Router management at MAE-East and MAE-West

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1

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this question...

I work for an ISP and we're looking at hooking up our own links to
MAE-East and MAE-West. A problem we forsee is that we're 1,000+ miles from
both of these locations, and we'd rather not have to drop everything and
jump on a flight if the router goes down and needs a reboot or hardware
replacement, and we dont really want to have to take on an employee living
near each MAE to do this stuff.

How do other ISPs deal with hardware problems at remote MAEs?

Someone told me that there are companies (possibly MFS themselves?) who
can do 24x7router hardware management, and even install the router in the
first place. Does anyone have experience of these services? Are they
reliable? Can they provide "out of band" router access, eg through the
console serial port to a console server?

Any contact details would also be very helpful.

Thanks!

  Wookie

2

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this question...

Actually, this is the right place :slight_smile:

I work for an ISP and we're looking at hooking up our own links to
MAE-East and MAE-West. A problem we forsee is that we're 1,000+ miles from
both of these locations, and we'd rather not have to drop everything and
jump on a flight if the router goes down and needs a reboot or hardware
replacement, and we dont really want to have to take on an employee living
near each MAE to do this stuff.

I can only speak for MAE-East, but...

MFS can do install, etc. for you, but you're SOL on assuring spares if
it's not a router bought thru MFS (which they've done primarily for 7505
or 7010 for int'l ISPs).

EUnet uses some company that runs Cisco training courses in the area,
although I thought they were a little green at real hands on. Talk to
Per Bilse.

Craig Hainey (Cando Consulting) does some stuff, and he's been around
since the old SprintLink days. You can ask the Goodnet guys how to get
ahold of him.

Also Rob Seastrom and Tim Scanlon (Knowledgable Hands, Inc.) have some
rack space at the MAE and manage some routers in it. Ask the geo.net
guys.

Both Craig and Rob are good at all around advanced config, routing,
security, etc.

How do other ISPs deal with hardware problems at remote MAEs?

uh..huhuh.

Someone told me that there are companies (possibly MFS themselves?) who
can do 24x7router hardware management, and even install the router in the
first place. Does anyone have experience of these services? Are they
reliable? Can they provide "out of band" router access, eg through the
console serial port to a console server?

No, you should order a POTS or ISDN line, and either go directly to your
console port or set up a 2511 or something. Just be careful on your
security.

Hope this helps.

-Lane

3

Yes, I was meaning to get back on that issue. The company is

Network Evolutions Inc
1850 Centennial Park Drive
Suite 625
Reston
Virginia 22091
U.S.A.

(703) 476 5100

Talk to Ronald Morris (local-part = mol, domain = netevolve.com) or
C.J Stuart (local-part = stuart). We're quite happy with them, good
service, they handle shipments / RMAs, etc, friendly and pretty much
on the spot when needed (they're only 20 minutes or so from
MAE-East) and don't mind doing the really difficult stuff, like
ordering telephone lines, buying US modems, etc (that -is- actually
the most difficult stuff from our perspective, and hard to get
anybody to do). They also agreed to service the Sprint NAP, though
the drive is obviously long. For MAE-West, I can recommend Vixie
Enterprises, contact info should be well-known.-)

4

Craig Hainey (Cando Consulting) does some stuff, and he's been around
since the old SprintLink days. You can ask the Goodnet guys how to get
ahold of him.

Craig Haney, Cando Consulting
Business Phone: (703) 448-9826
Business Fax: (802) 448-9786
Email: craig@seamless.kludge.net

Also Rob Seastrom and Tim Scanlon (Knowledgable Hands, Inc.) have some
rack space at the MAE and manage some routers in it. Ask the geo.net
guys.

I don't have Rob's particulars right at hand, but if anyone needs them,
shoot me a note.

--Kent

Kent W. England Direct: 650.596.6321
VP of Technology Company: 650.596.1700
GeoNet Communications, Inc. Fax: 650.596.1701
555 Twin Dolphin Drive mailto:kwe@geo.net
Redwood City, CA 94065 http://www.geo.net
           --- note area code change from 415 to new 650 ---