|
WOW! Open mouth ... Insert Foot!!! I have only used 3 of
them, but we are using Proxim ROR-1000's for the AP end. I have not had
any problems with the three I have. So, do you have to go out and manually
reboot them, or does the customer have to?
Scott
Scott,
I
got desperate after the SB issue and ordered 12 TR-CPE's. So far 3 of 3
are locking up multiple times a day. I haven't opened anymore yet,
not sure I'm going to.
To
their credit, Tranzeo did purchase an APPO and are actively working
to see if it's an issue between the APPO and the TR-CPE. Two
week with no headway yet though. They have been unable to get it to fail
in the lab.
--Mike
I
have used some of the Tranzeo CPE, www.tranzeo.com they have one that is
TR-CPE and is 199.00 if you order 12 or more, it is 225.00 if you order
1-11. They work really well, no problems at all. You may find
someone who has had a problem, but I would bet it is MUCH LESS than the
airbridges.
Scott
Scott, Mike,
I just joined this list
because of difficulties with the airPoint Pro Outdoor units. It
seems everyone is having similar issues, i.e. unreasonably slow speeds,
not associating, etc.
Has anyone yet had a success with these
products? If not, has anyone switched to a different
manufacturer? If so, which products work?
Thanks and good
luck!
Sevak
On Mon, 2003-07-21 at 15:06, Scott Damron wrote:
You are correct, I stand
corrected. I just don't see how they can claim "Carrier Grade"
even if it is just a small blurb on their opening page of the
website. I have to say, if they can get their stuff together, and
produce some reliable stuff, they could really clean up!
Scott
-----Original
Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bobby
Bounds
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 12:02 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [smartBridges] Thanks
for your support and the patience
Scott......I disagree
with your rant about SB products where you say they "don't work worth a shit for residential even". The more correct rant would be, "units from
certain batches and especially the outdoor models don't work worth a
shit for residential even". As for us, we've had
SB indoor units working continuously for almost a year now w/o
incident. SB's biggest problems it seems to me,
are:
1. Poor quality control - Seems that more than
once they've shipped bad batches of units. So, one guy (like me) will
say the indoor units are great, while another guy has 25 bad ones
sitting in a box next to his bench.
2. 1st year
engineering mistakes - Seems like (I'm guessing here) their engineers,
while getting some things right (receiver sensitivity), totally miss
other obvious, yet important design points (particularly with the
outdoor units, e.g. how the coax and ethernet connects,
no integrated ethernet grounding solution, no sun reflector,
as just a few examples). IMHO, they should swallow their pride
and put their radios in a NEMA box and stick a SB sticker on the
outside.
3. "Featureitis" - In any specialized human
endeavor you have the "basics" and then you have the "extras". Extras
are good but not at the expense of the basics. The basics of microwave
radio transceivers used in a WISP business setting are: 1. Reliability
2. Usability and 3. Reliability......did I mention reliability? Your
'basics' list may vary but I think you get my drift.
So SB
has really missed the mark on their outdoor product line, big time.
The situation is too complex however to just call everything 'shit'.
SB's responses in this forum and elsewhere
don't give me confidence that anything will change soon. They are now
caught up in 'damage control'. What would give me confidence you say?
How about news they've fired their Director of Production and Director
of Engineering (on the outdoor units) and replaced them with 25 year
veterans from the Motorola commercial cellular division? That would be
a good start. Then they announce they have placed two of their
engineers on permanent assignment with two of their biggest WISP
customers. Their entire job would be to work in the field side by side
with the WISP guys and report back to the new Director of Engineering
and Director of Production as to problems and opportunities with
SB products.
The next thing they
do is send free spares and replacements (replacements they're
doing) to all their customers. So, for example we've had about a
50% failure rate on outdoor units (that's 12 units for us). So, we
have a total of twenty four outdoor units. For us they would replace
the bad units with the RMA process (which they've done for the most
part) but then they'd send us 12 more for spares because it is clear
they have not resolved the many problems with the units and we can
reasonably expect further failures. The flaws are built into the
units. Firmware fixes are just part of the problem. For you bigger
operators they may have to send you, say a hundred or two hundred
radios. So, big deal, they're mass produced. It's a one-time write-off
for them. Outrageous you say? Too costly for them, you say? Consider
that our (SB's customers) financial losses due to the defective
outdoor products has run into the thousands and tens of thousands when
you consider extra labor and loss of goodwill. A class action lawsuit
is not such a far-fetched idea at this point and may be necessary to
get the attention of SB management. So, SB doesn't it just make more
sense to load us up with replacements? You'd have customers for
life.....for life.....I guarantee it.
