Luke S Crawford wrote:
i would like to see real performance data via something like netperf with client machines booted from a standardized LiveCD, then peformance under their Linux Distribution and performance under Windows.
Performance data is not the most important metric, at least for me.
For me, the big problem is reliability and security. My problem with used cisco is that getting access to the firmware usually costs more than the used parts I'm buying... If I'm going to use the thing as a router at the head of my network, I want to be sure that the thing can be secured, and sometimes that requires a firmware update.
If someone sold support contracts (by support contracts, I mean firmware. I don't need help, I just need the firmware.) for old switches for less than the value of the switch, I'd buy. If someone sold switches with open source firmware, I'd buy. (I've bought myself an OpenGear console server instead of a cheaper used cyclades for similar reasons.)
If you get a service contract on any piece of Cisco equipment, you typically get download access to all of the firmware updates. However, in a lot of scenarios there are several choices, each with a different set of bugs that you won't know about unless you open a TAC case and tell an engineer exactly what features have to work for you.