unfortunately it doesn't look as if they have gigabit ethernet host
interface cards in their catalog. I'm sure they have a 'strategic
partnership' with a host interface vendor, but I'm not sure if that
falls in the scope of the offer
although it seems like kind of a waste to get a router just to run
BGP, it would save messing about with gated... I don't have any
experience with the 3600, but the 4000 will certainly work (it looks
as if they are phasing out the 4000). the 2000 series is generally
considered to not have enough memory/cpu to actually hold a bgp
session (although this could be false)
...if we were going to somehow end up with a gigabit ethernet cluster
it would be nice to have a router, but the low-end boxes dont' support
gigabit ethernet, and there is an existing precedent for bridging
media technologies
one real reason we might actually want a router is more direct (real)
access to abeline/vbns/aton(insert other random high-speed testbed
here)...unfortunately such a router would have to be fairly beefy (not
a 7000) if it were going to operate over the 100Mb regime...having a
free router could really make a difference in getting access to seig
for xbone purposes, assuming even one of the several plans on the
table came through