Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 13:15:51 -0400 From: dennis@etinc.com (Dennis) To: "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM> Cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Question about Cisco 2503i price Message-ID: <199608011715.NAA20897@etinc.com>
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>> >The 2503i is a mission critical version, it directly includes the software, >> >which disables the serial port. You can later buy the full version ($1200 >> >list price) to upgrade and use the serial ports. >> >> Does that include the (required) memory upgrade? >> >> So your talking $3000. for a box with 2 serial ports, an ISDN connection >> and a '386-speed processor? Eeek! > >Two T1 ports, ISDN, support for T1 PPP, Cisco HDLC, Frame Relay and >SMDS. Packet filtering. OSPF, RIP, RIP-2, EIGRP, BGP routing >protocols (if you need them). Look at the 2524 which has provisions >for integral 56K DDS or T1 CSU/DSUs to further reduce the system cost. > >Plus, you can plug it in and it works. No interrupt vectors, dma >channels to fool with. Small package. Only a fan for moving parts, >and no fsck. > >Not everyone is willing to spend a lot of time integrating a box when >you can essentially buy an appliance off the shelf which does a better >job. Are we going to start this whole discussion again? > "Better job?" Its still a pig....my comment is that its VERY expensive for what you get, and the guy was asking if it was a good price. Obviously anyone who can't build their own has to buy...I'm not arguing with that. But anyone who says that a unit that comes with 10,000 pages of documentation is a "plug it in and it works" unit doesnt remember the first time they got one and had to figure out how to configure it. Configuring a couple of subinterfaces for frame relay is a lot more complicated with a Cisco than with FreeBSD. The bottom line it that no matter what you get, it ain't that easy. There's no such thing as plug and play in this business. Check out www.etinc.com/routers.htm for an ironic perspective of the whole concept. Dennis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emerging Technologies, Inc. http://www.etinc.com Synchronous Communications Cards and Routers For Discriminating Tastes. 56k to T1 and beyond. Frame Relay, PPP, HDLC, and X.25 for BSD/OS, FreeBSD and LINUX
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