Subject: (usr-tc) Hiper ARC Questions

From: Brad Gass <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 19:28:32 +0000

Hello, all.

OK, this is probably going to sound *really* silly to all of you seasoned 
USR/3Com veterans out there, but it's a question about NetServers vs. Hiper 
ARC.

As I understand it, and appear to have witnessed first hand, probably one 
of the wider known flaws of the NetServer's (even in the last official code 
release) was the UDP lag issues, and that a HiperARC doesn't exhibit this 
issue at all.  I'm currently using Quad Digital Modem cards (mix of both 
single and double sided), latest firmware in them, PPP in modem, and v.90 
enabled, in a 45A chassis

So, I'm just verifying this before I go on a quest to find a reasonably 
priced Hiper ARC.  Will the Hiper ARC will work with Quads?  Do I need to 
have a Hiper NMC as well?  Any special firmware/chassis 
requirements?  What's the latest firmware revision of the Hiper ARC?

I've got a few other questions as well, but I'll save those for separate 
threads later!

Brad Gass

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From: Charles Sprickman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 23:40:17 +0000

I'm running a mixed setup, both quads and dsps in the same chassis talking
to Arcs.  The only problem that doesn't go away with upgrades is that the
quad modems get "stuck" quite often.  If I put them in an old Netserver
chassis, they are fine.  A sof reset on the affected ports will clear
it up for a few days.

I think I've even put a DSP in my old 45A test chassis and had the
netserver see it, but that was long ago...

Perhaps someone else could lend some info about putting an ARC in the old
45A chassis.  Never done that myself...

Charles

| Charles Sprickman                  | Internet Channel
| INCH System Administration Team    | (212)243-5200
| [email-masked]                     | [email-masked]

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From: Greg Coffey <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 23:43:31 +0000

We're still running some Netservers with quad cards without issue.  You can 
run a Hiper arc with quads too.  You don't need a Hiper nmc with that 
combo.  It probably will get rid of some latency but again, we don't get 
complaints on our remaining ones.

At 12:23 PM 7/15/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>USR/3Com veterans out there, but it's a question about NetServers vs. 
>Hiper ARC.
>
>of the wider known flaws of the NetServer's (even in the last official 
>code release) was the UDP lag issues, and that a HiperARC doesn't exhibit 
>this issue at all.  I'm currently using Quad Digital Modem cards (mix of 
>both single and double sided), latest firmware in them, PPP in modem, and 
>v.90 enabled, in a 45A chassis
>

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From: Bob Purdon - Lists <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 02:24:01 +0000

> netserver see it, but that was long ago...

Yeah, that works.  We did that a few weeks ago during the transition from
Quad/Netserver to DSP/ARC.  We put the modems in first to see what, if
any, connection issues arose so that we could be sure that issues were
modem conpatability and what was ARC related.

Only thing that came up was the infamous Motorola SM56.

> Perhaps someone else could lend some info about putting an ARC in the
> old 45A chassis.  Never done that myself...

Hmmm, haven't tried that...

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From: Jeff Mcadams <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 03:14:50 +0000

Also sprach Bob Purdon - Lists

>Yeah, that works.  We did that a few weeks ago during the transition
>from Quad/Netserver to DSP/ARC.  We put the modems in first to see
>what, if any, connection issues arose so that we could be sure that
>issues were modem conpatability and what was ARC related.

>Hmmm, haven't tried that...

Yes, you can run Arcs against quads, NETServers against DSPs, any of the
four card sets will go in a 45A chassis (or even in a 35A chassis if you
have any of those old power supplies left still around...same chassis as
the 45, but lower rated power supply).  You don't need a HiPer NMC to do
any of this.  Putting a HiPer NMC will not (I guess I should say should
not since I don't actually *have* any HiPer NMC's) affect latency of
data transfers as the NMCs are not ever involved in the actual transfer
of customer data.  I'd believe it if someone said that the HiPer NMCs
will lower "latency" on SNMP queries to the box, but not the infamous
"Quake Lag" type of issue.

Oh...and on running DSPs against a NETServer, you can do it with the
later code revisions on the NETServer...they added commands that let you
set the number of ports per card, so you could set it to 24 ports on
cards 14 and 15 for example, so you could tell the NETServer about the
extra ports on the DSP cards.  I don't remember the commands offhand for
this, but do remember that you had to manually configure it.
-- 
Jeff McAdams                            Email: [email-masked]
Head Network Administrator              Voice: (502) 966-3848
IgLou Internet Services                        (800) 436-4456

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From: Bob Purdon - Lists <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 11:30:18 +0000

>From memory:

set density <slot> <modems-per-card>
set modem startslot <xxx>

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From: Brad Gass <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 06:16:42 +0000

Hello all.

Although I'm getting most of the kinks worked out of my USR gear, I'm now 
working on the second chassis, which has a dual PRI card installed.

The other chassis in this POP had a dual T1 card installed, and seems to be 
working just fine.  However, I can't seem to see how/where to configure the 
dual PRI to function in channelized T1 mode.  Unfortunately, I don't have 
access to PRI's with this telco.

Reading the archives, I surmise this is possible to do, but may require a 
minimum firmware level.

Is this correct, and if so, what version do I need?  I believe I've got 
3.0.2 in place now.

Thanks again!

Brad

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From: Jeff Mcadams <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 12:42:05 +0000

Also sprach Brad Gass
>Although I'm getting most of the kinks worked out of my USR gear, I'm
>now working on the second chassis, which has a dual PRI card installed.

>The other chassis in this POP had a dual T1 card installed, and seems
>to be working just fine.  However, I can't seem to see how/where to
>configure the dual PRI to function in channelized T1 mode.
>Unfortunately, I don't have access to PRI's with this telco.

So, by that I assume that you want to use it as a pure channelized T1,
not as a PRI...

>Reading the archives, I surmise this is possible to do, but may require
>a minimum firmware level.

Actually, it requires a different firmware on the dual-pri card, not
just a certain level.  Force a flash of a channelized T1 version of the
firmware to the card and you'll be all set.

The dual-pri code won't do plain channelized T1 at all, the card is
perfectly capable of it, but the firmware needs to be swapped out with
dual-t1 code to do it.
-- 
Jeff McAdams                            Email: [email-masked]
Head Network Administrator              Voice: (502) 966-3848
IgLou Internet Services                        (800) 436-4456

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From: Jaye Mathisen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 21:06:10 +0000

Re-flash it with the regular T1 code on your other card, then it will work
in channelized mode.

By default, the PRI code has no support for channelized T1, so you have to give
it new code.

If you ever need to go back, you'll have to reflash it with the dp (dual PRI)
code.

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