Ascend GRF

Thu Nov 6 12:09:33 UTC 1997

On Thu, 06 Nov 1997 02:23:29 -0800 
 Mark Tripod <mark at elvis.exodus.net> wrote:

> Anyone care to share their experiences with the GRF? I am interested in
> hearing some real world opinions on its ease of use, stability,
> compatibility, and realiability. Private emails are fine if you don't
> want public.
> 

Ease of use:  

	Helps if you've used gated before, the diagnostic tools on
	things like loopback tests and actual line protocol debuging
	could be much better.
	Upgrading the box is simplicity when you have to do it.
	The ATM cards configuration could be less "cross your fingers
	and hope for the best" I've found that when I do something the
	card needs a reboot, there is no indication of this on config time.

Stability/Reliablilty

	Well with the exception of the above they are very stable, we've
	not have any crashes in over 6 months of use. We had one 
	duff FDDI card and one power supply went, but the traps pick
	this up. The snmp code neads a few tweaks it loses the configureation
	of the machine every now and again.

Compatibility:

	I've had it running with Cisco 4000, 7000 ATM and HSSI, 
	Nortel Passport 110 several Fore systems switches, Xylan switches, 
 	on frame, atm, ethernet and FDDI. I've not tested the new
	cisco hdlc code yet, but I doubt there will be a problem with this.
	gated works well with communities and all the usual routing stuff,
	has ISIS support which seems to work although I've not really
	done a major test on that. PVC and SVC's seem to work OK.

It desperatly suffers from a lack of T1/E1 ports.

Overall its a good box, we have 5 of them, on a STM-1 triangulated network
and one on the LINX FDDI all seems well, however we're a newish ISP so
we're not pushing them as hard as say someone like Demon Internet might.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Regards,
Neil.
--
Neil J. McRae. Alive and Kicking.       Domino: In the glow of the night.
neil at DOMINO.ORG        NetBSD/sparc: 100% SpF (Solaris protection Factor) 
  Free the daemon in your <A HREF="http://www.NetBSD.ORG/">computer!</A>