[CentOS] Router for SOHO network - hardware considerations

Tue Nov 23 00:52:40 UTC 2010
Todd Edwards <tedwards at mcclatchyinteractive.com>

On Mon, 2010-11-22 at 10:09 -0800, Blake Hudson wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> +1 for Linksys WRT54GL and tomato firmware
> +1 for pfsense (or monowall) on a small server
> 
<SNIP>

I love my ASUS RT-N16 running DD-WRT although I have heard from friends
that tomato is superior. With a 480mhz processor, 128mb of ram, and 32mb
of flash its a beastly little residential router with the right software
running on it. I haven't touched it since I set it up other than to
upgrade to the latest DD-WRT. My wife's TV obsession combined with my
torrent traffic has made my life miserable with more than one router
running a proprietary firmware. 

Unfortunately I don't have any numbers as to how much traffic this thing
can actually handle, but I can only assume that it's much higher than
the Linksys models with lower specifications. DD-WRT gives me all the
control I need over my home network, but it certainly wouldn't be enough
for all situations.

        http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16#Specs_:
        
        root at AsusRT-N16:~# uptime
         20:16:50 up 102 days, 23:37, load average: 0.01, 0.02, 0.00
        
        root at AsusRT-N16:/proc# cat cpuinfo
        system type		: Broadcom BCM4716 chip rev 1
        processor		: 0
        cpu model		: MIPS 74K V4.0
        BogoMIPS		: 239.20
        wait instruction	: no
        microsecond timers	: yes
        tlb_entries		: 64
        extra interrupt vector	: no
        hardware watchpoint	: yes
        ASEs implemented	: mips16 dsp
        shadow register sets	: 1
        VCED exceptions		: not available
        VCEI exceptions		: not available
        
        dcache hits		: 2147483648
        dcache misses		: 3732208860
        icache hits		: 2147483648
        icache misses		: 4277960450
        instructions		: 2147483648
        
        root at AsusRT-N16:/proc# cat meminfo
                total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
        Mem:  127946752 17866752 110080000        0  1900544  6295552
        Swap:        0        0        0
        MemTotal:       124948 kB
        MemFree:        107500 kB
        MemShared:           0 kB
        Buffers:          1856 kB
        Cached:           6148 kB
        SwapCached:          0 kB
        Active:           1751 kB
        Inactive:          729 kB
        HighTotal:           0 kB
        HighFree:            0 kB
        LowTotal:       124948 kB
        LowFree:        107500 kB
        SwapTotal:           0 kB
        SwapFree:            0 kB
        Dirty:               0 kB
        Writeback:           0 kB
        Mapped:            364 kB
        Slab:              178 kB
        CommitLimit:     62472 kB
        Committed_AS:     4344 kB
        PageTables:       2001 kB
        VmallocTotal:   786388 kB
        VmallocUsed:        40 kB
        VmallocChunk:   786332 kB


-- 

Todd Edwards