And finally they
need to hurry up and ship their new outdoor line (Nexus?). . . . and
they better not have the same design flaws and low reliability as
their current line or they are history.
Bobby
Bounds
Airwave Internet, LLC
ABQ, NM
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Damron
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 10:46
AM
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Thanks for your support and
the patience
I know this has been said
already, but according to Smart Bridge, their equipment is "Carrier
Grade" That is a rather heafty claim, as they don't work worth
a shit for residential even. Most folks I know who are WIPS's
will purchase a couple of pieces of equipment and test them. I
would not put an Airbridge of anykind on a business
customer!!!!!
Scott
-----Original
Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Ray
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 9:26
AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re:
[smartBridges] Thanks for your support and the
patience
Brian, I'll buy your airbridges at a
substantial discount since they don't work.
Regarding the business clients you lost, that sucks big
time! But, you really should have looked at using different
equipment to keep them on. If you are charging them $300 per
month for a connection they should get something more than your
residential customers (i.e. more reliable equipment). Most
businesses we deal with can and will pay a premium for higher
quality service, we would provide them with Trango gear, although
this is more due to the spectrum than anything.
At some point *WE* must take responsibility for loosing
customers. You know, "shaft me once, shame on you, shaft me
twice, shame on me."
Ray
----- Original Message -----
From:
Brian
Winters
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 9:13
AM
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Thanks for your support
and the patience
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![]() |
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July 20,
2003
I can appreciate the fact that SmartBridges is
frustrated. I can also appreciate the fact that they
are working hard to resolve the problem and that it
blindsided them or what have you. However, this is a
serious problem that I personally have been dealing
with for well over a month. (Check the very first post
on the subject when Mike and I posted the problems
about the indoor bridges) The fact of the matter is,
whether its their fault or not, this “situation” has
seriously impacted our business and lost us thousands
of dollars. Today I am prepping for a climb that will
be the 4th such climb on this tower to replace yet
another defective Airpoint Pro. My tower climber
charges me an EXCELLENT rate of $1 per foot but this
unit is at the top of a 250ft tower so you do the
math. Aside from that we have now lost 2 very
important business customers whose monthly billing was
about $600 between the two of them. Add up $600/mo and
multiply by 36 months and see what that number
is.
More importantly however, we have lost
credibility with our customers because we have been
unable to fix the problem. Our service is seen as
un-reliable and our reputation has been very
negatively affected. And all of this through no fault
of our own. To make matters worse, we now have 25
bridges in stock that we are afraid to deploy because
we can’t even get a MAC address list of the affected
products. I can understand how this situation sucks
for all involved, but the fact of the matter is, when
we purchase a product from a manufacturer and it
doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. The
sticker on the side of my radios says SmartBridges and
therefore it’s their problem. I can’t believe how
everyone is saying that is great they are trying so
hard to fix the problem, Its not great, it’s a problem
that never should have happened in the first place.
The way I see it, defective chip or not, there should
be a level of QC in place that doesn’t allow 4,000 bad
units out the door…Period. Aside from that, this new
“fix” seems more like a crapshoot than a solution and
given my luck, I probably won’t get a single unit to
work with the new firmware.
I have been one of the
main supporters of SmartBridges products (my picture
is even on the front page of their website) but this
leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you take the money
I have spent fixing this problem and add to it the
lost business and reputation issues, I could have
deployed Alvarion and actually saved money. (How many
units could I lease for $600/mo that I lost with my
two business customers?) Plus, I would be sitting at
home with my family right now instead of posting in
utter frustration on a support forum at Noon on a
Sunday. My phone rings every 25 minutes and I haven’t
slept in weeks, so I don’t really care whose fault it
is or how hard they are working on a solution, this
situation is going to be very hard to recover from.
-Brian
P.S. I have 25 airbridges for sale
if anybody wants them.
