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Re: (ASCEND) Re: pipe 130 for remote pop
I have a customer running 7 P130's throughout its Frame Relay WAN. We have
not had any major problems. To address the "core" vs "remote" scenario, in
my experience, the P130 is not suited to handling a "full load" ie a very
heavily used T1 such as you would have at a "core" site. Leave that to
something with a little more UMPF. However, they do handle the job of a
fract-T1 quite well and at an excellent price/performance ratio.
As for reliability.....I have system uptimes of 43+ days, they would be much
longer but we changed over some IP addresses about 6 weeks ago and had to
reboot some of the remote routers.
Just my 2 cents
By the way all of our P130s are running 4.6C. In case you were curious.
_________________________________________________
Alex Simpson
Director of Technical Services
NetSolutions Corp
615.367.4404 x101
615.367.3887 Fax
615.303.7411 Pager
Alex@NSCorp.net
http://www.NSCorp.net
http://www.connect-ed.net
Airport Executive Plaza
1321 Murfreesboro Rd Suite 721
Nashville, TN 37217
_________________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: James Fischer <jfischer@supercollider.com>
To: ascend-users@max.bungi.com <ascend-users@max.bungi.com>
Date: Monday, August 11, 1997 9:11 PM
Subject: Re: (ASCEND) Re: pipe 130 for remote pop
> Todd Romero said:
>
>>From a heck of alot of expirience with p130's and lots of other
>>alternatives, I would NOT recomend a P130 in a 'core' router situation. It
>>is just way too unstable, and unreliable.
>
> If this is the case, to what application is a P130 suited?
>
> How is a customer site less demanding in the area of reliability
> than a "core" site?
>
> I agree that a P130 is more a customer premise device than
> a "core infrastructure" device, but this is because it has
> only a single AUI and single CSU/DSU port. I know of no
> reason why reliability can be lower, or why anyone should
> tolerate lower reliability.
>
> If there are problems with reliability, are there any outstanding
> bug reports? Are these complaints about hardware or software?
>
>>For example, the biggest single problem is the fact that when the T1
>>goes down and back up. Often, the router will need to be reset or even
>>powercycled!!!! Not very reliable for a remote pop situation!
>
> Once again, if this is the case, how can one put a P130
> at a customer site? Customer sites are, by definition, remote.
>
> Asking the customer to power-cycle a P130 is impossible, since
> this sort of gear is installed in wiring closets and other
> out-of-the-way, locked places to keep people from messing about
> with them.
>
>>Pipelines are nice cheap lightweight routers that can be an alternative,
>>for small businesses customers, etc. But not for a network infrastructure.
>
> Can anyone else verify what is being said here? We view "our
> infrastructure" as ending at the users keyboard, so we take
> reliability seriously. If P130s are not a reliable choice for
> customers on fractional T-1 frame relay links, how can we fix
> this before we suffer the wrath of customers?
>
> We are in the midst of deploying a total of 30 P130s, which we
> will be bringing online by month's end. We have installed the
> first 10, but still await the telco's appearance with frame
> relay drops. If these cute little things are NOT going to be
> reliable, then I might as well put in reliable gear before we
> start routing traffic through them, and betting our reputation
> on them. Any opinions? We have been more "conservative" in the
> past, and hence have not used Ascend P130s ever before.
>
> How about a simple vote:
>
> a) My P130s have been happy for x months,
> and so have I.
>
> b) My P130s are the worst thing to happen
> to me since NSFnet was unplugged.
>
> c) Stay at Release "x", and you will be happy,
> but do not upgrade too quickly, since this
> is an Ascend product, and subject to the
> usual disclaimers in cases of new revisions.
>
> All ballots will be counted and reported in this very list,
> so vote early, and vote often! Void where prohibited.
>
> As an aside, Cisco recently started painting their 25xx series
> of routers black (just like P130s!). Better tell your tech
> support folks to remember this the next time they ask the
> customer to check out the lights on the "Black Box!"
>
>"Next week, we are playing the Mozart..." "Are you sure we can Handel it?"
>
>james fischer jfischer@supercollider.com
>
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