> Our current problem is I have to run 2 modem banks. One with Pm 3s and
> another with a Max to handle all the calls that the PM 3 can't handle.
>
A lot of people do that .. but when you buy wholesale we can't really do
that, so we're stuck with the PM3/PM4's, but that's not really a bad thing
though. We're thinking about signing with Ziplink to do wholesale too,
since they use either Bay or Ascend gear, I forget which, and are already
in all of the Cities our current wholesaler has access too. So that will
give us a alternate number.
> One such modem that has problems is a "harmony" modem. Another is the modems
> in the Compaq Pretty Sorrio's. I can usually fix this by suggesting that
> they buy or GIVE them Smartlink Modems by Archtek. They seem to work quite
> well connecting at 50k+ consistently.
Heh .. We use Archtek's here as well, good modems, we still stick with
recomending "Name Brand" modems such as USR's, Zooms, Supra's to our
customers though. I know a lot of people on this list have a lot of
problems with USR's, but with us for some reason, we have never had one
problem that we couldn't fix. Must be lucky I guess.
>
> Now how is DSL going to affect "us modem guys"? Soutwestern Bell is
> AGRESSIVELY pushing DSL. It seems that if I wanna offer DSL, all I need is
> an ATM switch connected to their cloud.
Yup .. Pacbell is doing the same thing here in California, we're putting
a bunch of frame relay into their ATM and we sell DSL off of that,
problem is that out of about 30 or so inquiries here in our main service
area (Way Northern California), we have only found 5 people that can
actually use DSL. Out of every employee in the office, none of us can get
DSL at our homes. So it's not the modem killer a lot of people thought it
was going to be.
Another thing is the price, most of our customer base aren't "heavy" users
so all they do is e-mail, search the web. I doubt a lot of people will
want to pay 3x what they are currently paying for net access to just have
faster access. The only people I really see doing this is the power
users, who like to download the latest stuff, play games, etc. Those are
the people that will make the jump to DSL, if it is even available to
them, but they don't take much of a percentage of our userbase right now,
so it's nothing to worry about.
Later,
-- Joe Boyce Network Administrator joe@czis.net C-Zone Internet Ph: 800-500-3495 x19 Fax: 530-224-7293--- To unsubscribe, email 'majordomo@livingston.com' with 'unsubscribe portmaster-modems' in the body of the message.