On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Dave McGuire wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> >>   I'd consider dropping packets because of inadequate performance "broken".
> >
> >It's all relative. Every router will drop packets at one point or another.
> >It's just a question of where you pass the limits. TCP/IP was designed
> >with this in mind, and survives fine on lossy connections, but with a
> >degraded performance (of course).
> 
>   Of course...But I tend to set those limits pretty low, especially when routers
> (read: boxes that were *designed* to do the work we're talking about) are so
> damn cheap now.

Everything is relative. :-)
Damn cheap is hardly cheap if you compare with free boxes, such as old
VAXen... (or old 386s).

>  >I just don't understand how much traffic you think will be going over his
> >router.
> 
>   Oh, I have no idea...but, coming from a large ISP background, I just assume
> that nobody's gonna *pay* for a whole T1 unless they *need* a whole T1.  At
> least that's the way things have been in my past.

You do have a point there...

> >>   You must be used to MUCH slower VAXen than I am.
> >
> >Don't know what you're using, but personally I'm on a 3500, but the VAX
> >I've seen used as a router is a 6440. But once again, the machine used as
> >a router is not the big problem you are trying to make it.
> >And even if it might turn out to be, I'd say start by trying, and if it
> >then turns out to be a real bottleneck, then find something faster.
> 
>   I'm not trying to make it out to be a big problem.  I just consider
> it to be a
> "last resort" measure.  It can work, but that certainly doesn't mean is
> the best
> solution.  I'm very big on the "right tool for the job" notion...and where I
> come from, you terminate a T1 with a router.  Preferably not a
> WellFleet router.

Okay. We just have different opinions here. For me, the right tool is the
tool that does the job. If the 386 will handle it, then it's good enough.
And I believe it will handle the stuff just fine.
I hope we can agree to disagree then. :-)

	Johnny

Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol