> How many customers by a box for feature X? How many didn't buy because > feature Y was missing or broken? It isn't a B&W choice. At some point > it becomes a better choice to focus on Y and sacrifice the X market, or > vice-versa. And it usually isn'g a binary choice. > arrive - witness AssuredAccess. > But they want high quality total solutions. Not something where each > until is 90% - a missing feature here, and major bug there, etc. That is > what I hear, or how I interpret what I hear. What takes longer. We have Ascend, Livingston and Shiva. We started with Shiva, but we have outgrown from their products. Then we bought Ascends, for some time. However, most of users do only basic ip web surfing, they don't need any of these fine features.. So when the PM3 was released we started buying them, because our own tests with real users proved that it is the only way of providing troublefree environment for the masses. The competition had, and probably still has severe problems under heavy load. The Ascends are now in special use.. if someone needs to connect with a Nokia 9000 communicator (it's a cell phone with email and web browser, I don't know if it is sold in the US), or needs a terminal session, ARA, IPX.. he will call to the Ascend number, but he will also have to tolerate authentication problems, and much worse PPP performance. The Ascends have now such a bad reputation here in Finland, that I can buy three MAXEN at the price of 2 PM3.. but I have been still buying PM3:s because it is even more expensive to hire guys to do the MAX handholding and answer to the users.. We bought the first MAX E1 when they were available, about the first in europe.. it took over 6 months to get it to run more than 24 hours without spontaneous reboots. MAX is an old box now.. but it still has problems which has lead me to believe that the code must be i960 assembler, and the writer has left the house.. no hope. > >Lucent now? Don't they have end-to-end solutions? Doesn't Cisco too? That's > >the way of the world now. Ascend wouldn't have survived as simply an access > >concentrator company and neither would Livingston. End to end solution is the way only because buyers are starting to take it for granted that the boxes they buy don't work... Is there a vendor that can provide working end-to-end solutions ? For example Cisco products are just as bad as Ascends.. a sw upgrade equals gambling. And many Cisco products are not Cisco products, they just have the black paint and the sticker.. VesA ++ Ascend Users Mailing List ++ To unsubscribe: send unsubscribe to ascend-users-request@bungi.com To get FAQ'd: <<A HREF="http://www.nealis.net/ascend/faq">http://www.nealis.net/ascend/faq</A>> </PRE> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <HR> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg10519.html">Re: (ASCEND) Firmware for MAX 1800</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg10520.html">Re: (ASCEND) Use of the Radius 'class' attribute</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg10548.html">Re: (ASCEND) Ascend stock (fwd)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg10510.html">(ASCEND) Stock Price Reason</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="mail2.html#10518"><STRONG>Main</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thrd233.html#10518"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> </BODY> </HTML>