Number os PCs is not the most important information. We need you to give us some more data about the firewall you're pretending to build, like: 1) internet connection speed (256k DSL, 1.5 T1, more?? ) 2) complexity of your rules (simple rules, very complex rules) 3) any other information you can share with us ..... But I can guarantee you that netfilter can get you VERY good throughput **IF** you think before making the rules. We've seen lots of people complaining about bad throughputs but almost all the times the problem is related to their rules, build in a not-smart way, and not related to iptables/netfilter itself. Question: what's smartbits ????? I've never heard about it ..... Sincerily, Leonardo Rodrigues ----- Original Message ----- From: <zhaohui_scu@xxxxxxxx> To: <netfilter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 10:22 AM Subject: how can I improve the throughput of linux firewall that use the netfilter + iptable > > I want to use the netfilter+iptables for my company's local_net. > > but I have read the following words on some webpage > "we use linux as our router. i just tested the performance of the router with smartbits, and i found that the throughput of 64byte .and the result is not good" > > we have not the smartbits > > but we want to use "iptables + netfilter + a normal pc with two eth " for our company > there are about 1,000 PCs in the local_net > > what can I do to improve it