what can i do with a 486?

[Darren Pilgrim]

Matthew D. Fuller wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 09:30:23PM +0100 I heard the voice of
> Oliver Fromme, and lo! it spake thus:
>> Personally I prefer to use a FreeBSD machine as a router, because I
>> dislike "black boxes".
> 
> I second and carry the motion.  Show me a consumer-grade black-box
> "router" that I can run tcpdump on, then maybe I'll think about
> switching...   but probably not by a long shot.

Well I do have a Linksys WRT54G with hacked firmware... :)

These days I'd rather install a Cisco 1605R than a old computer with 
FreeBSD on it.  No moving parts and it's getting expensive to build and 
support old PC hardware (the cost of DRAM is the real issue).

I do still have a few FreeBSD routers: underclocked Pentium with a large 
heat-sink, 48 or 64 MB RAM, DC-DC PS with a wall-wart and a CF card in 
an IDE reader from which an md / is loaded.

In my experience, there just isn't enough power in a 486 to handle being 
a broadband router.  A 100MHz Pentium running RELENG_4, however, has 
more than enough to handle DSL and cable modem speeds with a pair of fxp 
interfaces.

-- 
Darren Pilgrim