Subject: Motorola Vanguard 310 series

Someone was asking earlier about the Motorola Vanguard
310 series.  Motorla's web-page on this kind of equipment
can be found at http://www.motorola.com/MIMS/ISG/  --
the 310 specifically is at http://www.motorola.com/MIMS/ISG/Products/Vanguard310/


Briefly the units are most similar to Ascend's pipe 25 and pipe 50.
However both the 311 and 312 use the Motorola 68360 as found in
the Pipe 50.  The routing in the Vanguards is unlimited; i.e.
there is no equivalent product to the Pipe 50 HX.  Also all Vanguards
support telnet and SNMP remote configuration, which the p25's do not.
Here's a quick price/feature comparison. Prices for the Ascend products were found
at: http://www.ecsd.com/~ucc/ceqp.html .


Device                                                    Retail  20% Discount  UC Comp

Vanguard 311, U or S/T interface                          $  995        $  796

Vanguard 311 Plus, U or S/T interface, Frame Relay,       $1,195        $  956
	Network software download

Ascend Pipe 25, U or S/T interface, IP routing,		  $  789
	no compression, 2 POTS Jacks                                  
 
 Ascend Pipe 25, U or S/T interface, IP routing,	  $  999
	compression, 2 POTS Jacks                                          

Vanguard 312, U or S/T interface  2 POTS Jacks            $1,195        $  956

Vanguard 312 Plus, U or S/T interface, Frame Relay,       $1,395        $1,116
	2 POTS Jacks, Network software download.

Ascend Pipe 50, S interface, IP/IPX routing, 		  $1,059
	compression, no POTS Jacks

Ascend Pipe 50, U interface, IP/IPX routing, 		  $1,159
	compression, no POTS Jacks

Vanguard Appletalk & IPX routing                          $  299       $  240


As you can see, the Vanguard is priced almost identically to the Ascends,
unless you need IPX routing.  However, these devices are brand new and 
difficult to find.  Discount Data Comm (800) 835-8888 mentioned they give a 
20% discount instead of the the usual 30% because of the scarcity. So, as
the distribution pipeline fills, prices will hopefully drop.  On the other
hand, better prices might be had for the Ascend equipment.  Needless to
say, a thorough study of the literature on all the devices is required
before spending any money.  In other words, don't come to me if you
make an uninformed buying decision. :-) (Don't come to me even if you
do, I don't sell these things).


Someone is welcome to take this and make it into a full blown feature
comparison table.