We looked at numerous alternatives before we settled on Calix. It’s been extremely good for us. We pulled in six figures last year in managed router revenue.. what did I pay Calix for their cloud option? Less than 2% I think.
We have the technical chops to make whatever work. Customers don’t care though, they want a good router, with good coverage that doesn’t give them issues. I want customers to pay me for it and not call with issues. We found that with Calix after looking around for a while and doing demos of others. >> On Jan 24, 2020, at 10:26, Mike Hammett <af...@ics-il.net> wrote: > > That would be incorrect. I have Calix DSLAMs and have worked with Calix for a > few years. Their paid support leaves much to be desired. Obvious SNMP bug is > obvious and they don't care. > > > I'm not going to say the Calix product is a bad product, but there's a severe > amount of fanboyism around it that I believe is unwarranted. I don't believe > people actually looked into alternatives. > > I have to setup and manage a server? So? It's just another VM on the existing > platform. > > Saving money isn't my only drive. Having a more flexible system has its > advantages. > > > > It seems as though you don't have the technical desire to do something not > Calix... and that's fine, but it's not the only (or even best) way to skin > the cat. > > > > > ----- > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions > > Midwest Internet Exchange > > The Brothers WISP > > > > > From: "Darin Steffl" <darin.ste...@mnwifi.com> > To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <af@af.afmug.com> > Sent: Friday, January 24, 2020 8:54:12 AM > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Google/Nest WiFi speedtest > > Mike, > > It's apparent to me that you have not demoed or had physical Calix products > in your hand before. What you just proposed requires much more hands-on setup > and support than Calix which is all handled by them with a technical team to > back it up. Your solution requires you to deploy one or more servers, set > them up, make sure they don't go down, then pray that you or the vendor can > help fix an issue when it shows up. I guarantee that all costs much more > money than what we pay Calix in terms of actual license costs and labor > savings. > > Plus I'm positive Calix hardware performs better than any other router you > find like Comtrend and the mesh solution won't be as pretty or seamless > either. Probably not one-touch like Calix is. > > You think you're going to save money with your own solution but all you'll do > is spend more time and money than I do and have a worse platform. There's a > reason why so many telcos deploy Calix and it's because it's cheaper in the > long run from labor efficiencies and better customer experience. > > I keep preaching to WISP's that doing everything yourself is hurting your > business. Outsource what doesn't make you money. Managing servers and playing > with Linux, etc does NOT make you money. Adding new customer revenue does > that for you so deploy solutions that require as little of your time as > possible so you can focus on selling and increasing revenue. Calix allows us > to do that as well as Preseem & Azotel. If we tried to do what you're doing, > we would be stuck in the mud messing around and not making as much money. > >> On Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 8:45 AM Mike Hammett <af...@ics-il.net> wrote: >> The road we're going down is likely Comtrend routers with a Finepoint ACS. >> >> The Calix system is just a fork of an earlier Finepoint product. >> >> TR-069 and TR-143 manage most of the fancy features people that love Calix >> love to boast about. >> >> The advantage of something like this is that there is no vendor lock-in. One >> dashboard to support any device in the field, though the capabilities of >> that management would depend on what the device manufacturer has decided to >> implement. >> >> There are standards such as IEEE 1905 and the WiFi Alliance's Easy Mesh that >> intelligently handle cross-vendor meshing, so nothing special about the >> Calix meshing either. >> >> >> >> ----- >> Mike Hammett >> Intelligent Computing Solutions >> >> Midwest Internet Exchange >> >> The Brothers WISP >> >> >> >> >> From: "Tushar Patel" <tpa...@ecpi.com> >> To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <af@af.afmug.com> >> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2020 8:32:59 AM >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Google/Nest WiFi speedtest >> >> And the Alternatives are? >> >> >> >> Tushar >> >> >> >> From: AF [mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com] On Behalf Of Mike Hammett >> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2020 8:31 AM >> To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Google/Nest WiFi speedtest >> >> >> >> There's no way Calix will get a dime from me. Everything is so expensive >> compared to alternatives. >> >> >> >> ----- >> Mike Hammett >> Intelligent Computing Solutions >> >> Midwest Internet Exchange >> >> The Brothers WISP >> >> >> >> >> From: "Jason McKemie" <j.mcke...