My problem is that we ordered a couple of DS3's and discovered that the
demarc is in our basement  in the telco room.  Our router is in the 40th
floor of our building.  I don't want to take a chance at reaching the
maximum distance of 450 feet for the coax pair, so I'm looking at installing
fiber.  I've seen a few DS3 modems out there that look like they might work.

[Q] Has anyone had any experience with DS3 modems/extenders working with
Cisco routers, good or bad?  What brands?  Any drawbacks or things to
consider, particularly going into a Cisco 7206 DS3 card?

Thanks in advance.

"Pasquale" <pasqua@NoSpami.com> writes:
>My problem is that we ordered a couple of DS3's and discovered that the
>demarc is in our basement  in the telco room.  Our router is in the 40th
>floor of our building.  I don't want to take a chance at reaching the
>maximum distance of 450 feet for the coax pair, so I'm looking at installing
>fiber.  I've seen a few DS3 modems out there that look like they might work.

>[Q] Has anyone had any experience with DS3 modems/extenders working with
>Cisco routers, good or bad?  What brands?  Any drawbacks or things to
>consider, particularly going into a Cisco 7206 DS3 card?


The DS3 fiber loop convertors are all straight forward. Coax goes in and
fiber comes out. I think we've used the Adtran and Transition Engineering
units with zero problems. The Transition ones get a leg up for
having units that can do multimode fiber (if you have that installed)
as well as the more typical (and expensive) singlemode fiber units. 

I wouldn't worry too much about it, its pretty standard technology
now-a-days and is about the same as using a media-convertor for ethernet.
-- 
Doug McIntyre						merlyn@visi.com
                   Network Engineer/Jack of All Trades
                      Vector Internet Services, Inc.

> The DS3 fiber loop convertors are all straight forward. Coax goes in and
> fiber comes out. I think we've used the Adtran and Transition Engineering
> units with zero problems. The Transition ones get a leg up for
> having units that can do multimode fiber (if you have that installed)
> as well as the more typical (and expensive) singlemode fiber units.
>
> I wouldn't worry too much about it, its pretty standard technology
> now-a-days and is about the same as using a media-convertor for ethernet.
> -- 
> Doug McIntyre merlyn@visi.com
>                    Network Engineer/Jack of All Trades
>                       Vector Internet Services, Inc.

I just did some research on the Transition DS3 converters and I noticed some
key benefits, like available redundant power supplies, SNMP network
management (important, since physical access will be difficult) and as an
added bonus, they have a lifetime warranty!

Thanks for the tip!