Since we are all telling stories to pass the time... here is one of my latest
experiences with Lucent/Cisco/sB.
A friend of mine works for a local school district. They wished to connect some
auxiliary buildings and faculty/staff homes.
He originally wished to standardize on Lucent. Since he had a short backhaul, I
suggested he use a COR1100 (about $1500). According to the only specs posted, it
would allow you to run one radio in its proprietary COR mode and the other in a point
to point mode.
We asked their engineers and they said it would work fine. After receiving the units,
we set it up....BAD latency and throughput. Many calls and slowing climbing up the
support chain finally proved the unit was not powerful enough to operate in a mode
that is available on the unit.
second try
Thinking that only another big name will solve the problem, the lucent stuff was
returned and the Cisco stuff came. A few bridge & wg bridges later we had the Cisco
based network up.
That was short lived. Immediately an ISP complained about the system (it was in spec,
later we found out the WISP in question was grossly over powered). We removed the amp
and it basically did not function.
I failed to mention that within a block of our omni there are 5 - 2.4 ptp links, 4 -
2.4 sector/omnis, and 4 5.8 ghz ptp links.
I had been having good luck with sB so I suggested them to my friend. We swapped out
the system and have had it mostly sB for about 5-6 months now. No more problems.
With all the noise in the air in that little Midwestern town, the aPPo and airbridges
work excellent.
Chris Glanzer
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/18/03 00:30 AM >>>
Good one Bill!
Well I have to tell my story here. I started with Cisco 340 gear. I used
it for about 1 year with repeaters and bridges. Alot of troubles mainly
pertaining to the proprietary extentions. Random lockups with anything but
cisco equiptment. Then I started replacing all my customers radios out of my
pocket ( I make everyone buy there own equiptment from me at my cost) with
airbridges. This hurt my pocket! Things went fine at the beginning of this
until I started to get some of these overheating (firmware) problems
(Personally I think this problem goes back alittle further than there
saying). I would send them back if they did not pass my bench test of
running a few days with out locking up. Well that did not work either, even
testing in the office they would still randomly lockup on the customer. But
letting them cool down and power them back up and the customer was back up.
Ok so now I have just recently changed all the cisco ap's with an all APP
network. I have 6 APP indoors in nema boxes and 2 APPO out there. After
changing these out 99% of all my problems have stopped. I have to say I have
not had an issue for the last month on my network. The only issues I have
had were bad cables, settings not right in radios, all my mistakes not SB. I
still have a couple cisco wgb's on the network and a few wet11's but they
seem to work great with the app's. The only thing I can say is do not let a
customer use a cisco 340 pci card off of a app in repeater mode, knocks
everyone off the network for some reason. Ok well all that says this... All
sb network runs great for me so far :) Oh and the change in aps cut the
network latency by 75% for me. So it's not all bad :)
Later,
Jerry
---- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Flood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><~!B*+R^&>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><~!B*+R^&>Sent:
Thursday, July 17, 2003 11:56 PM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: [smartBridges] New Firmware
> Hey Harry take a hike! A Hotmail address, that's funny!
>
> I started with Alvarion and their tech support sucks, they are arrogant
and
> mindless. SmartBridges has allowed me to expand my business way further
> than I ever could with the products below. I even received tech support
> calls from Singapore in the early days. I've been installing SB equipment
> for a year now. Maybe your real problem is not with SmartBridges at all.
>
> I see a company trying to develop a product for this industry. The other
> are just developing a product.
>
> Bill
>
>
> At 08:50 PM 7/17/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> >Before you make an investment into any product check out the archives and
> >see what kinds of problems people are having.
> >here's my summary of smartbridges and the future as told with a crystal
> >ball.
> >
> >The problem is the manufacturer didn't really do their homework before
> >selling everyone product. Profit first, get them out the door let the isp
> >find the problem and we'll find a solution.
> >
> >I think it's the same as shovel ware in the software market.
> >
> >At one point in time isp's would only buy radio gear that was proven and
> >reliable.
