Linux router max throughput by CPU?
 

Hi. I have recently moved to an area that allows me to have fiber optic internet to the house. It has granted me mininum throughput of 30Mbps. For maybe the last six years I have been running a Pentium 90 96MB SuSE linux firewall/router as the entry into my network. The network has a local network for my home with four computers behind it, and a DMZ with three low usage web servers. When I had originally set it up, I found a site that determined how much bandwidth could go thorugh my router based on CPU/RAM/etc. But, I am trying to find this now, and cannot.

So, my question is - what is the bandwidth cap on a Pentium 90 96MB RAM bare bone system that does nothing else besides route network traffic between the DMZ, intranet and internet? Can I acheive the 30-40Mbs connection speed that I am paying my carrier for?

If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated, as I am trying to remove all bottle necks with this awsome fiber optic connection they have here.

Thanks!

It largely depends on your network card. If your network card has a TOE (TCP Offload Engine) and intelligent interrupt management, then you can probably handle the traffic. However, as NICs with this capability are rather expensive (costing more than most people spend on a PC these days), odds are that that you cannot.

The TCP/IP stack in Linux has not remained static over time, and performance has changed. Your specific throughput will also depend on many additional factors - the specific Ethernet card and driver revision, mix of packet lengths in the traffic, tuning options. Any site that gives you an estimate is literally providing a wild-assed guess.

Your best option is to get yourself a good quality 100Mb home router (typically available for about $50). You may want to look into one supported by OpenWRT so that you have full control over the Linux running in the router.