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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Herc who wrote (3938)	5/30/1999 3:09:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 12823

Herc, You've certainly done your homework. Excellent. From all you've stated, the problem seems to drill down to the BellSouth.net access platform [the dial in access concentrator and its associated upstream links to the edge ] in your exchange. The following tends to point in this direction: ...and an ex-wife about six blocks away with flawless (or so my sons says) AOL service and in the same exchange. Consider, the AOL dial-in ports which work okay use the same end office switch, but a different access concentrator (ASND TNT, CSCO 3600, Shiva, etc.). AOL also uses a different set of upstream connections to the edge and beyond. These problems needn't be unique to BLS.net, if they are using a new generic methodology to satisfy dial ins, however. I suspect that they would affect other dial ins as well. Perhaps AOL just has a better handle on their leased central office facilities than others do. Couldn't say. (I had some very early experiences dealing with BLS in the data world. See sidebar below.) So, you've apparently narrowed the source of your problem down to BLS's own services at the access platform level in their CO. See if you can get other BellSouth.net users to corroborate your findings and experiences. Would that be possible? Very interesting. Regards, Frank Coluccio [[Sidebar: New Orleans. Brings back some memories. During the late Sixties I had cause to oversee some installations going into Finland for the Helsinki Peace Accord Talks. One of the contract overseas circuits from Helsinki to NY was bridged, with one leg going to Washington, DC and the other to New Orleans. These were alternate voice-data analog circuit extensions from a PBX in an embassy in Helsinki. (What a story I can tell you about that one, getting the local PTT guy to get out of his sack and come out at 4 AM to work with us on a deadline.) These circuits were both encrypted and conditioned to DoD standards, and were expected to meet the most stringent grades of service that ATT was offering at the time (C-5 conditioning). The data rates, I believe, topped out at 1200 bps at the time, and these rates were not for general commercial consumption yet. They were considered, at the time, to be scalding hot to the touch, and barely out of the labs. The Washington link finally came into spec, after days of endless equalization. We never did get New Orleans up to speed, however. When our craftsmen attempted to do even the most rudimentary noise tests with BLS they claimed that the lines were clean, and that there was no need to do any further testing. When we asked them for a meter reading of the white (C-message) noise, never mind impulse noise or phase jitter, the craftsman said that he was using his ear and the circuit sounded alright <!?!>. He went on to explain that their local office didn't have a working noise meter in the entire shop, never mind a Wandel und Goltermann envelope delay measuring set. Needless to say, the plug-in equalization units that were sent to this outpost never did get installed. In fairness, however, that was a very long time ago. Today, those types of circuits no longer exist. Leastwise, I don't think they do. [Tim?] End Sidebar]]

To: Herc who wrote (3938)	5/30/1999 6:31:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Herc, Jim, After once again reviewing your post #3938, I'm more convinced now than I was before that the problems you are having point to Bellsouth.net's access platform configuration, and the amount of resources being made available to it in the edge. The clincher was your ability to get excellent performance when you used their 888 remote number to access their service. This precludes the copper loop from being at fault, immediately. In this case, the 'edge' consists of those connections and network elements which reside between the dial in concentrator box (e.g., a MAX TNT) and the upstream router connections towards the network core. A single action on the part of BLS, like reassigning upstream router ports and other resources for use by their DSL platform, for example, or something similar, may have disrupted the previous provisions that were in place to support BLS.net. This conceivably may have impacted not only their own BLS.net access service, but ATT Worldnet's, and Mindsprings, and others, at the same time. It makes sense, if they were all sharing common central office routing resources. While I feel more comfortable with this explanation now, it still doesn't rule out the other possibilities I've mentioned from eventually taking hold. The consequences of field upgrade work to the copper plant may actually prove to be an additive source of trouble at some point, as well. Why wasn't your ex-wife's AOL service affected, when she is in the same CO only several blocks away from you? That's a good question. Perhaps, like I stated earlier, AOL, because of their size, has more of a dedicated presence than the others, hence more clout, and maybe they possess a unique set of dedicated provisions in place for themselves, only. This would make them relatively immune to this level of localized activity for the smaller players. And they are all smaller than AOL. Or maybe AOL's network surveillance and management was able to catch the disruption in time, thwarting any longer term detrimental effects, by having the matter corrected quickly. All of this is conjecture on my part, but interesting discussion, nonetheless. Regards, Frank Coluccio