I have 2 questions in regards to Linux firewall hardware. I have Xeon 700MHz Netfinity running as campus firewall managingabout 10K - 300K sessions on a T3. It runs the 2.6.8 kernel and IPtables in bridge mode.When I use 2 cpu's the systems seems to get interrupt collisions. Are interrupt collisions common with dual CPU systems on Linux firewalls ?
do you use smp kernel then ?
Also, are there any good network cards that have 2 - 3 ethernet ports on them and only require 1 IRQ ? I think multiple port PCI cards would offer greater preformancethan 2 or 3 separate PCI cards. Correct me if I am wrong.
i know about intel 4 eth cards (check ebay) that cost approx. 500 $ (new)