Why not the original router --===[> the Unix Box w/ gated... there you
have it, a solution in a mid-tower case.
Its easy, its stable, it works... and whats 64 megs of 60ns EDO going for
now a days? An AMD 5x86/133 should be able to handle two T1s using one
ET5025/25 dual port card (www.etinc.com) and get a good digital-based PCI
network card running FreeBSD.
This is the route we are going to start taking. Right now I am using an
ER's wan port, but I can see thats gonna be a nightmare at T1, its bad
enough at 56K.
Also, its fully configurable, and you can run services (mail, named, httpd,
etc) on the same box (if it were a bit more powerful, like a 6x86/P166+ or
a P5-120 (the 6x86 doesn't seem to be as efficient as the P5 in interrupt
handling).
its cheap, it works fast, its pretty damn reliable... Find a good reliable
SLOW hard drive (I'm going to use my old 345MB Maxtor 3600 RPM IDE), and if
possible keep extra parts around, to minimize possable downtime. Two
complete routers would still cost a LOT less than a base-model Cisco 45xx
series.
only drawback is you are dealing with more mechanical parts (hard drive &
CPU fan [if nessasary]). It works, its cheap, and its really good.
JS