WTB: Multibus Cisco Ethernet cards

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Sat Feb 5 07:09:52 2000

On Sat, 05 Feb 2000, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>If they aren't classic, they soon will be. I've got this ancient Cisco AGS+
>router (68040-based) with Multibus and some kind of Cisco-proprietary slots
>inside. I have a quad V.35 card (useless to me because of the 26-pin high-
>density D-shell connectors and no cables). What I need is at least a dual
>Ethernet card. Whenever I ask my friends in networking, they always tell me
>the same story, "Oh, yeah. We used to have some of those, but we threw all
>that stuff out X months ago."
>
>So if all these folks have been throwing this sort of stuff out, I figure that
>*someone* on this list has seen the occasional item float by. Any and all
>leads are appreciated. I'm willing to pay in excess of 1.2 * shipping, but
>the sky is not the limit.

  You know...strangely enough, that line of router hardware has pretty much
been "artificially" obsoleted by cisco. I mean, not that such practices are
all that unusual (the ss5/170 was discontinued how many months after it had
been put into production? like four?) but despite their archaic physical
appearance, the AGS+ is only now getting a bit "old" by today's [non-PC]
standards.

  It's the immediate predecessor of the 7000, and is a good deal faster than
the 7000 as well, assuming it's a later CSC4-equipped box..which is why cisco
wants all the AGSs to go away so badly. There are still a good number of AGS+
routers in racks at peering points all over the world terminating big pipes,
and that won't be changing anytime soon. Why? They work, and they seldom
fail. The attitudes there are affected a little more by the telco industry and
a little less by the PC industry. But in spite of that, I'm sure you'll get
your hands on one from someone a little *more* affected (INfected?) by the PC
industry, and win bigtime. I sure did! :-)

  There's a fellow I know in Sweden who does 64mb mods and clock speedup
hacks on CSC4 boards regularly for those who don't feel like paying cisco's
blood money for $60,000 monsters like the 75xx...'cause just about the only
thing the AGS+ can't terminate is an OCn circuit. The last release of IOS
that'll run on it is 11.1, more than modern enough for all but the most
whiz-bang of routing "features". No krb5 in 11.1 though, bummer.

  So anyway, to my point...You should be able to get your hands on an AGS+ for
a few hundred bucks anytime, if you don't want to wait for one to come down the
pike. People rarely "throw them out" because cisco is (or at least was, it's
been a year or so since I talked to anyone about it) vacuuming them up
extremely thoroughly to keep people from (gasp!) using them. A friend of mine
squeaked a handful of brand-new CSC4 boards out of cisco a while
back...said they're kept under lock and key!

  I can just picture the cisco salesdroid..."hey, I'll give you 42% if you tell
all your friends that you threw this in the trash...deal?"

  Anyway, sorry for being so long-winded this morning. I just woke up. Happy
AGS hacking; they're really cool boxes! If you need images or stuff like that
let me know. Oh yeah, and stay away from any processor board that's
pre-CSC4.

                   -Dave McGuire
Received on Sat Feb 05 2000 - 07:09:52 GMT