I have 8 Ascend Max 4xxx units in place in multiple POPs and they work great. You may hear moans and groans about their menu interface, but you can telnet to the box and manage everything--users, routing, modems, T1's. I have three POP's each with a single MAX 4xxx--2 PRI's or CT1's plugged in for dial-up, one fract T1 plugged in for Frame Relay backhaul to our main POP--no seperate router, hub, etc.--you can set them up like a "POP in a box". I think the quality of the V.90 code has already been mentioned--it's very good. If I were opening a new POP tommorrow, I'd install an Ascend Max 4xxx (I think I just saw a post with a few used ones fully configured for $6500). Just my $0.02. Tim Brown SumterNet, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Mike Andrews <mandrews@bit0.com> To: usr-tc@lists.xmission.com <usr-tc@lists.xmission.com> Date: Thursday, June 01, 2000 4:21 PM Subject: Re: (usr-tc) And you thought you were frustrated with 3COM

On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Jeff Mcadams wrote:

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I *was* considering picking up some Ascend gear to compliment my 3COM stuff, but I am seriously reconsidering that. So, what's left - Ci$co? Are they the only company that provides the kind of support ISP's need?

Yeah, pretty much...but their modems suck swamp water through a straw. I've always said I'd love to have 3Com's modems, with Cisco's routing capabilities. Ah, what I wouldn't give for a new version of the AS5100.

That would be really slick. Gimme the ability to put modems running Quad code (or maybe very very recent DSP code) in our Cisco 7206VXR. Mmmmm. :)

I've not heard much good about Cisco's v.90 code. I've got some Rockwell SoftK56 modems at home (for testing) that won't even connect *at all* to some local Cisco numbers. They'll talk to 3Com and Ascend most of the time.

Ascend's probably a very close second to 3Com in v.90 reliability, or maybe slightly ahead now (they work better with Motorola SM56 modems relative to TCS 3.6, that's about all I know)... but managing an Ascend is an absolute nightmare... not just those awful menus, but they have some, uh, "unique" ideas about how SNMP and Radius should work that just blew my mind last time I had the misfortune of working with one...

I personally don't really need tech support from the vendor... I've got this mailing list, and I've got the knowhow to tear into it and figure it out (or reverse engineer it) myself. I'm not afraid to read a few RFC's here and there. As long as I can get hardware fixed, and get updated software easily I'm good to go. (Something 3Com is a bit lacking on -- like Jeff, I can't download TCS 4.0 even though I was in the beta! Fortunately the released code seems to be the same as the last release candidate... but it's not like Cisco where I can just jump on CCO and get the latest bugfix when I run into a problem.)

Mike Andrews (MA12) * mandrews@dcr.net * http://www.bit0.com/ VP, sysadmin, & network guy, Digital Crescent Inc, Frankfort KY Internet services for Frankfort, Lawrenceburg, Owenton, Shelbyville www.fark.com: If it's not news, it's Fark. (Or something like that.)

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