Best regards,
![]()
Brian W
Winters
President/CEO
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(502)
863-1709 Tel
(502)
863-1841 Fax
www.mybfe.com
|
Broadband For Everyone
138 East Main St
Georgetown, KY 40324
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Email that means business, Every email, Every day -
LetterClick BrandMail ™ |
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Nish Park
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 3:43
AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:
[smartBridges] Thanks for your support and the
patience
Thanks guys for
the support and the kind words. I will pass it on to the team.
I am sure they will appreciate it.
Yes it is kind of
frustrating. Right now all the energy (yours and ours) is all
going on non-value-add stuff. And that too it happened right
in the midst of some good QA improvement tools we had put in
place. It is all overshadowed for the moment. I guess we will
have to first plough through this mess before the other
improvement stuff becomes more visible to you.
We
were kind of broadsided with this issue. We keep asking
ourselves if somehow we could have prevented it. And we can
not think of a way. It’s kind of one of those things where all
the “correct” things have come together in a certain way to
have an “incorrect” product. Fortunately it is a well
contained problem affecting small numbers.
The issue has
been identified. Solution has already been put in place in the
factory. So from that perspective this is a closed issue.
Now the challenge is to work with all of you to figure out
the least painful solution for the products out in the field.
We believe the Firmware upgrade will provide that solution. I
think we are very close. The root issue of “lost association
after some time” is CONFIRMED to be solved with the new
Firmware. Currently it seems to be working for 60% to 70% of
the users. So it releases a lot of pressure with this issue.
Some users are reporting their devices are not able to
associate at all after the firmware upgrade. We are
investigating the issue and trying to replicate. It looks like
some minor thing that we must be overlooking. So hopefully
soon we will have that nailed down also.
Again thanks for
your support and the patience to put up with all these
difficulties. We look forward to re-engage with all of you in
high gears.
Nish
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Ray
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 12:12
PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject:
Re: [smartBridges] New Firmware not working for me
I too am
very impressed with all the staff at SB! They are
dedicated, honest, hardworking, and I trust them. I can
only imagine that they are as frustrated as us with these
issues.
Ray
----- Original Message -----
From: The Wirefree
Network
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 8:19
PM
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] New Firmware not
working for me
Ya….Chris…I agree. However, I have been a beta
tester for them since Dec 02…not just a regular client.
I have been providing very detailed reports and I am used to
receiving some word??
That’s what has me worried at the
moment. I can see it now…a bunch of over-worked
technicians banging their heads on their desks.
I have not
mass-deployed….dont want to either. I only have 3 bad
units and all of them are up at the moment (knock on
wood).
I wonder if doing a manual upgrade, downgrade,
upgrade, and downgrade knocked some sense into the unit.
Cause it’s been working fine ever since yesterday. Not
the first time that it has worked for 24 hours though. I
am holding my breath. I really don’t want to lose these
3 clients.
And I am not ever going to jump on the “lawsuit”
bandwagon either. I am EXTREMELY impressed with the sB
team….from Dilish, to Naveen, to Nish, to Alex, to Seeni,
etc…etc….. I believe they must have some serious
“insider” ownership going on. Cause they are some DAMN
hard workers.
Sully
P.S. I am having a problem
with logging into some units at the moment though??? Has
me stumped. I will address that in another
post.
-----Original
Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
phantam
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 7:05
PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject:
RE: [smartBridges] New Firmware not working for
me
Sully there working on checking the
problem I believe I saw, remember it's a beta so it is going
to be bug ridden hence why they said not to mass deploy it.
I take it they had a feeling problems
like this were going to arise that's probably why it was
released as a beta with all the warnings because it was a rush
beta to get the kinks out in the field because really in
design testing can only show 1/100th of the possible problems
that can occur in software especially firmware for
hardware.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: The
Wirefree Network [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 10:57
PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc:
[EMAIL PROTECTED];
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I see you are
responding to some posts...and I have never known sB to
NOT
monitor this forum 24x7. So...where is your response to
our
problems with this firmware??
Please....we have been patient on this issue...but at
least let us know
that you acknowledge the problem we are
having and are working hard (as
usual) to fix
it.
Loyal sB user!
Sully
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of The
Wirefree
Network
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 12:35
PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:
RE: [smartBridges] New Firmware not working for
me
Repost due to ZERO response from sB on
this issue.
Why is this
firmware not allowing association to some
aPPo's???
