The good ol' Cisco router your are talking about is indeed "old," both in design as well as being used.
I agree with your conclusion that you don't want to engineer your own Linux solution when you get up into ATM/SONET at DS3 speeds and above. But why go with a Cisco? They don't guarantee line-rate performance because their products don't deliver it when you activate advanced packet processing features like QoS, packet filtering, and NAT. When you buy a Cisco router like what you describe, you can expect to lose some percentage of your DS3 pipes because the Cisco router will not route them at wire-speed under many conditions.
In contrast with the Cisco router you bought, ImageStream's Gateway router will route two ATM DS3 circuits and 8 ATM T1 circuits at wire-speed, and we guarantee it. That great deal you think you got was about the same price you would pay for a new ImageStream Gateway router with two ATM DS3 cards and an 8-port T1 card with IMA support. Of course, the new ImageStream router also would include a complete software distribution, 1 year warranty on parts and labor, 24/7 technical support for 1 year, and free software upgrades for life, which the used Cisco would not provide.
ImageStream manufactures the world's lowest cost DS3/E3, OC3 and OC12 routers, and we have been competing with Cisco used prices for years. If you like Linux, and you want a high-end router that includes guaranteed wire-speed performance, you should check out our Web site at http://www.imagesteam.com.
ImageStream is getting ready to release a channelized DS3 card that can be used with our commercial line of Linux routers. It should be available in the next 60 days or so. The card is expected to cost around $5 K, which is about 1/3 the price of the Cisco card. The card can be loaded into our Rebel router, which is the industry's lowest cost DS3 router at a retail price of $1,999.
Despite your comment that Linux is not the right platform for higher-end routing applications, the performance we see from Cisco products using long access lists suggests the opposite is true. For some reason, Cisco doesn't like putting much processing power in their routers, and this product philosophy hurts their performance significantly in any application that requies packet processing like NAT, QoS, packet filtering, etc.
For the latest third party lab comparison, check out http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0714rev.html. The Cisco 2651 could not route two T1s at line speed with any active access list rules. We have observed this in our labs with a range of Cisco routers including the 2600, 3600/3700, and 7200/7500 series routers.
In contrast with your conclusions, our lab data suggests that Linux is by far the best platform for high-end applications. Our data also shows that Linux outperforms IOS in most applications when throughput, latency and jitter are taken into consideration. In our experience, Linux makes Cisco look like the Microsoft of router manufacturers.
Cisco is very good at convincing people to buy their products, but they are more focused on their profitability than they are on making the best products in the world. If this weren't true, our company would have no reason to exist.
As far as I know, every Linux router we make outperforms the Cisco alternatives. Check out http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0714rev.html for the latest independent lab test conducted by Network World Magazine.
Out of curiosity, who told you Cisco routers are fast?
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The good ol' Cisco router your are talking about is indeed "old," both in design as well as being used.
I agree with your conclusion that you don't want to engineer your own Linux solution when you get up into ATM/SONET at DS3 speeds and above. But why go with a Cisco? They don't guarantee line-rate performance because their products don't deliver it when you activate advanced packet processing features like QoS, packet filtering, and NAT. When you buy a Cisco router like what you describe, you can expect to lose some percentage of your DS3 pipes because the Cisco router will not route them at wire-speed under many conditions.
In contrast with the Cisco router you bought, ImageStream's Gateway router will route two ATM DS3 circuits and 8 ATM T1 circuits at wire-speed, and we guarantee it. That great deal you think you got was about the same price you would pay for a new ImageStream Gateway router with two ATM DS3 cards and an 8-port T1 card with IMA support. Of course, the new ImageStream router also would include a complete software distribution, 1 year warranty on parts and labor, 24/7 technical support for 1 year, and free software upgrades for life, which the used Cisco would not provide.
ImageStream manufactures the world's lowest cost DS3/E3, OC3 and OC12 routers, and we have been competing with Cisco used prices for years. If you like Linux, and you want a high-end router that includes guaranteed wire-speed performance, you should check out our Web site at http://www.imagesteam.com.
ImageStream is getting ready to release a channelized DS3 card that can be used with our commercial line of Linux routers. It should be available in the next 60 days or so. The card is expected to cost around $5 K, which is about 1/3 the price of the Cisco card. The card can be loaded into our Rebel router, which is the industry's lowest cost DS3 router at a retail price of $1,999.
. The Cisco 2651 could not route two T1s at line speed with any active access list rules. We have observed this in our labs with a range of Cisco routers including the 2600, 3600/3700, and 7200/7500 series routers.
Despite your comment that Linux is not the right platform for higher-end routing applications, the performance we see from Cisco products using long access lists suggests the opposite is true. For some reason, Cisco doesn't like putting much processing power in their routers, and this product philosophy hurts their performance significantly in any application that requies packet processing like NAT, QoS, packet filtering, etc.
For the latest third party lab comparison, check out http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0714rev.html
In contrast with your conclusions, our lab data suggests that Linux is by far the best platform for high-end applications. Our data also shows that Linux outperforms IOS in most applications when throughput, latency and jitter are taken into consideration. In our experience, Linux makes Cisco look like the Microsoft of router manufacturers.
Cisco is very good at convincing people to buy their products, but they are more focused on their profitability than they are on making the best products in the world. If this weren't true, our company would have no reason to exist.
As far as I know, every Linux router we make outperforms the Cisco alternatives. Check out http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0714rev.html for the latest independent lab test conducted by Network World Magazine.
Out of curiosity, who told you Cisco routers are fast?