The Netvanta router from Adtran are accessable remotely using either a telnet session and through a web browser. They can be accessed quite easily on a local area network but for access from the internet, they need to have enabled acces from the wide area network optioned enabled.
In an earlier post I had a customer who had a point-to-point T1 connection between two offices. One of the offices in in NYC and the other is in the Bronx (unfortunately I had to go to the Bronx twice for this customer). They were doing VoIP between their two ofices with a couple of NEC Aspire phone systems. The problem was getting the quality of voice up to a nice level even though we had QoS enabled and configured correctly on both routers.
We checked their local area network for problems and the circuit itself - driving verizon people crazy (don't feel bad for them). I even tried different flavors of quality of service configurations and also enabled diffserv and packet tagging on the phone systems. Also monitored bandwidth usage. Nothing helped. No metter what we did, the voice was horrible whenever they started a download. Adtran couldn't helped with this problem. I like and admire Adtran's tech support as they are ver very good and often helped me get out of trouble. But this time they overlooked this solution.
Here is the solution. If you know of anyone, or it's you yourself reading this, with a couple of Netvanta 3200 routers trying to do quality of service and it just is not working our right then check that wieghted fair queuing (WFQ) is enabled on the router and not FIFO.
Once I enabled this option the quality was great.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Data wall jacks not working?
I went to a customer's office today on a call about a wireless problem. Once I got there of course other issues they were having came were remembered. One such problem was regarding two wall network wall jack that were "not working". I figured this would be an easy problem to fix, I started it before the more mysterious and dangerous wireless access point problem.
I checked both of the wall jacks with my laptop and they weren't working like they said. Not even a link light - forget about not getting an IP address. I toned them out to see if they even ran to their data room and they both did. But, of course, there was not patch cord going from the patch panel were the wires terminated to the data switch. I plugged two cables in and tested again. Both ports now linked u pthe the LAN fine. The customer paid for this. I guess to me and other in the support world this was a no brainer. I really think that if the customer had applied some simple troubleshooting skills and basic knowledge they could have avoided the bill. Oh and by the way, they wanted to start arguing that my company did the cabling and therefore they should not get billed. Go figure.
Now about the wireless problem. This has a few more twists in the plot than the wall jack problem did.
I checked both of the wall jacks with my laptop and they weren't working like they said. Not even a link light - forget about not getting an IP address. I toned them out to see if they even ran to their data room and they both did. But, of course, there was not patch cord going from the patch panel were the wires terminated to the data switch. I plugged two cables in and tested again. Both ports now linked u pthe the LAN fine. The customer paid for this. I guess to me and other in the support world this was a no brainer. I really think that if the customer had applied some simple troubleshooting skills and basic knowledge they could have avoided the bill. Oh and by the way, they wanted to start arguing that my company did the cabling and therefore they should not get billed. Go figure.
Now about the wireless problem. This has a few more twists in the plot than the wall jack problem did.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Adtran Netvanta 3200
My company has a customer who has a point-to-point leased line ( a T1) between their two offices. In each office we have installed an NEC Aspire phone system. These systems are capable of doing VoIP for station to station transfer between the two locations. This solution has been done many times before successfully. The router that terminate the T1 at each end are the Adtran Netvata 3200 series routers.
Modular Access Router - Single Slot/Single Ethernet
The NetVanta 3200 is an access router designed for cost-effective Internet access, corporate Frame Relay, point-to-point connectivity, and Virtual Private Networking (VPN) for applications requiring bandwidth from 56k to dual-T1s. Residing in a standalone desktop chassis with a plastics enclosure, the NetVanta 3200 is a single platform that offers one interface slot and one 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN port. The modular NetVanta 3200 will house a variety of Network Interface Modules (NIMs) and includes a Statefull Inspection Firewall, QoS for delay sensitive traffic like VoIP, NAT and DHCP, and all managed with a familiar Command Line Interface (CLI).
The command line of the router is familiar. It has the look and feel of cisco routers. This makes using the CLI easy and comfortable for anyone familiar with configuring cisco router.
NetVanta 3200
Modular Access Router - Single Slot/Single Ethernet
The NetVanta 3200 is an access router designed for cost-effective Internet access, corporate Frame Relay, point-to-point connectivity, and Virtual Private Networking (VPN) for applications requiring bandwidth from 56k to dual-T1s. Residing in a standalone desktop chassis with a plastics enclosure, the NetVanta 3200 is a single platform that offers one interface slot and one 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN port. The modular NetVanta 3200 will house a variety of Network Interface Modules (NIMs) and includes a Statefull Inspection Firewall, QoS for delay sensitive traffic like VoIP, NAT and DHCP, and all managed with a familiar Command Line Interface (CLI).
