I've posted ab out Adtran Netvanta and cisco routers in the past. I'd like to add another manufacturer to small b ut prestigious list of router manufacturers that I've posted my 2cents about.
I recently had to configure two Enterasys 1805 branch routers that were to be installed by the customer in a point to poi nt configuration. This customer had just recently added another office a state away and was looking to get that new office on the main corporate LAN. They also have a VoIP application so not only was their regulate end-user data going to be connected b ut also their ip based phone systems .
The Entarasys was ordered and purchased by the customer and shipped to my office to be configured. Once configured, they were to be shipped back to the customer and they would do the physical cabling and installation.
The model was heavy in weight which I tend to like in networking equipment because it gives a feeling that the device is not just a cheap peice of plastic garbage. Although, I must add that lightness does not mean the the device will not work or is junk. I'm just a little old school and like the feel and sense of reliability from the weight of metal. An example of light not necessarily meaning not effective or reliable is the Adran NetVanta 3200 series. That device is very light but works very well.
The interface is industry standard which means that it looks and feels like Cisco. Con configuration of the WAN interfaces differed slightly and took a little adjusting to get going . The 1805 come with a fixed LAN interface and a NIM slot that can handle to Network Modules. I of course in each of the two routers used up one for the point to point connection. They have firewall and VPN features of which I used neither. They have SNMP for monitoring and their speed was very decent. While looking o nether web site , I found the data sheet for the using and one of the things that I found interesting and have not easily found from other manufacturers is the MTF (Mean Time Before Failure). for this unit it was rated at 72 ,000 hours - not bad at all.
It was a very inexpensive router and fairly easy to configure and get going. The only complain I have for this unit is the no shutdown command did not have the desired results. What I was looking to do and I'm fairly certain that I've done it on Cisco routers before , is issue a no shut command on the router's interfaces so that after they've been shipped back to the customer they could plug them into a live T1 and the interface and protocol would come right up as active. The routers did not do this so the customer had to login using the provided console cable and run the command.
Overall I give the router a thumbs up.
1 comment:
I've used Enterasys several times. I remeber for a while Dell was selling them. My experience with those network routers was ok.
I believe they did many things right as equally proportionate to the number of things they did wrong. The command like was very much like Cisco's. Cisco's command line it seeming to be the standard command line to duplicate. So this was a very good choice as far as interfacing with the technicians that would be installing and supporting these network routers. They of course has a console cable that could used through a desktop connection. They have telnet of course too like many many other devices for network applications. They have the ability to allow and restrict remote access for remote support of the routers.
One of the things they've done wrong as I've experienced, and thing may have change or been improved, is they have released products before they were properly tested.
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