I want my PortMaster! A "pure" PortMaster success story "Customers are a LOT happier! Sales are up! Business is good! And I've just placed an order for more PortMaster 3 units. You just can't knock a product that is virtually ZERO maintenance and just plain WORKS!" Gregory Boehnlein, president of New Age Consulting Service (Cleveland, OH). Yes, New Age Consulting Service (NACS) is a "pure" PortMaster customer! Want to know why? Here are Greg's answers to our online interview questions: 1. How long have you been using PortMaster products? "We've always used PortMasters, ever since we began offering Internet access to Cleveland-area residents in late 1994. Our first T-1 router was an IRX-111." 2. What PortMaster products do you now have deployed? We currently have a mix of mostly PortMaster 3s and PortMaster 2E-30s installed at our central site in Cleveland and at our 6 remote locations throughout the greater Cleveland and Akron metropolitan areas. The table details the specific configurations for each point of presence (POP). POP Location PortMaster Products Installed Cleveland 3 ea. PortMaster 3s Elyria 1 ea. PortMaster 2E-30 Lorain 1 ea. PortMaster 2E-30 Ravenna 1 ea. PortMaster 3 Bainbridge 1 ea. PortMaster 2E-30; 1 ea. IRX 111 Akron 1 ea. PortMaster 2E-30 with 5 BRI cards 3. You don't have anything but PortMaster products running in your network. Why is that? "The proven reliability of the Lucent [formerly Livingston] products in the field means we can count on our network to function the way it was designed, with practically no human intervention. By using well-designed network models with stable Lucent equipment, we can rapidly migrate customers onto our network by supporting a variety of different protocols and authentication methods." 4. What is your primary line of business? "We're a 'Network Solution Provider' that integrates stable, reliable technology with Internet concepts to improve the efficiency of networks. We deliver e-mail and Web access to nearly 2,000 home users as well as Web hosting and Internet access to corporate clients in 7 counties. The combination of PortMaster 3 units with the flexibility of RADIUS allows us to service all our POPs from a central location while doing maintenance remotely." 5. Will you be deploying additional PortMaster products over the next 6 months? If so, how many and where? "Absolutely. I expect that Akron, Lorain and Elyria will be getting PortMaster 3 units as we expand our user base in those areas." 6. What technical factor(s) are driving your decision to use the PortMaster 3? "Several factors came into play in our decision -- PRI Pricing. Our telco (ICG Telecom) has recently become very affordable. In fact, PRI costs us less per channel than our old analog ports used to, while providing us a unified pipeline for digital and analog service. Reliability. Digital Service is far more reliable and error resistant than analog service. We have noticed a significant increase in connect rates with digital service, as well as the ability to service PCM [pulse code modulation] connections. Scalability. The PortMaster 3 allows us to consolidate ISDN and analog calls into a single rack unit. As we need more ports, we simply add another unit to the rack and go. Technical Support. We're very pleased, and we don't have to pay for the updates to ComOS! One of the most cost-effective tools we use, by the way, is the PortMaster Users Mail List where Lucent InterNetworking Systems personnel offer a lot of valuable technical support! 7. Are you utilizing the Multichassis PPP capability of our latest ComOS version? "The Cleveland POP is utilizing the MCPPP capabilities and it's working extremely well. It has greatly cut down our busy signals, made our customers happier, and allowed us to utilize our finances more efficiently." 8. Do you currently use the OSPF (open shortest-path first) routing capabilities of ComOS? "Yes. Our internal network distributes routes via OSPF through our Cisco 7513 core router. The availability of OSPF was another feature that made us choose the Lucent PortMaster 3 product." 9. What version of 56K do you support - X2 or Lucent's K56flex? "K56flex all the way!" Want to find out more? Contact Greg via e-mail at damin@nacs.net or by snail-mail at: New Age Consulting Service, Inc. 815 Superior Ave. #425 Cleveland, Ohio 44114 Voice: (216)-619-2000 Fax: (216)-619-2004