The command line of the router is familiar. It has the look and feel of cisco routers. This makes using the CLI easy and comfortable for anyone familiar with configuring cisco router.
Adtran Reliability
Adtran in my opinion makes some of the best most reliable equipment. Their support is top notch and never let you down. I've only had a problem with their tech support when they have been backed up. Besides this occurring once or twice their technical support staff is top notch.
The NEC communicate with each other over the point-to-point T1 just fine. but when a download is initiated from either side to the other, the voice is terrible. After upgrading the operating systems on both Adtrans, which I have to say was a breeze, I had more quality of service tools at my disposal. After trying various methods to smooth the voice quality there was no fixing it. The reason I found that the quality of the VoIP is so bad is providers line is bad. In particular, it seems it's the transmit pairs at one of the locations. This will be a long drawn out fight with the service provider for sure. They have tried to blame the customer premises equipment but I'm steadfastly standing behind the Netvanta router.
The NEC communicate with each other over the point-to-point T1 just fine. but when a download is initiated from either side to the other, the voice is terrible. After upgrading the operating systems on both Adtrans, which I have to say was a breeze, I had more quality of service tools at my disposal. After trying various methods to smooth the voice quality there was no fixing it. The reason I found that the quality of the VoIP is so bad is providers line is bad. In particular, it seems it's the transmit pairs at one of the locations. This will be a long drawn out fight with the service provider for sure. They have tried to blame the customer premises equipment but I'm steadfastly standing behind the Netvanta router.
Remote Support Software -:- PC Remote Control
Saturday, May 13, 2006
U.S. Mac users receive best support
Source: MACNN
May 8, 2006
A new report suggests that U.S. Mac users receive the best tech support compared to other free technical support systems. The Consumer Reports National Research Center found that only 55 percent of consumers who contacted technical support had their problem solved, drawing from surveys of 20,000 users with computer problems in the US, according to Macworld UK. Users said that most manufacturers provided "dismal" free tech support, with the exception of Apple's support for desktops/laptops and IBM's support for laptops. "Apple's support for desktops and laptops and IBM (Lenovo) for laptops. Apple solved 76 percent of survey respondents' problems, and IBM (Lenovo) solved 64 percent." Compaq was rated the worst free tech support, solving only 38 percent of desktop problems for respondents, while 15 percent of users with problems didn't even bother to contact the manufacturer's support due to negative previous experiences.
May 8, 2006
A new report suggests that U.S. Mac users receive the best tech support compared to other free technical support systems. The Consumer Reports National Research Center found that only 55 percent of consumers who contacted technical support had their problem solved, drawing from surveys of 20,000 users with computer problems in the US, according to Macworld UK. Users said that most manufacturers provided "dismal" free tech support, with the exception of Apple's support for desktops/laptops and IBM's support for laptops. "Apple's support for desktops and laptops and IBM (Lenovo) for laptops. Apple solved 76 percent of survey respondents' problems, and IBM (Lenovo) solved 64 percent." Compaq was rated the worst free tech support, solving only 38 percent of desktop problems for respondents, while 15 percent of users with problems didn't even bother to contact the manufacturer's support due to negative previous experiences.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Invensys Introduces World’s First 'Enterprise Control System'
Source:Yahoo News
Mon Apr 17, 8:00 AM ET
(PRWEB) - Foxboro, MA (PRWEB) April 17, 2006 -- Invensys today introduced the world’s first industrial system that goes beyond the plant or other industrial operations to provide a true enterprise view. The new InFusionTM enterprise control system combines industry-leading capabilities from across Invensys with advanced enterprise information and integration technologies from both Microsoft and SAP to dramatically reduce integration costs. With InFusion technology, most existing plant floor and enterprise systems can now be cost-effectively integrated into a common system. In conjunction with a suite of new performance services, Invensys’ InFusion system will help industrial enterprises more effectively align plant operations and maintenance departments with the business to optimize overall asset performance management.
Mon Apr 17, 8:00 AM ET
(PRWEB) - Foxboro, MA (PRWEB) April 17, 2006 -- Invensys today introduced the world’s first industrial system that goes beyond the plant or other industrial operations to provide a true enterprise view. The new InFusionTM enterprise control system combines industry-leading capabilities from across Invensys with advanced enterprise information and integration technologies from both Microsoft and SAP to dramatically reduce integration costs. With InFusion technology, most existing plant floor and enterprise systems can now be cost-effectively integrated into a common system. In conjunction with a suite of new performance services, Invensys’ InFusion system will help industrial enterprises more effectively align plant operations and maintenance departments with the business to optimize overall asset performance management.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)