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Hello,
I just started working at a muni-ISP that is using a Linux box as
thier router because their CISCO 3640 croaks too often.
They (the City) does not want to buy a new router because of cost, but
they would like to use a CISCO router. So, after looking around online
(my CISCO classes were only with 2500 series and 1700 series routers) I
found some CISCO 4000's and CISCO 3640's on the Internet. The 3640's
cost a lot more than the 4000's so there must be some major difference
between the two. Only thing I can see is that the 3640's can handle
more DRAM than the 4000s.

What do we need the router to do? Well, we have a T1 line and a 3Mbps
Microwave line (Will soon be upgraded to 8Mbps). Both backbones are
routed with BGP. The T1 has over 106000 learned routes on the 3640, so
I assume having a fair share of memory is a good thing (Current route
space used is 17MB).

Any help would be helpful.

-SB

Personally I strongly recommend the 3640 and here is why.
4000 EOF End of life (yes the 3640 will be end of life soon also but
not yet.)
Expandability / Upgrades ---- the 3640 has room for 4 slots whereas
the 4000 has 3 slots.

Both are reliable but Im almost willing to bet the 3640 has a better
MTBF and will certainly be easier to get back up

IOS!!! The latest IOS is supported on the 3640's 12.4 where as cisco
has stopped making anything past 12.2 for 4000.

Performance! A maxed 3640 beats a 4000 any day. The cisco website can
shed more light on that.

Now if you dont need those features by all means get the 4000. No I
don't work for cisco!


On 6 Jun 2005 15:07:37 -0700, "darktiger" <> wrote:

>Hello,
> I just started working at a muni-ISP that is using a Linux box as
>thier router because their CISCO 3640 croaks too often.
> They (the City) does not want to buy a new router because of cost, but
>they would like to use a CISCO router. So, after looking around online
>(my CISCO classes were only with 2500 series and 1700 series routers) I
>found some CISCO 4000's and CISCO 3640's on the Internet. The 3640's
>cost a lot more than the 4000's so there must be some major difference
>between the two. Only thing I can see is that the 3640's can handle
>more DRAM than the 4000s.
>
> What do we need the router to do? Well, we have a T1 line and a 3Mbps
>Microwave line (Will soon be upgraded to 8Mbps). Both backbones are
>routed with BGP. The T1 has over 106000 learned routes on the 3640, so
>I assume having a fair share of memory is a good thing (Current route
>space used is 17MB).
>
> Any help would be helpful.
>
>-SB

My opinion too heads toward a 3640. We replaced a lot of 4xxx routers
in our network(4000,4500 and 4700) with 3640 and 3660 series, also the
"other side" of the line, usually cisco 25xx, were replaced with 26xx,
which is in most cases compatible with the 36xx modules.
The network i´m talking about is a 200+(routers) network, including
layer3 switches and approx. 2500 hosts, also SNA/DLSW+/Ethernet and
TokenRing, the routing protocol is ospf. We had problems with massive
cpu-load when working with access-lists and flapping routes, which was
fixed after the network-wide replacement of the old systems(10 years or
so?).
In our case, the reliability of these routers is excellent, except of a
defect NM-4T(... **** happens!) and an "automatically" rebooting
2612 at various times every day all are working fine, uptime is at some
routers since power-on 4 years ago.