Linux Firewall: Hardware questions: interrupts and network cards

[Theodore Knab <tjk@annapolislinux.org>]

I have 2 questions in regards to Linux firewall hardware.

I have Xeon 700MHz Netfinity running as campus firewall managing
about 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 ?

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 preformance
than 2 or 3 separate PCI cards. Correct me if I am wrong. 

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Ted Knab
Stevensville, Maryland  21666 USA
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