Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 11:14:47 -0500 From: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) To: Jim Dixon <jdd@vbc.net> Cc: isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Decision in Router Purchase Message-ID: <199611141614.LAA25414@etinc.com>
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The reasons we dont deal with J. Dixon are rather obvious here..... >> Hmmm, ET takes up two ISA slots? What are the problems with the >> ET? > >The boards that we have -- I think that the date on the PCB is 1992 -- the riscomm design is about the same age.....so whats your point? We didnt have problems with our design, so we haven't change the copyright. Perhaps you'd rather deal with a company that needs 5 revs of a board to get it right...but thats your choice. >have one connector on the backplate. The second port is on a very short >ribbon cable that just barely makes it to the next ISA slot. We have longer cables for chassis mount. Clearly this is an issue with 6 ports, but not with four or less. the age of the design...well the boards work and give 100% throughput..not much to change..... > >Other problems: the logic for each port is on a small daughterboard. >This is held in only by friction. There is a device below one of the >daughterboards -- the one for port 0, unfortunately -- that is too >high (because it is socketed), so you can't get the daughterboard all >the way in without causing it to bow. Then over time it gradually works >its way out. The "logic" is NOT on the daughtercard,only the electrical interface (ie V.35 or RS-422) . the socket / bowing problem was addressed well over a year ago.......the ICs are no longer socketed and the "Friction" is quite substatial. > >We also had support problems with ET (we bought three boards and ET >adamantly refused to supply three sets of documentation) but YMMV. you had support problems because you refused to do what I asked you to do when you had problems, and it was fairly evident that you were more concerned with finding problems than solutions. We supply 1 manual per order..you are free to copy them as you please. If you pay list price for all of the boards, you can get 3 manuals. Its a fairly simply policy. >> Hmmm okay, but is the ET still better than a Cisco? and does the >> SDL cost less or more than the ET? > >The Cisco 2501 would be my last choice. If you are using PPP or Cisco >HDLC to talk to your provider, I would recommend the SDL card plus John >Hays' FreeBSD driver. If you are using frame relay the ET card is the >only choice with FreeBSD. You get what you pay for. We provide full-featured and well-supported drivers.... integrated debugger, bandwidth management and filtering.. and if you're using frame there really is no competition to our product. Dennis
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