[CentOS] Optimizing CentOS for gigabit firewall

Sun Dec 20 15:22:41 UTC 2009
Chan Chung Hang Christopher <christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk>

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Timo Schoeler wrote:
>>> What about NetBSD? I heard that NetBSD has the best network stack out
>>> there. Maybe NetBSD with pf is the best choice?
>> NetBSD is a very nice OS, I personally like it most (out of all BSDs out
>> there); however, as can be read on
>>
>> http://www.netbsd.org/docs/network/pf.html
>>
>> there's the 'usual lag': OpenBSD implements feature X in 4.6, wait some
>> time to see it implemented elsewhere.
>>
>> One of the biggest strengths of OpenBSD is that it's really a completely
>> rounded piece of work. Keep it that way. pf will perform best on
>> OpenBSD, with all the nice features it has.
> 
> Has anyone used Firewall Builder to create a complex set of iptables 
> rules?  Or compared performance where it built the same thing for 
> linux/iptables  and bsd/pf?
> 


Are you joking? That piece of crap just puts everything into one single 
chain. I never EVER use Firewall Builder after I saw the results the 
first time.

For a BRIDGING firewall, there is absolutely NO WAY that Linux/netfilter 
can keep up with OpenBSD/pf. I doubt that Linux/netfilter can even reach 
half the performance of OpenBSD/pf.