> >If a manufacturer had as many problems as smartbridges does most isp's
would
> >demand heir money back and move on to a different solution. unfortunately
> >it's been reported on this list that you can't get your money back.
> >
> >
> >Today's hype of wireless internet access has isp's jumping on the
bandwagon
> >for cheap affordable gear and caught up in the hype by certain
manufacturers
> >without any insight into the past.
> >
> >They choose a product by the sales pitch of the reseller or the hype of
an
> >email list.
> >
> >Then after they have made a substantial investment into one particular
> >manufacturer's product, they find out it is buggy and like most don't
want
> >to admit they made a mistake. Whereas they keep working at it and working
at
> >until they loose the customers or even their reputation, I bet they loose
> >their reputation first, customers second and their investment at the same
> >time.
> >Finally after they figure out that they will never make any money from
their
> >customers because they have spent so much time fiddling with their
equipment
> >that they throw in the towel and succumb to just going back to selling
> >traditional isp services.
> >or all of a sudden cable modems, dsl or even satellite start looking good
to
> >the customers who figure out that they will have to make extra room in
their
> >home for the isp wireless technician who keeps coming back over and over
> >again to fix the problem and decide maybe they should try dsl by msn or
> >roadrunner cable because their wireless isp's equipment is so UNRELIABLE.
> >
> >Now, it is possible that an isp that wants to do wireless could go with a
> >product that costs a little more upfront but doesn't have the problems of
> >the new razzle dazzle hyped product.
> >A couple of mature seasoned manufacturers who have very few problems and
> >cost a little more to purchase, but less to maintain would be,
> >
> >Alvarion
> >Karlnet
> >Trango
> >Motorola
> >Cisco
> >Proxim
> >Tranzeo
> >Raylink
> >Teletronics
> >Demarctech's reliawave
> >
> >By the way none of these manufacturer's have this much activity on any of
> >their support lists.
> >
> >
> >A good indication to how well the product performs is this email list,
read
> >the archives.
> >a second indication is a new revised firmware upgrade with a specific
date
> >set before it is ready.
> >Now think about this, July 18th we will release our fix.
> >huh?
> >why not today?
> >because it's not finished
> >how do you know it will be finished tomorrow if it's not finished today?
> >How the heck do they know tomorrow it will be ready if it's not ready
today?
> >Because they are psychic?
> >Do they have a fix in place and they have a very very slow person at the
> >keyboard?
> >Or is it just buying time before they get the next wave of it's someone
> >else's problem? ( remember it's not their fault, it's atmel's fault)
> >Guess they didn't test the product for any length of time.
> >
> >
> >Just another isp who was foolish enough to jump on the hype bandwagon and
> >spend 20grand on smartbridge products.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Lancaster Networks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><~!B*+R^&>> >To: "phantam" <[EMAIL
> >PROTECTED]><~!B*+R^&>> >Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 9:01 AM
> >Subject: Re[2]: [smartBridges] New Firmware
> >
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > Being fairly new to this list, and never buying a product from SB
> > > before, what is this problem you speak about, and what products are
> > > affected? I want to use SB for a new tower installation, have a 300'
> > > tower at my disposal in a highly populated area, and I want to do the
> > > install ASAP.
> > >
> > > Has anyone had problems with the SB equipment, is it something I can
> > > buy into and expect good reliability, etc?
> > >
> > > --
> > > Best regards,
> > > Chris Bunting, MCSE
> > > President
> > > Cellular: 717-278-6639
> > > Nextel ID: 196*50*18726
> > > --------------------------------------------------------
> > > Proxim Certified Reseller & Installer
> > > --------------------------------------------------------
> > > Lancaster Networks | Lancaster Towers
> > > 1085 Manheim Pike
> > > Lancaster PA 17601
> > > www.lancasternetworks.com
> > > www.lancastertowers.com
> > > --------------------------------------------------------
> >The PART-15.ORG smartBridges Discussion List
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>
> Bill Flood
> AirRunner Networks LLC --- We make the web fast!
> If you get tired of the wait call 715-443-3700!
>
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