True. I've lusted after a Max or a TC rack for over 2 years. I finally
sprang for a 4004.
> 3. 6 Months no payment for box, then installments
We leased ours, $1500 a month for 30 months. Can you say "ouch"?
> 4. They will come in and help with the first configuration
Not really necessary, I simply called them on the phone and they walked me
through the basics. The big thing was getting the T1's setup right. Once
MCI had my T's built right, the rest was cake.
> 5. High density per box.
Really, really nice. 5 wires for 72 lines.
> 6. Built in CSU/DSU
Yup.
> CONS
> 1. Read that the modem technology isn't the best. (True?)
Their latest 12 port cards seem to work very well with just about
anything that calls them, including our customers (and there are many)
with older V.FC and V.Fast modems. I have placed over 1,000 test calls
into this unit and it has not failed to answer properly once. They also
support 33.6 now.
> 2. No Ascend prducts now - make a much harder to manage shop.
True. I had to add some customization to our radius daemon (merit) to
handle the ascends list of value pairs. But is was only a few lines to do
so. Now, I use one daemon to validate the Max, our Linux boxen and a
couple of PM2E's. The ascend radiusd will also work just fine with PM
products.
NOTE: Maxen can configure a _lot_ of internal info via "pseudo-users" in
the radius users file. This is a beautiful touch. You can centrally manage
a large number of Maxen that way.
> 3. Don't know Ascend's "IOS"
Don't really need to know a lot, the main interface is a menu tree.
Set it and forget it.
> 4. Tech support?
Awesome. And, if it's an emergency, you can page someone after hours,
unlike a certain vendor I won't mention.
So far, I'm pretty impressed with my 4004. The price was a bit high, but
based on our lease numbers, it's going to make us a fortune each month.
$600/port or $400/port, I don't really care anymore. I just want stuff
that works, works great and has great tech support. If/when Livingston
shows me a PM3 that fits the above criteria, I might buy one. But they
better hurry, my second Max will be ordered next week.
One nice thing about the PM3, when it's out, it will probably cause Ascend
and Cisco to re-evaluate their pricing.
Later,
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Joe Portman - Alternate Access Inc. Affordable, Reliable Internet
baron@aa.net Seattle: (206) 443-3408 Seattle: (206) 777-7777
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For free trial account: set modem to 8-n-1, login as "new"
For questions or support, call our voice line (206) 728-9585.
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