phil@amdcad.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) (06/07/88)
In article <5398@coherent.com> celeste@coherent.com (Celeste C. Stokely) writes: >Save yourself a lot of grief and don't buy a Delni. They seems to suffer >from some of the worst quality control problems I've ever seen. If you get >a good one, they're great, but it's hard to get a good Delni. Could you go into more detail on this? How can you tell if your DELNI is bad? We have used a lot of Cabletron equipment and are very happy with them also. Mostly transceivers. We started using DELNIs before Cabletron was around and for lack of any problems directly attributed to them stuck with them. By coincidence, we are seeing problems in a new building and I wonder if the DELNIs are the culprit. -- I speak for myself, not the company. Phil Ngai, {ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!phil or phil@amd.com
peter%infidel@LANL.GOV (Peter Ford) (06/07/88)
We have a cabletron DELNI clone which is better than the old DELNIs since it is loaded with lights which have helped in network debugging. I have found both DELNIs and Cabletron clones to be equally reliable (haven't seen either fail yet), but I am serious about those lights, I would buy a Cabletron MT-800 every time. Some of us still like those blinking lights on our gear and hope that they come back in style on all equipment. Peter Ford Center for Nonlinear Studies peter@lanl.gov
lyndon@ncc.Nexus.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg) (06/09/88)
In article <8806070434.AA09530@infidel.lanl.gov.ARPA> peter%infidel@LANL.GOV (Peter Ford) writes: >We have a cabletron DELNI clone which is better than the old DELNIs >since it is loaded with lights which have helped in network debugging. [ ... ] >Some of us still like those blinking lights on our gear and hope >that they come back in style on all equipment. Great! My question is: Do you have the rack mounting kit for the DELNI? Some of us like the lights mounted in the rack where everyone can see them. [ Yes, this is a serious question. I'm getting sick of tripping over the bundle of cables... ] -- {alberta,utzoo,uunet}!ncc!lyndon lyndon@Nexus.CA
jerry@oliveb.olivetti.com (Jerry Aguirre) (06/10/88)
In article <10269@ncc.Nexus.CA> lyndon@ncc.UUCP (Lyndon Nerenberg) writes: >In article <8806070434.AA09530@infidel.lanl.gov.ARPA> peter%infidel@LANL.GOV (Peter Ford) writes: >>We have a cabletron DELNI clone which is better than the old DELNIs >>since it is loaded with lights which have helped in network debugging. > >Great! My question is: Do you have the rack mounting kit for >the DELNI? Some of us like the lights mounted in the rack where >everyone can see them. When our DEC DELNI arrived I tried to mount it in a rack along with the DEC LAT terminal servers. They both come in a plastic case intended for setting on a table or such. To rack mount them you remove the plastic case and inside there is a metal case that will fit into a rack. (We still have those empty plastic cases taking up room on a shelf.) The LAT units installed with no problems but when I went to do the same for the DELNI the brackets didn't line up with anything. A little investigation showed that the brackets included with the DELNI were the ones for a LAT. I thought this was just a fluke but others on the net have complained that this always happens. There is some screwup with the part number so that even if you order the part for the DELNI you get the bracket for the LAT. According to one source the only way to get the right part is to order the DELNI in one of DECs wiring cabinets. Meanwhile our DELNI lays on the bottom of the rack. The Cabletron MT-800 has a rack mount option (RMK-1000) that lists for $75. It is a little bulky for my tastes. It is actually a shelf that the MT-800 bolts to, but it works well and looks nice from the front. (You want to be able to see those blinky lights.) The MT-800 also comes (standard) with a bracket in the back that you can tie-wrap all the cables to, including the power cord. Those of you familiar with transceiver connections and their slide-lock fasteners will understand the importance of strain-relief. The bracket and tie-wrap combination is so effective that you can move the other end of the cable arround and it wont pull out of the MT-800 even if the slide-lock isn't fastened. The Cabletron MR-9000 thin ethernet multiport repeater (DEMPR clone) has the same chassis as the MT-800 and uses the same rack mount kit. The same strain relief bracket is included but I have not found it necessary for BNC connections. It does help for the power cord and transceiver connection. Cabletron has always shiped my orders very fast, usually in a couple of days after we generate the PO. Now for the bad news. I had one of the MR-9000s fail. No big deal, it had been running for 6 months and I expect some failures. (Actually I also had a transceiver on a different floor fail at or about the same time. I suspect some kind of electrical spike.) But I didn't find Cabletron very responsive; it took several days and many phone calls to get me the RMA number and the repair took over a week. To be honest I wasn't really pushing or screaming for immediate help. I had borrowed another unit and my network was working again the same day. Perhaps if I had told them I was off the air they would have arranged a loaner. What was disturbing was that I have written a PO and received a new unit from them in half the time it took to get an in-warranty repair. I finally decided to just order a spare unit. Jerry Aguirre
jimk@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Jim Kendall) (06/15/88)
Jerry Aguirre writes: >Now for the bad news. I had one of the MR-9000s fail.... But I didn't find >Cabletron very responsive; it took several days and many phone calls to >get me the RMA number and the repair took over a week..... Perhaps if >I had told them I was off the air they would have arranged a loaner. >What was disturbing was that I have written a PO and received a new unit >from them in half the time it took to get an in-warranty repair. We detected a malfunction in one of our MR-9000s in that when the cable segment was accidentally opened up a couple of hundred feet down the wire, the fault and collision lights didn't come on........but the jam light flickered rapidly. This indication tells me that the faulty segment did not automatically disconnect and that runt packets were being propagated to all segments (including channel 9, the Ethernet segment). Needless to say, this loaded the network quite heavily. I disconnected the faulty segment and, sure enough, the collision and fault lights lit and the segment disconnected properly. I called Cabletron and told them about it and they indicated that there was a PAL change made to later units (ours was 8 months old, therefore we didn't have the PAL change) to fix a faulty segment disconnect problem, BUT....he said that what I was describing didn't sound like the problem the PAL change was intended to fix. He said that he would air freight me up a new one and that I should get it next Monday (this was last week and Monday has obviously passed) along with an RMA # to ship the old one back under. To date I've gotten neither.....and we need this to fix our problem (we are in a developement situation where we are often opening up segments, and it's imperative that the open segment disconnect properly). So, Jerry, I don't know about the "if I'd only told them I was down" arguement. While I've typically had good response from Cabletron, in this particular instance it hasn't been. Now just watch.......I'll hit the `S'end key and Receiving will call and tell me to come get my MR-9000 ;^) Cheers! -- Jim Kendall ISC Systems Corp. My boss is in full jimk@iscuva.ISCS.COM E. 22425 Appleway agreement with all uunet!iscuva!jimk Liberty Lake, WA 99019 of my opinions....