After my harrowing adventure trying to buy a router, I decided to look at my free options.
We currently run CentOS as the core of our VoIP system, so I have a linux system that gets exposed to the internet -- I rationalized. So how bad would it be to pop another Ethernet card in the back and use that as a router as well. It would mean that I would never have problems with SIP over NAT again. So I went forth to purchase the card at CDW. Added the first one I found to my cart, then went to click the check out button. But the forces of the universe were against me. Just before I clicked that fated button, my laptop ran out of battery. It was destiny, fate, and didn't really happen. No, it was my own conscience that prevented me from putting a production server as a first tier internet client, even if it was Linux. No, there had to be a better solution -- and buying a complete pc to use as a firewall wasn't it.
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