RE: [FW1] RE: Nokia/Check Point/SolutionPaq

["Mark Decker" <mdecker@FW1-NOSPAMrainfinity.com>]

----Jason Costomiris wrote:----
>That's cool, but I'd prefer to go with the numbers that came from my
>conversation with Compaq...

Suit yourself, but just be aware that you are comparing apples and
oranges.  The 130Mbps number you got from Nokia was likely achieved
under different conditions than whatever test Compaq was doing to get
90Mbps.  Such unilateral vendor benchmarks aren't very useful in
comparing two boxes.  Different vendors have different definitions of
the word "throughput".  Are they talking about unidirectional throughput
between two ports, duplex throughput for a single port, or total
aggregate throughput through all interfaces.  That's why we did our own
side-by-side testing on identical test beds, and they showed the Compaq
meeting or beating the Nokia, depending on configuration.

>I'd love to see an IP330 with IPSO 3.4 and FW1 4.1SP4 vs.
>the DL320 with 256 MB of RAM and 4.1SP4...

Now that would be a good test! (Network World, are you listening?)

>Ahh, but I was talking about the config that the Compaq guy told me
about,
>with a gig of RAM...  The Compaq engineer I spoke with told me that
they tested with a gig of
ram in the DL320... That drives the price up a bit... :-)

But a gig of RAM is probably not helping performance much.  My guess is
that it was only using 512MB or less.  Firewalling isn't as RAM-hungry
as some other server tasks.  The main thing it is used for besides the
FW-1 code itself is the connection table, so RAM has more impact on
number of connections than raw throughput.  The factors that really
affect throughput are processor/bus speed, as well as the NIC
architecture and driver optimization.

>Also, the IP330's max port density is 5 10/100 ports.

I stand corrected.  Sorry for the misinformation.

Mark L. Decker
Rainfinity - High Availability for E-Businessmdecker@rainfinity.com




================================================================================
     To unsubscribe from this mailing list, please see the instructions at
               http://www.checkpoint.com/services/mailing.html
================================================================================