Low end router alternative?

I'm experimenting at home with hardware. I'm playing with low end T1
equipment at the moment. What is a low-cost router solution to hook to a
CSU/DSU? (where I don't have to pay a ridiculous $800+ IOS relicensing
fee preferably.)

With Cisco 2500's going on Ebay for $10-$30, I'd like to find something in
the <$50 price range that will do basic routing and has an RJ45 connector
plus some serial way for me to hook the CSU/DSU in to it.

Bonus abilities would be built in DHCP, NAT, 1-1 NAT mapping, port
mapping, and basic firewalling.

Maybe I'm looking at this too hard. Is there a cheap Smart-Jack to
Ethernet conversion system out there I'm missing for small businesses?

I know the hardware has been around for a while and the software I'm
looking for is not complicated. Maybe someone knows of a different OS
that'll go on the cheap cisco routers like:
http://www.mcvax.org/~koen/uClinux-cisco2500/images/

...only with a heartbeat. (That's not going to stop me from downloading it
and trying it though.)

Thanks for any suggestions on or off list.

Gerald

Lucent Pipeline 130, Superpipe 95, or Superpipe 155.

Cheap, Reasonably reliable, no external CSU-DSU required.
Personally, I won't run Nat on them. It's been my
experience that 9 out of 10 will work fine with Nat, but 1
will have odd problems and require reboots.

-Ejay

From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]

On

Behalf Of Gerald
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 3:57 PM
To: nanog@merit.edu
Subject: Low end router alternative?

I'm experimenting at home with hardware. I'm playing with

low end T1

equipment at the moment. What is a low-cost router

solution

to hook to a
CSU/DSU? (where I don't have to pay a ridiculous $800+ IOS

relicensing

fee preferably.)

With Cisco 2500's going on Ebay for $10-$30, I'd like to

find

something in
the <$50 price range that will do basic routing and has an

RJ45 connector
plus some serial way for me to hook the CSU/DSU in to it.

Bonus abilities would be built in DHCP, NAT, 1-1 NAT

mapping, port

mapping, and basic firewalling.

Maybe I'm looking at this too hard. Is there a cheap

Smart-Jack to

Ethernet conversion system out there I'm missing for small

businesses?

I know the hardware has been around for a while and the

software I'm

looking for is not complicated. Maybe someone knows of a

different OS

that'll go on the cheap cisco routers like:
http://www.mcvax.org/~koen/uClinux-cisco2500/images/

...only with a heartbeat. (That's not going to stop me

from

Well 2 minutes on Froogle tell me your definition of cheap and mine don't
match. For the same price range I would get a netopia R4522 or 5300 which
will reliably do NAT and all.

With a little more research, I think I can better clarify that I'm looking
for just about any router (<$50-100) that has a HSSI port and an RJ45
port. For what I'm looking for at the moment (experimenting)
used/refurbished doesn't matter so long as it works.

Gerald

You ever hit send and then wish you could chase after that E-mail with a
s/HSSI/v.35/ ?

I was wrongly using the term. HSSI apparently cisco claimed. I was just
looking for a router with a serial interface that will handle 1.5 Mb
traffic which I've been told fits v.35.

Gerald