May 5, 1997 10:00 AM ET
Heeding the T-1 remote access call -- CommPlete outclasses rivals in flexibility, durability; ISPs offer low-cost alternative
zdnet.com
By Michael Surkan, PC Week Labs
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Four walls no longer bind the enterprise. Where companies once hooked up a couple of phone lines to modems for telecommuting, large firms now must support hundreds of simultaneous remote users.
Remote access product vendors have met this need with "high-density" servers. The latest, MultiTech Systems Inc.'s CommPlete, which shipped last month, supports as many as four direct T-1 access lines, for a total of 96 simultaneous phone lines.
With a sturdy chassis, six fans and dual hot-swappable power supplies, the CommPlete server is one of the most rugged RAS (remote access server) systems PC Week Labs has tested.
More importantly, at $20,948 with a single segment controller and T-1 line, the CommPlete is significantly cheaper than competitors such as U.S. Robotics Corp.'s Total Control and Shiva Corp.'s LANRover Access Switch.
However, corporate buyers must also consider outsourcing remote access to Internet service providers, which can service hundreds of connections for a fraction of the cost. Right now the CommPlete and systems of its ilk are still in the running at corporations, providing a finer level of control to administrators, but they likely will be second choice to using ISPs for remote access once Internet tunneling and encryption standards issues have shaken out.
In the meantime, the CommPlete should be considered by any company looking for a high-density T-1 switch (including ISPs, for that matter). The CommPlete offers an unparalleled degree of flexibility through its modular design. And drivers are available to support a wide variety of standard operating systems, from Windows NT and NetWare to SCO's OpenServer.
-- Elegant design
Like the proverbial little black dress, the CommPlete server's design is elegant in its simplicity.
The active segment in the CommPlete server we tested was populated with three line cards, each of which housed eight 33.6K-bps modems. A single T-1 patch cord connected the populated CommPlete segment with a Dianatel Corp. T-1 line simulator.
MultiTech's modems, based on Lucent Technologies Inc. chips, are flash-upgradable to 56K bps. Line cards with even higher densities (up to 16 modems) will be available by year's end, according to company officials.
The MRTAS96 segment card used in our test switch was a custom-assembled PC with a 100MHz Pentium CPU. The CPU can be easily swapped by administrators via standard Zero Insertion Force sockets, and memory can be expanded with 72-pin SIMMs (single in-line memory modules).
The CommPlete chassis came housed in a sturdy rack-mountable steel case. A built-in Ethernet hub provided the connectivity between the four segments. (A version of CommPlete that supports 100M-bps Fast Ethernet for even higher port concentrations is in the works.)
Using the built-in Dial-Up Networking feature of Windows 95, we were able to make successful PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) connections to the CommPlete from 200MHz Pentium Pro-based Dell Computer Corp. Optiplex PCs with U.S. Robotics' Courier modems.
The CommPlete server provides system fault-tolerance via two hot-swappable 350-watt power supplies. We tested the system's redundancy mettle by disconnecting power from one of the power units. The CommPlete came through with flying colors, maintaining all connections.
As a consequence of the system's highly modular design, the SBC (Single Board Computer) that controls the CommPlete chassis had to be configured entirely separately from the segment processors.
In contrast, other remote access devices such as Shiva's Access Switch use cohesive architectures, with highly integrated management and configuration software.
Although poorly integrated, the CommPlete management software is quite capable. We were able to configure SNMP traps to notify a management platform of problems and even check basic server status from a Web browser.
Administrators could do far worse than sticking with the standard MultiTech RASExpress software that came preinstalled on our segment controller.
Options allowed us to set up links to centralized Terminal Access Controller Access Control System or Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service security servers. In addition, user IDs and access privileges such as allowed log-in times could be easily set from a remote Windows utility.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CommPlete Communications Server
MultiTech Systems Inc.
Mounds View, Minn.
(800) 328-9717
www.multitech.com
Usability.....................C
Capability...................B
Performance..............B
Interoperability...........B
Manageability............C
PROS: Highly configurable; standard PC architecture can be upgraded with faster CPUs and added RAM; low price relative to competing systems; dual power supplies provide fault tolerance.
CONS: Setup is needlessly complex; lacks PRI access cards for ISDN.
Summary: The low price and rugged design of MultiTech Systems' CommPlete make the server a great buy for companies and ISPs in search of high-density T-1 remote access switches. Unfortunately, setup and administration are more complex than competing products'.
PC Week Labs' scoring methodology can be found at pcweek.com |
