Diana is right.  Newer switches uses ASICs (Application Specific
Integrated Circuits) to do the switching.  Making the MAC Address
lookup table basically hardwired into the hardware.  That is why
switches are basically wire speed unlike a software bridge which is
slow in comparison.

Glenn, I would really doubt that you will be able to put OpenBSD or
NetBSD onto this Linksys switch.  The firmware (boot) and the software
work together very closely on switches.  If the firmware and software
do not much up, you can run across problems also.  I would check on
Linksys.com to see if they have newer firmware and software then you
have on your switch.  Most managable switches will allow you to setup
VLANs and SNMP through the web interface.

Good Luck,

rc



On 4/5/07, Sam Fourman Jr. <sfourman@gmail.com> wrote:
quoted text
> On 4/5/07, Steve Shockley <steve.shockley@shockley.net> wrote:
> > Siju George wrote:
> > > I wish somebody would design a simple hardware that has 24 or more NIC
> > > ports ( and of course WiFi ) and processor than can install OpenBSD.
> > > With PF then I could have a very inexpensive managed switch with ACLS
> > > for all hosts on the network:-)
> >
> > The problem isn't just getting lots of ports on a device (usb could
> > probably do that), it's getting lots of ports on a device and getting
> > them all to run at full bandwidth.
> >
> >
> I have been interested for quite some time in making a Switch with OpenBSD
>  See this post
> http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/2007-03/2353.html
>  you may find this interesting
>
> Sam Fourman Jr.