MetaInfo and Lucent offer a software-only central console and the other components in either appliance or software form. The ApplianSys DNSBox product is appliance-only. Appliances are naturally easier to install and can be easier to maintain, especially at remote locations. The software-based approach can be attractive if you have servers with spare capacity to run DNS/DHCPservices.

A DNS/DHCP network appliance might perform faster or slower than your own hardware, depending on the vendor's design and what computers you have available for running the software. Reliability also is a major consideration when buying appliances. For example, the DNSBox systems are Linux-based appliances that boot and run from a pair of Compact Flash cards rather than a disk drive. With no moving parts and no alterable or deletable operating system files, a CF card boot enhances reliability. Performance-wise, the DNSBox 300 contains a 1-GHz Pentium III processor, 512M bytes of RAM and a 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet port. The DNSBox 100 has a 1.7-GHz Celeron processor with 512M-bytes of PC2100 DDR memory and a 10/100 Ethernet port.

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