- USR-TC - mailman.xmission.com

(usr-tc) Message posted to interested 3Com party...
by Mark Thornton 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

I posted the following message to an interested party at 3Com at their request. It will be interesting to see what the results are, especially since this isn't bogus and I am entertaining quotes to replace the entire mess. *** I have reached a decision point on the growth and maintenance of my Total Control Hubs. Over the past six months the reports of modem connection problems have increased significantly. I had been hoping that this wasn't really occuring until last evening when my wife and I were discussing our modem problems over dinner with two couples who are our best friends. They confided that they both were having very significant connection problems, basically indicating that it was not unusual for the connection to be dropped within three minutes. We were not at all pleased to learn this, particularly from them. We use a combination of quads and hiperdsp's with a hiperarc and standard nmc. The code level is one version back from what has just been released on the website. We are considering upgrading to the hipernmc, but are very reluctant to give up the quads as they support trash modems (more below) better than the hiperdsp's. I attribute this rise in connectivity issues to more of our customers upgrading their computers with systems containing new, cheap modems. We can no longer count on good USR modems being the predominate device in the field, and the new USR winmodems are almost as bad as the no-name trash. But that is what the customers are getting in their new systems. They are having real problems connecting to us, but no problems connecting to our competitors Cisco system. I also have contacts with ISP's who are dumping 3Com to move to Patton devices and Lucent devices. The reasons vary widely, some of them based in the support issues surrounding the 3Com systems, but for me I am paying attention to their success in getting reliable connections. I mentioned support issues... I assumed you knew what I am talking about. The cost of support and availability of support in terms of addressing the problems I and other ISP's are having is overwhelming, especially when we are still fighting the same issues after two years. It also seems that 3Com is shutting down methods of providing service, such as the new server, that were very effective at providing timely reponses to queries from users. Personally, I don't mind paying for support if I think I am getting some benefit and value out of it. But I really want existing issues fixed before you start modifying the system to support my competitor, the cable company, or other 'neato' features. And as for the cost of replacement contracts, I can now purchase a complete chassis, guaranteed to work, for less than the cost of the support you are offering. Or, I can buy individual modules at very affordable rates and get overnight delivery without any contract hassles (I don't want any hassles like some ISP's have apparently had). That just doesn't make sense. We are not currently on support, though we are looking at the software support option again to see if that addresses the connectivity problems. If not, it is likely that we won't be needing support on the 3Com chassis's anyway as they will be someone else's problem. Mark Thornton San Marcos Internet, Inc. 512-393-5300 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) *sigh* is anybody out there?
by Jeff Mcadams 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

My father was (just retired in June) a U.S. History teacher at the high school level, and loved to use the movie 1776 in his classes as much as he could...in that movie, there's a song called "Is Anybody There?" where John Adams reads a communique from the Commander of the Continental Army, "the honourable, G. Washington," where Washington laments the lack of response to his last 15 communique's. Adams sings the contents of the letter as the song. Some of the lyrics from the song are (this is from memory): "Is Anybody there?\ Does anybody care?\ Does anybody see, what I see?" team:/home/jeffm> telnet totalservice.3com.com 119 Trying 207.24.160.21... telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused team:/home/jeffm> Is Anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see, what I see? -- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm(a)iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) ISDN leased line on DSP?
by Jeff Mcadams 20 Sep '00

20 Sep '00

OK...this is a bizarre one.. I have a customer wanting to upgrade from 2 channel ISDN, to a 2 channel leased line type of set up (don't ask, I'm not sure why). In any case, they have an ISDN PRI into their location to support their voice traffic on their PBX. What they want to do (and apparently have an Adtran unit to do this on their end) is to pull two channels off the PRI and hand them to a cisco 1600 as a nailed up data connection (ie, no dialing). I know that you can set up an ISDN leased line connection like this, but I've never seen anyone pull two channels off a PRI to do this. *shrug* In any case...this setup is giving our mutual CLEC telephone company fits on how to do this. Being a leased line setup, my initial response was to say, "OK, drop that to me on a frac-t1 connection to my cisco 3640 down there." I *think* this can be made to work...the tech dude at the telco (who's pretty sharp and friendly) thinks he can get this delivered to my 3640 on a frac-t1... Now...I like our telco down there a lot...they're good guys, so I want to try to help them out if I can...and besides...I wanna do this setup without doing alot of really weird provisioning, as that tends to cause problems down the line. So, my question boils down to... Can a DSP be made to use two channels as an ISDN leased line connection? My thinking being that if I could peel off two channels of one of my PRIs, it might be easier, simpler, more reliable, etc. to take my two channels and patch them through the switch to these folks two channels, rather than having to add/drop mux it out somewhere, convert it to a frac-t1, and proly several other weird gyrations, to get the connection to me. Not being a telco tech, I'm not sure if this would be easier to do or not...I can't imagine it would make it harder, but who knows. But before I offered to the telco tech dude, I wanted to make sure the DSPs would indeed do this. The impression I've gotten from what I've looked at so far, is that no, the DSPs *won't* do this...but I'd like to get some confirmation from folks that know more about this than I. Thanks! P.S. Still no response from anyone of any signficance about the news server on totalservice. :/ -- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm(a)iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) E1 DSP 30 channel question..
by Steve Monkhouse 20 Sep '00

