Draytek 2600+ Vx Cisco 837

A software supplier is proposing to replace our Draytek 2600+ ADSL
routers with Cisco 837s and from my perspective I can only see that they
are doing this because they are familiar with the Cisco kit and have
never actually used the Draytek.

I'm sure the Cisco 837 is a good bit of kit but the supplier has also
admitted that we will not gain any additional functionality and there
are no Cisco-specific features that are needed for their app.

In a nutshell - ditch an £108 router for one costing (from the s/w
supplier) £295 for no specific benefit other than to keep their techies
happy.

I have told them to FOAD in a polite way ie: please justify a net
expenditure of £403 per site - we have 28 - for no specific technical
benefit, and I've offered to lend them a Draytek for a week. Seems fair
to me!?

Anyway...since I have not actually used an 837 I wondered if there was
anyone hereabouts who has, and if they they would provide any useful
input for this issue. Anyone who's used both the 837 AND the 2600+ will
get bonus points!

Thanks

L3K

On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:17:33 +0000 (UTC), Linker3000 wrote:

> A software supplier is proposing to replace our Draytek 2600+ ADSL
> routers with Cisco 837s and from my perspective I can only see that they
> are doing this because they are familiar with the Cisco kit and have
> never actually used the Draytek.
>
> I'm sure the Cisco 837 is a good bit of kit but the supplier has also
> admitted that we will not gain any additional functionality and there
> are no Cisco-specific features that are needed for their app.
>
> In a nutshell - ditch an £108 router for one costing (from the s/w
> supplier) £295 for no specific benefit other than to keep their techies
> happy.
>
> I have told them to FOAD in a polite way ie: please justify a net
> expenditure of £403 per site - we have 28 - for no specific technical
> benefit, and I've offered to lend them a Draytek for a week. Seems fair
> to me!?
>
> Anyway...since I have not actually used an 837 I wondered if there was
> anyone hereabouts who has, and if they they would provide any useful
> input for this issue. Anyone who's used both the 837 AND the 2600+ will
> get bonus points!

Stay with the 2600+, they work fine. I have them dotted all over the world
doing all sorts of stuff. Very happy.

Ok the Cisco would do the same - but why spend the money, sometimes it's
good to support the small guy if he's showing promise.

Politely tell them to FOAD even if it is an oxymoron!

--
Peter Crosland

"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Politely tell them to FOAD even if it is an oxymoron!
>
> --
> Peter Crosland
>
Here here. for what it costs, the Draytek range, knocks socks of Cisco.

Linker3000 wrote:

Stick with the 2600+, great routers.


--
reply to news at nytoo dot co dot uk

Thanks to all who replied - yep, I'm happy with Draytek too and the s/w
supplier has relented and taken up the offer of a loan Draytek for 1
week so they can take a look at the strange beast.

L3K

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 19:45:46 +0000, Linker3000
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Thanks to all who replied - yep, I'm happy with Draytek too and the s/w
>supplier has relented and taken up the offer of a loan Draytek for 1
>week so they can take a look at the strange beast.

The only reason I can think of it that the Cisco may have better
remote management features, e.g. could you telnet/ssh to the Draytek
and manage it completely without resorting to a http interface?
Otherwise I'm with you all - why fix what ain't broken.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
Richard Sobey <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:
>
>
> On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 19:45:46 +0000, Linker3000
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Thanks to all who replied - yep, I'm happy with Draytek too and the s/w
>>supplier has relented and taken up the offer of a loan Draytek for 1
>>week so they can take a look at the strange beast.
>
> The only reason I can think of it that the Cisco may have better
> remote management features, e.g. could you telnet/ssh to the Draytek
> and manage it completely without resorting to a http interface?
> Otherwise I'm with you all - why fix what ain't broken.

It's the remote management (by software packages, not directly by
humans) that I would see as the significant difference, and the ability
to manage all 28 routers as one set. It makes it easier for the support
company to do that, and less prone to error. While one can do that with
Ciscos, I'm not sure that Draytek Vigors could be managed like that.

I'm a big fan of the Draytek products, but if I were installing around
30 routers and having them managed by a support company, I may well go
for Ciscos if the support company were making intelligent use of their
remote management features, and does that for large numbers of Ciscos at
other customers too. However, if I'd already installed Draytek Vigors,
then I'd weigh up the huge cost of replacing them all against paying the
support company for a little more bespoke attention.

--
Tim Clark

Linker3000 wrote:

> Thanks to all who replied - yep, I'm happy with Draytek too and the s/w
> supplier has relented and taken up the offer of a loan Draytek for 1
> week so they can take a look at the strange beast.
>
> L3K

I had a vigor2200 which I have just got rid of ,the only problem I had with
it was it made a mess of UDP packets which is a pain if you try to
traceroute using udp .The up time was measured in months . I had it for 2
years it still works fine just that the Westell is slightly faster.

Also log on to www.cisco.com you will see where the extra money goes Draytek
are the top end of the cheaper router range the cisco 837 is the cheap end
of a professional router range .

I work with cisco and would not use anything else if I had to support
it ,but if it involves getting my hand in my own pocket I would choose
Draytek or westell which is what I have got now
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