How to Install and Configure RCP100 Routing Suite on Debian 7

Software-based routers have always played a role in the Internet, and are becoming increasingly important in data centers due to the convergence of video, mobile, and cloud services. Data traffic no longer moves simply from the subscriber into the network and then out again. Instead, most of the traffic is located inside the data center between various application servers within the network.

All this traffic can be routed easily using software-based routers running on commodity PC hardware. Such a router looks like just another server in the data center, and most of the time it is implemented using open-source software. The availability of the source code and the right to modify the software enables the unlimited tuning and optimization of the network traffic.

This article describes how to set up RCP100 routing suite on a Debian 7 computer. RCP100 is a full OSPF/RIP router for Linux. It works on 64bit computers, it is licensed under GPL, and it is actively developed.

The computer I am setting up has two Ethernet interfaces, eth0 (192.168.20.20) and eth1 (10.1.10.1), and it is meant to connect a small private network segment (10.1.10.0/24) to the larger public network. To isolate the private network, I configure Network Address Translation on the router and enable the firewall. Computers on the private network are assigned IP addresses using DHCP. The router also provides NTP and DNS proxy services.

Network setup

How to Speed Up Mozilla Firefox

As the Internet goes slower and slower and your Internet Service Provider refuses to go faster and faster, these are three easy things you can do to speed up Mozilla Firefox:

1. Disable IPv6

For a regular web page such as slashdot.org, Firefox needs to resolve more than 40 domain names. Each domain name is resolved twice, once for an IPv4 address and once for an IPv6 address. This results in lots of DNS requests, slowing down your web access. If you are like 99.999% of the population without IPv6 access, translating domain names in IPv6 addresses is useless.

To disable this functionality, type about:config into the address bar. Type ipv6 into the search bar and toggle network.dns.disableIPv6 to true.

2. Install Adblock Plus extension

The extension will cut down most, if not all, advertisements and annoying banners.

3. Install Ghostery extension

The extension removes “invisible” trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google Analytics, and over 1,000 other ad networks.