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List:       isp-services
Subject:    PM4 Modem Compatibility
From:       "Jesus Alvarez" <jalvarez () prw ! net>
Date:       1999-05-30 20:37:20
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These ISP mailing lists have been very useful to us in learning
about experiences of other colleagues with equipment
appropriate to our industry. Today I must share some bad
experiences we had with the Lucent PM4 to try to prevent
other people from making the same mistake we did.

Our ISP operation had been using Ascend MAXes exclusively
since early 1998. Yet we had grown to 384 dialin lines with
more lines being added every month so we decided to pursue
a more scalable solution, one that would allow us to provide
additional services to our customers.

About a month ago, we made the decision to purchase a
PM4. The recommendation from our distributor together
with the equipment specs led us to believe we would be
using the top of the line as far as ISP access servers
was concerned. Little did we know that the modem compatibility
on the PM4 was much poorer than that of the Ascend MAXes.

The first day we placed the PM4 in operation we started getting
calls from customers that were getting spurious disconnections.
In contacting Lucent we found out that modems using certain
chipsets (Rockwell, SM56 among others; surprisingly even some
Lucent-based modems also had problems) had problems with
the PM4. We were told to move from ComOS 4.0.3 to 4.1b15
down to 4.0.3c2. Yet none of these solved the problems. Before
the PM4, most of our support calls were due to customer problems.
The PM4 changed that in ways we never expected. Now the
problems were related to our access equipment.

What is even worse was the way Lucent/Livingston support
reacted to this issue. Even after the problem was escalated and
its urgency level made clear I kept receiving calls from people
that were "assistants" of the people that were supposed to be
solving the problem. The last downgrade in ComOS did improve
things somewhat but we were far from the level of modem
compatibility we get from the Ascend MAXes. It is amazing that
in a period of two weeks not even once did a technician do a
trace on a call from one of the problem modems. To me, this was
a key factor in trying to achieve a solution. It is frustrating to get
calls from customers while waiting several weeks for some prima
donna engineer to look at an issue. In my experience with Cisco
or Ascend support I never saw something like this happen.
Hopefully the Lucent/Ascend merger will not bring Ascend support
to the level I saw in Lucent/Livingston.

We were committed to the PM4. Although the cost per port
was higher than either the Ascend MAX or the TNT, the promise
of being able to offer our customers additional services in the
future was important. Yet there can be no future if there is no
present. An organization that ships out equipment of the level
of the PM4 with shaky modem code and that does nothing
to troubleshoot it when a customer reports it does not deserve
the support of the ISP industry.

I have made arrangements to return the PM4 and am really looking
forward to returning to Ascend equipment. The PM4 may be good
for some ISPs. But, if you are in an area where any of the problem
chipsets have wide installed bases, beware of the ComOS modem
code !!

Sincerely,

Jesus Alvarez
President, PRW.NET

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