Re: Dead PM-3

Jeffrey J. Mountin (sysop@mixcom.com)
Sun, 13 Apr 1997 02:51:36 -0500

At 12:04 PM 4/12/97 -0500, Brian Elfert wrote:
>On Thu, 10 Apr 1997, Stephen Fisher wrote:
>> All the better reason that the PM3 should have dual power supplies like
>> other boxes similar to it.
>
>This was discussed on comp.dcom.ethernet several months ago as regards
>highend switchs and ethernet hubs.
>
>The consensus seemed to be that power supplies fail so infrequently that
>having dual supplies in case one died was just not necessary. Most people
>seemed to think that they are in the high end gear just to give customers
>something extra in the high end gear.

<sigh> Just like the blinking lights that seem to fascinate the primate in
most people.

>The only good reason most of these folks had for dual supplies was for
>hooking your gear to two totally seperate sources of power in case the
>power failed or electrical problems required turning off the power on a
>circuit.

Dual supplies that load-balance just add to the reliability, so the chance
of failure is almost nil. Most units have dual AC or DC, but I've never
heard of mixing them.

Backup time is more critical, IMHO.

What bothers me about 'unique' equipment, say a Cisco, is if a card goes,
which is far more likely, and you don't have a spare ATM card. Damn.

Hats off to Livingston for the cross-shipping policy, as one day with fewer
dial-ins is not a major problem.

-------------------------------------------
Jeff Mountin - System/Network Administrator
jeff@mixcom.net

MIX Communications
Serving the Internet since 1990