Linux Kernel Packets Per Second

I have been searching for the last couple of months for an affordable firewall solution for a colocation customer to replace the current sonicwall they are using. The Snonicwall can only handle around 128,000 concurrent connections. We have looked into may other firewalls that can handle more concurrent connections but they are quite a bit more than what they paid for the Sonicwall 3060.

So someone suggested that we get a machine running linux and build a firewall for them. We did so with OpenBSD and PF, but it failed for some reason and we are unclear why it did, and we think it has to do with the amount of concurrent connections the kernel can handle.

We have decided to try again with Fedora using Shorewall http://www.shorewall.com and using the bridging firewall. So the questions is the following:

How many packets per second would you estimate the following server running Fedora and two nics and a bridging firewall can handle, and is there a place where you can find info on tests for such set-ups?

P4 2.8GHZ
1GB RAM
80GB HDD

The customer uses about 60MBPS of traffic during peak hours.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Alvin Slocombe

 

 

 

 

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