Re: Linux Firewall: Hardware questions: interrupts and network cards

[Wojciech Ziniewicz <wojciech.ziniewicz@gmail.com>]

> 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 ?
>
>  
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 preformance
> than 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)