<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt">A number of months ago, I purchased a Dell 6224, layer 3 switch, with the idea of using it to break my 150+ machine network into subnets, primarily so that some tech in a lab wouldn't shut down the network with a broadcast storm.<br><br>According to Dell, this is what I should be able to do.<br><br>According to me, every set of instructions we got to do a simple "break your network into 8 IP subnets" has not worked.<br><br>Which brings up 3 possible solutions<br>1. Beat a Dell rep with a stick until he gets an engineer who is not doing a visual inspection of his own lower intestine.<br>2. Bite the bullet, and get recommendations for something that is advertised as a "real router". Gigabit ethernet is a requirement. <br>3. Build a cheap box and make a router using linux.<br><br>Any advice with
the above would be helpful. Specifically regarding 2 (What can I get that is inexpensive, does Gigabit ethernet, and doesn't necessarily include a bunch of crap I don't want, like ISDN, firewalls, proxys, etc), or 3 (Inexpensive motherboards/rack mounts/PCIe Network cards, etc).<br>One thing I am curious about, I seem to remember from long long ago, that linux only supported 4 network cards. Is this the case for real, or just a bad memory?<br><br>Thanks!<br><div> </div><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Richard Hubbard </span><br>ATTO Technology Inc<div><br></div></div><br>
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