The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's GuideCisco cheerleadingThere is a lot of space in this chapter that discusses Cisco routers and little space that discusses using FreeBSD as a router, such as with a synchronous serial card in it. Several companies make these cards along with drivers that allow you to plug a T1 right into the back of the FreeBSD system. Yet, when discussing T1 termination, I barely cover this and spend a lot more time discussing the use of a Cisco router on the end of a T1. Reviews were mixed on this. One reviewer said that any book discussing Internet connectivity is helped by talking about the Cisco router. Another said that too much time was spent cheering Cisco. I wrote this chapter from my own experience and viewpoint as that of an administrator running an ISP that has many, many dedicated Frame Relay and point to point customers that use 56K frame and T1 connections. I have found that about 5% of these customers actually work on their own routers. The other 95% all call us immediately if any problem with their routing equipment develops. I have little reason to believe that things are any different with any other major ISPs. Because of this I would also believe that most ISPs prefer their customers to all be using the same routers. Since Cisco is the standard router used for just about all large Internet WAN connections, it stands to reason that most ISPs would prefer that their customers also use Cisco equipment, as they have no shortage of technicians to work on it. From a technical viewpoint, Cisco has not kept up with the explosion in power of the ordinary PC. For $1000 today, a 500Mhz PC can be purchased that has 4 times the raw CPU power of a $10,000 Cisco router, which will be lucky to have a 225Mhz CPU, if that. It is certainly possible to build an equivalent to most Cisco devices for a tenth of the cost on FreeBSD that will have far more power. However, consider that a corporation's Internet router and Internet connection will most likely not change once it's installed--the equipment installed today could easily be in service another 10 years. Think carefully before putting a router in service that is non-standard; you may not be around next time it needs service.
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