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.