close to what a new 7500 would cost. Anyway, on to the reason for my post. I've heard conflicting reports, is a 7206 faster at packet switching than a 7507?

Some people tell me it is a better router, some people tell me it isn't.

Does an apple taste better than an orange? 7206 is a fixed CPU config (hold: i know, NPE's are interchangeable, however, once you have an NPE-300 or whatever in there, thats all the CPU you are going to have in it). Another words, no matter how many PAs you shove into it, it's still a NPE-whatever driving the whole thing. On the 7500, you have RSPs and VIPs; the former performing routing protocol work, vty's, RIB's, etc., the latter doing actually packet forwarding. For instance, one of our 7507's, an RSP4 with 3 VIP2-50's, routing some ATM, DS3, ChDS3, FE, and doing some MPLS AToM: core2.sne# sho proc c CPU utilization for five seconds: 4%/2%; one minute: 12%; five minutes: 12% Most of the CPU utilization is Mr. BGP Scanner, our friend and yours. Notice the /2%, informing you that this thing is barely doing any packet forwarding. VIP-Slot0>sh proc c CPU utilization for five seconds: 13%/12%; one minute: 14%; five minutes: 15% VIP-Slot1>sh proc c CPU utilization for five seconds: 1%/1%; one minute: 1%; five minutes: 1% VIP-Slot4>sh proc c CPU utilization for five seconds: 7%/4%; one minute: 5%; five minutes: 5% Obviously, we run dCEF, which puts the VIP's in the position of forwarding everything on their own, as evidenced by the CPU measurements. However, to answer your question, even a modestly configured 7507 with RSP4, and VIP2-50's will be substantially more capable than a 7206-NPE300. Things may change on the NPE-400 or G1, but I have no direct experience with that. PS. Regards to stability; we have SUBSTANTIAL improvements in IOS stability, especially in 12.3.5a mainline. -- Alex Rubenstein, AR97, K2AHR, alex@nac.net, latency, Al Reuben -- -- Net Access Corporation, 800-NET-ME-36, http://www.nac.net --