Sully
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of The
Wirefree
Network
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 5:15
PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [smartBridges]
New Firmware not working for me
Importance:
High
Here in my lab, I have a suspected bad
unit. I upgraded the firmware,
and it will NOT
reassociate with the intended aPPo. I switched
the
SSID/Freq to my other aPPo and it associated right
up. I did this about
5 times both ways. Every
time it was the same. I downgraded the
firmware back to
(0.01.04) and it associated right up with the
intended
aPPo. Upgraded again and it lost
association.
I have confirmed
that there are ABSOLUTELY no differences in the
settings of
my two aPPos except for this:
- Different SSIDs
-
Different freq's
- One is new aPPo with short pigtail, one
is older aPPo with hardwired
CAT5
The unit that I can not associate to is the older
unit. None of the
older sB equipment is having any
problems. Everything is on the older
firmware as
well:
aPPo = 1.4j.5
airBridge indoors = 0.01.04 (tried
upgrading to 0.01.06)
Of the 17 I
installed in the last 2 weeks, three are experiencing
the
"lost association" problem. I replaced all 3
units (including POE
units) and all 3 are still having
problems. That is VERY odd. Although
I did
receive all these units (30) at the same time (almost
all
consecutive MAC addresses).
Still doesn't explain why only these 3 are having
problems and none of
the other 14. I wouldn't think
it was too odd if it weren't for the
fact that I R&R'd
all 3 units and they are still losing association,
whereas
all the other 14 new clients are humming right
along.
I really think there is something more to
this.
No...it is not frequency or multipath or
whatever. I have sniffed out
the entire area.
They are clean and very good RSSI/LQ.
All
17 of these installs are within a half mile of the aPPo and
clear
LOS.
Sully
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of The
Wirefree
Network
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 4:09
PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE:
[smartBridges] Anyone having issues with the new
firmware?
name of the
device is just airbridge. I dont have any more client
info
entered in any of my devices.
Sully
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of The Wirefree
Network
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 4:51 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Anyone
having issues with the new firmware?
1. Older aPPo (about 3 months old..older type unit with
hardwired CAT5)
running 1.4j.5 firmware.
2. Client
airBridge indoor units are running older firmware as
well
0.01.04.
3. SSID is only 3 characters long
4.
Preupgrade RSSI and LQ was in the 90's for both (when
associated of
course).
I am wondering if
I need the newer firmware on all devices first of all,
then
load the BETA firmware on the suspect
devices????
I had held off on
the last round of firmware upgrades due to
others
experiencing problems. I am about to try
another upgrade here in my lab
with one bad unit.
Will keep you posted!
Sully
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Tom Haynes
Sent: Friday,
July 18, 2003 4:37 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Anyone
having issues with the new firmware?
Mike and Sully. What FW are you running on the AP that
the upgraded
units
will not associate with? What was
your pre-upgrade RSSI and LQ? What is
the
length of the
ESSID on the AP that the units will not associate
with?
Mike, are there anyother differences
between the APs that the upgraded
units
will assoiate
with and the APs they will not associate with?
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
On Behalf Of The Wirefree
Network
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 6:31 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Anyone
having issues with the new firmware?
I tried to upgrade one of 3 freezing units and it would
not associate
with
the AP. This is the only AP
within range of all 3 units, so I dont know
what to do at
this point.
I had to
downgrade back to old firmware to reassociate.
Sully
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Saathoff
Sent:
Friday, July 18, 2003 12:29 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Anyone
having issues with the new firmware?
Update,
I have 7 AP's running the same
firmware. For some reason upgrading the
firmware on
the AirBriges kills their ability to associate with two
of
seven
AP's. I can associate with any of the
other five and all seems to be
working
well.
Not sure why yet.
--Mike
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Saathoff
Sent:
Friday, July 18, 2003 12:20 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Anyone
having issues with the new firmware?
Sam,
It either works or it dosen't.....Sounds funny
but, what I mean is that
the
upgrade seems to resolve
the heat issue. Though I haven't had any
real
heat
the last couple days. The bad side is
that it seems to kill my ability
to
associate with some
of my AP's.
--Mike
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, July
18, 2003 12:09 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:
[smartBridges] Anyone having issues with the new
firmware?
Has anyone
installed the new firmware? I'm getting ready to try,
but
wanted
to check first to see what sort of luck
others have had.
Thanks
Sam
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