20 Sep '00

under TCM, you can set your call routing numbers and service types ( analogue / digital ).. and that seems quite fine for the first 24 channels, but when you try to assign anything over 24 channels TCM takes the info with the set command, but wont retain it... im using 6.0.23 of TCM, it recoginses the DSP as a 30 channel E1, lets me configure all 30 channels everywhere else... is there a way to assign these last 6 channels routing info ?? Steve Monkhouse - Network Engineer --------------------------------------------------------------------- EtherTech Computer Services Ph : +61-3-9768-2665 Fx : +61-3-9768-2664 http://www.ethertech.com.au - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) WTB: Hiper DSP's.
by Steve Rivera -www.wrca.net 20 Sep '00

20 Sep '00

Anyone selling bundles? Interested in cards or complete access servers. Please email what you have. Steve Rivera (VP) - w-732.833.2111 / c-732.433.5890 24Hr (www.isp-networkhardware.com) Email: srivera(a)wrca.net - Mobile Email: srivera711(a)hotmail.com Worldwide Provider of Network Hardware Since 1981. - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) HiperNMC & quad modems?
by Mark Thornton 19 Sep '00

19 Sep '00

Does the HiperNMC support quad modems? Will it support the X2/V90 functions? Do we have to enable the X2/V90 like the older NMC's? Thanks, Mark Thornton San Marcos Internet, Inc. 512-393-5300 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) Will Hiper NMC enable v90 for Quad Modem Chassis?
by Steve Rivera -www.wrca.net 19 Sep '00

19 Sep '00

I have a customer who is looking to upgrade his NMC cards but is concerned that the Hiper NMC will not function the same as the standard NMC. Specifically, enabling the quad modems for v90 access. I have heard different opinions...Does anyone really know? _______________________ Also have for sale : 3- Hiper DSP w/ nics for $3000 each WTB: USR Hiper ARC's w/ nics Steve Rivera (VP) - w-732.833.2111 / c-732.433.5890 24Hr (www.isp-networkhardware.com) Email: srivera(a)wrca.net - Mobile Email: srivera711(a)hotmail.com Worldwide Provider of Network Hardware Since 1981. - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) Comments on latest codes
by Cheryl Johnson 18 Sep '00

18 Sep '00

Before attempting to upgrade our USR chassis I thought it may be wise to ask the list of their thoughts first. Is anyone running the following software releases? If so, any input on stability or any known problems would be greatly appreciated. NMC 7.1.8 ARC 5.0.9 DSP 2.1.9 -Cheryl Network Administrator SEI Communications Data and Network Services - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) Identifying Modem Problems
by Kevin Hemsley 17 Sep '00

17 Sep '00

We currently use a variety of methods to monitor service quality, including SNMP polls and analysis of call statistics, MRTG graphing, etc. In addition to these, I would like to find a tool to repetitively dial POPs to test for various things: Ring-No-Answers, TCP/IP connectivity, Busy signals, etc. Although rare, we have had cases where customers have found significant problems that we had not yet identified. Problems that I feel we should have been able to identify faster than we did. I was about to embark on a Visual C++ project to build a tool to test POPs and alert us of anomalies. Before I do, I wondered if anyone has seen software that already performs these types of tasks? Ultimately, it would be nice to have users with a dialer that automatically reported dial-in statistics back to a server each time it successfully connected. This would provide real-time statistics from potentially thousands of "sensors". The problem is that I haven't found a product that has a price tag that we would even consider. Is anyone using anything like this? ---------------------------------- Kevin Hemsley Systems Engineer Microserv Computer Technologies, Inc. kev(a)ida.net KB7TYA - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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RE: (usr-tc) Logging modem disconnect reasons
by Colin Wantling 17 Sep '00

17 Sep '00

Kevin, we do this by turning on the logging on the NMC (using TCM) and sending the accounting info to our radius server. Of course, the NMC will need to be entered in the Radius clients file. Using TCM on each DSP, you can redirect the DSP traps so that the NMC can send them out to the Radius. regards, Colin Wantling ---------- From: Kevin Godby[SMTP:kevin@pcsia.net] Reply To: usr-tc(a)lists.xmission.com Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 6:32 AM To: usr-tc(a)lists.xmission.com Subject: (usr-tc) Logging modem disconnect reasons Hello. I was wondering if anyone out there that's using 3Com/USR Total Control boxes (with HiPerARCs) know of any utilities that could store the disconnect reasons that the HiPerDSP generates (the actual modem disconnect reasons, not the general disconnect reasons that the HiPerARC uses) along with the person's usename and the date/time. They are wonderful for troubleshooting because they are so specific, but it's time-consuming to watch someone's session until they happen to get disconnected. :-) If we could somehow get the Total Control to send these to Vircom's VPRRS, that would be excellent, but I'm not too picky. Thanks for any ideas! Kevin Godby <kevin(a)pcsia.net> Professional Computer Solutions, Inc. 434 W. Second St. Phone: (641) 682-4691 Ottumwa, Iowa 52501 Fax: (641) 682-0633 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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