@veloxinetbroadband.com> >> To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <af@af.afmug.com> >> Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2020 12:29:01 PM >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Google/Nest WiFi speedtest >> >> What does Calix get you for on the management? I've been looking into some >> options for managed routers, and I like the 844E, but Calix is pretty proud >> of their management platform and it just doesn't make a lot of sense for the >> number of managed routers we would be deploying right now. >> >> >> >> I'm wondering if anyone out there has any experience with Ubiquiti's Dream >> Machine (unfortunate name, since Sony has been using it for a couple of >> decades). At least Ubiquiti has a management platform that I don't need to >> sacrifice my firstborn for. >> >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 11:47 AM Darin Steffl <darin.ste...@mnwifi.com> >> wrote: >> >> Guys, >> >> >> >> Start heavily pushing managed routers. We're all Calix with 804mesh and we >> include the first router free in all our plans. >> >> >> >> Makes a huge difference. >> >> >> >> Google wifi is bad because there's no way to manually set the 5ghz channel >> away from our radio. We have one customer we told this and that their >> service will stink until they switch to our router or get a different mesh >> system like orbi where you can still set the channel manually. >> >> >> >> We also do not support any speedtest except speedtest.net and selecting one >> server we like. Also they have to be hardwired to the POE or we won't >> respond to their tests. This eliminates much of the back and forth wifi >> speedtests. >> >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 11:34 AM Matt Hoppes >> <mattli...@rivervalleyinternet.net> wrote: >> >> I've had a slew of wifi related calls this week. Plug in, no issue. >> WiFi -- interference - customer needs to get a dual band router, or it's >> so bad it's just not fixable. >> >> I really just want to tell folks "WiFi is not supported on our service, >> use at your own risk"... but of course, I can't do that. >> >> On 1/23/20 11:54 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote: >> > Anybody know if the speedtest built into the Google and Nest WiFi mesh >> > routers use the same M-Lab speedtest as the one a Google search sends >> > you to? Their FAQ seems to indicate it is different and tests to >> > Youtube servers. >> > >> > Apparently they have a feature where customers can set it up to >> > periodically test their speed, and now I have customers calling in to >> > report that their router says they aren’t getting the speed they’re >> > paying for. We burn a bunch of time checking all the stats, including >> > Preseem which shows no problems at all and actual traffic consistently >> > to the speed plan they’re on. When asked what they were trying to do >> > that was slow or when they ran the speedtest, they can’t cite any >> > problems and the speedtests were done days ago and they are just >> > reviewing the Google report. >> > >> > One guy said the Google report indicated his dish moved in a windstorm >> > so we needed to come out and fix it. We have all sorts of graphs on his >> > signal, SNR, etc. and his dish had not moved. We had however moved this >> > tower onto Preseem for bandwidth management around that time. Everyone >> > else is seeing better performance as a result, video streaming, gaming >> > and web browsing now play nice together. I’m wondering if somehow the >> > Google speedtest doesn’t like the Preseem algorithms (FQ-CODEL + AQM), >> > or if their speedtest is just flakey. >> > >> > I don’t have a Google or Nest WiFi to test with. We have a whole list >> > of other reasons why we hate them. Generally we tell customers not to >> > buy them unless they are on a 3.65 GHz AP, but customers like to say >> > screw you and then still expect you to be responsible for their bad >> > decisions. (Like the customers who select the cheap plan despite being >> > told it is too slow to watch streaming video, and then call to complain >> > about streaming video.) >> > >> > Other reasons we hate them: >> > >> > - no dedicated backhaul channel, compared to (for example) Netgear Orbi >> > >> > - only 1 or 2 Ethernet ports >> > >> > - requires Google account and app >> > >> > - requires cloud >> > >> > - uses Google DNS by default >> > >> > - tell me they’re not doing data mining >> > >> > - puck and point terminology is goofy, reminiscent of Apple and their >> > airports and time capsules >> > >> > >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> >> >> >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > -- > Darin Steffl > Minnesota WiFi > www.mnwifi.com > 507-634-WiFi > Like us on Facebook > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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