Look at just the past year or two - it is a constant game of leapfrog.
Whomever is great today will suck tomorrow, and vice-versa. Such it has
always been, such it is likely to always be. There was a period when the
PM-3's modems were very poor, then they become great, now they have some
trouble again - though I would not say they're exceptionally poor
compared to the market. 3Com/USR even had a stretch of time when people
were having trouble getting modems to connect to the TC - both Netserver
and HiPer systems. Recently, in fact, with some of the V.90 HiPer code
many people reported widespread connection failures.
I'm more than confident that Lucent's modem code will continue to improve,
and that there will again be a point in time when they are on the rise
and someone else is on the decline. Anyone who tries to jump back and forth
in the NAS market based on changes like this will find themselves in trouble.
The fact is there are many people using any given NAS who are having no
trouble at all. And there are people using any given NAS who will tell you
it sucks. There are people dumping MAXen, TCs, and Ciscos to buy PMs because
they work better - and people dumping PMs to buy MAXen, TCs, or Ciscos.
But judging from the trading lists I'm on, a lot more people are moving TO
PMs than from them.
What do you want then to do, keep holding your hand and saying "Of *course*
we're working on new modem code?" *DUH!* You'd have to be in a coma not
to see something so obvious.
As far as the differences - remember that since PCM modems appeared the
client and the server modems are different beasts, In general what you do
on the client doesn't apply to the server. They don't even use the same DSPs.
This isn't like V.34 with the same thing on both ends. Also, with PCM much
of the intelligence is in the client. People are reported a lot of trouble
getting Rockwell HCF modems to connect to Lucent servers - and 3Com servers.
They seem to connect fine to Rockwell servers - anyone surprised? Right
now you have an environment where hte client code is being revved very
rapidly. The client has to deal with more - the client is the one with
visibility to the local loop conditions.
You know the modem code is going to continue changing - and now we have V.91
on the horizon. In fact, the modem code will probably be the fastest
changing component on any NAS for the foreseeable future. It is best to have
a solid foundation and ride out the cycles in modem code. If you're one
of the minority with serious trouble, yes, it sucks. But overall people
are pretty damn happy with the code today, and it will improve. Welcome
to the hell that is PCM, what is flawless for one user is useless to another,
enjoy your stay.
As for the silly idea of a lawsuit - I doubt it would win. Way too many
examples of it working for way to many people. Those having major
trouble are definitely the exceptions. On top of that the client modem
vendors all covered their ass with legal warnings on the packaging. And
add to that a large number of ISPs who delayed introducing PCM, many have
still to do so, who didn't up and die because of the decision - showing
that not supporting PCM is still a viable option. No one ever claimed it
would work for everyone, and it didn't.
Yelling at Lucent does jackshit. If you have a particular problem to
report, then report it to support. If you just want to bitch, save it.
If you don't feel that they are responding fast enough to suit you, then sell
your HW to one of the many people who are desperate for a used PM and buy
something else, and pray you made the right decision. Yelling at Lucent
is not going to work new modem code through engineering and test any faster.
-MZ
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