 'services' on the router?

what kind of machine would it take to run FreeBSD solution that would meet or exceed the 2611 performance?

The IOS firewall is not a full-featured firewall, and yes it does add considerable load to the router, which is why it requires at least 128Megs of RAM.

It actually wouldn't be that difficult to build a FreeBSD box that is more powerful than a 2600 router. As to how well it would route compared to its Cisco cousin, I honestly cannot say I have never seen a comparison of the two.

hmmm...the 2611--not XM-- that i was eying up, has a max of 64Meg, do you think it will be able to handle a load up to 1mb/s?

btw--ty everyone for all the information:D

yes the 2611 will be able to handle 1mbit/s without a prob with 64megs of memory. You do not even need that much for such low traffic.

If you wanted to go freebsd you could use a 450mhz 512mb 10gig hd with 2 x 10/100 nics. Running latest fbsd and if you wanted a cisco like cli you could use zebra however this is not required if your not going to be doing bgp/ospf. For the firewall you could run ipfw on it and/or use acls in zebra. You could also configure this to do VPNs if you wanted.

Originally posted by sunpost
hmmm...the 2611--not XM-- that i was eying up, has a max of 64Meg, do you think it will be able to handle a load up to 1mb/s?


It won't even break a sweat :D.

great...the FreeBSD sounds like a kewl option, unfortunately i am only purchasing the hardware, not installing it:( the person installing the equipment uses cisco, so i think in this case it is better for me to have it configured properly using the 2611.

what does the memory(RAM) actually do in the router? increases performance in what way?

thanx.

As with any installation it is always best to go with what you know. I am a dedicated hardware bigot, so I am always going to recommend Cisco/Juniper over a BSD/Linux box. If you network administrator knows Cisco, that is going to be the best solution.

As on a server, a router uses RAM to store working memory. Routing tables, ARP tables, and the running config are all stored in the router. Routing tables are especially important in large scale installations where companies are running BGP, etc.

Originally posted by uuallan


The 2611 has two 10 meg ethernet cards and the 2621 has two 100 meg ethernet cards standard.

You're right. For some reason I thought he was talking about a 2610... Don't know where I got that from.

Aaron

Why not just get a Layer 3 switch from Foundry, Extreme or Cisco?

Greetings:

One important question about picking a router is whether or not you need bandwidth shaping / bandwidth control on a per port basis, and to what degree.

The low ended (under $3,000/$4,000) routers often can only limit / shape bandwidth in 1 MBps increments or the like.

If you want to limit some one down to 64 Kbps, then you generally need a more sophisticated router, which often runs more than $4,000.

Thank you.

Most cheaper L3 switches (<$800.00) will go down to ~ 256 K