[CLUE-Talk] Linux as a switch

[Brandon N]

well, I've got all the cables running in to a patch panel, so only the
patch cables would have to be crossover.  
I'm not sure what you mean by cable length being an issue.  I'll
basically have a 100meter length per segment, since it's switched.

Two other issues I'm worried about is latency and bandwith, but as I'll
probably be running this on a 300MhZ AMD K6 with few other duties, it
shouldn't be too bad.

Brandon
--- jdlabarnhart at home.com wrote:
> It could be done. 
> 
> The kernel supports routing and few other neat things. What I think
> that
> You will run into is the cable lenths. You would most likely have to
> use
> cross over cables for the interconnect between the nics. and that can
> be
> a lot of cable.
> 
> 10=15' approx.
> 100=40' approx. 
> 
> I had ran into that problem trying to setup an Xterm at home using
> spare
> parts.
> 
> Jef
> 
> 
> 
> Brandon N wrote:
> > 
> > I've currently got a home network of around 3-5 machines depending
> on
> > the day.
> > I've been considering purchasing a ethernet switch.  Looks like I
> can
> > find a good managed 12port switch on Ebay for around $80-100, then
> I
> > started thinking.
> > I don't have 12 machines (I would like to but power consumption is
> > getting to be a factor)
> > I have a probably 10 spare ethernet adapters and a few spare PCI
> > motherboards.
> > So, I'm thinking of building my own.
> > 
> > Does anyone have any experience with 4+ ethernet adapters in one
> > machine?  I see IRQ's becoming the first problem, can they be
> shared?
> > 
> > I've seen several 4 port ethernet cards on ebay, anyone know if
> these
> > are supported by Linux and if they share an IRQ?
> > 
> > How would the speed compare for a linux based switch vs a
> conventional
> > one?
> > 
> > I can see several potential advantages:
> > firewall, NAT, mixed media (wireless), excellent management
> options.
> > 
> > Brandon
> > 
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