Re: Back on topic - Re: PM, MAX, or USR

Jason Hess ( jjhess@seidata.com )
Wed, 25 Mar 1998 21:29:27 -0500

John Lange wrote:
>
> Has this been blown way off from my original questions. The few responses
> I got were helpfull, but this rant has gotten out of control, and I am
> still in the dust.
>
> I just sent the following message to the PM & TC lists, and hope you can
> help here too! Please, we need your help, not rants.
> -------------------------
> <snip>
> We are trying to make the decision to go Digital. Well, we made the
> decision, now we need the equipment {Grin}.
>
> We are in the middle of "GTE Won't Spend Any Money" land. The local CO has
> a GTD-5 switch and the surrounding areas on even older Vidar ITAS-5
> (ITS5EA) switches. We want to bring in Trunk Side CT1's, 5 here and 1 each
> from 7 other communities.
>
> We currently use PM2e-30's with USR Sportster 33.6 modems. I have been
> following both lists and see about as many people mad at their TC's as
> their PM3's. The problem being that we only hear from those that are mad,
> not the satisfied customers.
>
> Can anyone give some feedback as to which will work better with the
> Switchgear at hand?
>
> Of course, each vender say's theirs will work best. How about some
> feedback from real life situations.
>
> Please help us out here, and please NO RANT's about Quake or Boardwatch or
> testing agencies.
>
> JOhn :}
>
> John C. Lange, Sr. PALACE dot NET, INC.
> microjl@palacenet.net MICRO-TECH Computers, Inc.
> 608.742.1601 & 6980 2800 New Pinery Road
> http://www.palacenet.net/ Portage, WI 53901
> Visit our online store @ http://www.microt.com/
> Authorized iPSwitch WebVar @ http://www.microt.com/iPSwitch/index.html
>
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The best way we found was to have each of the vendors come in and
discuss their products. They don't think twice about doing it (and of
course at no cost). A lot of it is plain salesman BS, but you get a very
good idea of the product. We made a list of all the things that we
wanted to do/support and gave it to each of them to discuss. We made the
decision based off of that. They always bring a technician along who can
answer your question about the local switches. We were big backers of
USR and Cisco, but opted to go with an Ascend chassis because it fit our
needs better. I know people that use Cisco 5200s that live by them, and
of course, I know several ISPs that are completely satisfied with their
TC units as well.
I wish you luck, you will truly enjoy whichever product you choose I am
sure,
Jason