«

Hi,

We are migrating our WAN from a BellSouth Frame Relay to CBeyond Point
to Point VPN. Our WAN configuration is hub and spoke.

We want to migrate our locations incremently as opposed to all at once.

CBeyond's engineer tells me that they do not have a way to tie their
service into the frame for an incremental migration and the migration
will need to happen all at one time.

Any ideas how I can migrate one location to CBeyond at a time while
other locations remain on the frame?

Thanks for your help!

"krw1968" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>
> Hi,
>
> We are migrating our WAN from a BellSouth Frame Relay to CBeyond Point
> to Point VPN. Our WAN configuration is hub and spoke.
>
> We want to migrate our locations incremently as opposed to all at once.
>
> CBeyond's engineer tells me that they do not have a way to tie their
> service into the frame for an incremental migration and the migration
> will need to happen all at one time.
>
> Any ideas how I can migrate one location to CBeyond at a time while
> other locations remain on the frame?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>

Well, I imagine that CBeyond would not be able us tap into the Bellsouth
Frame Relay. But, I'm still not sure why you can't do the incremental
migration. With a hub and spoke, all locations have a link back to the
central office. As you add a P2P, drop the frame pvc to that location. The
central location can route between the CBeyond network and the Bellsouth
network. Or, am I missing something here?

I am interested, though.... How many locations do you have, and what made
you choose to go from the Frame to the P2P?

Jim

Jim,
Thanks.

We have nine locations with more to come in the future.

Reasons we are moving from BellSouth Frame are:

1. BellSouth sucks! We have had too many issues with the circuit
bouncing in and out of connectivity between our locations.

2. PTP VPN has a faster CIR.

3. Frame is too expensive for the type of service it provides. 'We
have gotten a much less expensive option with CBeyond's data and voice
offering.

How do I get the central location to route between the CBeyond network
and the BellSouth network? Is this a configuration that needs to be
made to the BellSouth router? Is it a configuration that needs to
apply to both the BellSouth and CBeyond router?

I'm not asking for the code to do it, just inquiring so that I can
determine if I need to contract a Cisco engineer to accomplish this
configuration.

Thanks, again!

Kelly

"krw1968" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> Jim,
> Thanks.
>
> We have nine locations with more to come in the future.
>
> Reasons we are moving from BellSouth Frame are:
>
> 1. BellSouth sucks! We have had too many issues with the circuit
> bouncing in and out of connectivity between our locations.
>
> 2. PTP VPN has a faster CIR.
>
> 3. Frame is too expensive for the type of service it provides. 'We
> have gotten a much less expensive option with CBeyond's data and voice
> offering.
>
> How do I get the central location to route between the CBeyond network
> and the BellSouth network? Is this a configuration that needs to be
> made to the BellSouth router? Is it a configuration that needs to
> apply to both the BellSouth and CBeyond router?
>
> I'm not asking for the code to do it, just inquiring so that I can
> determine if I need to contract a Cisco engineer to accomplish this
> configuration.
>
> Thanks, again!
>
> Kelly
>

Kelly,

First, I'll address your needs...

It sounds like you will be having a managed solution. If so, you'll need to
have the providers configure the network devices, otherwise, you (or your
staff can) - much easier if you can do it internally. Am I safe to assume
that you have a subnet (or perhaps multiple subnets) at each remote
location. You have to have some kind of routing to allow traffic from each
site to reach the host and remote sites. Site 1 wants to reach site 2, it
will send to the host site and the host will forward to Site 2. Your host
just needs to know where site 2 is. Currently, that is easy since your
frame already is configured and knows of all the sites. If you have a
separate router that is being used for all the PTP circuits, then the frame
router just needs to forward the packets to that (either static route or
routing protocol), and vice versa. If you need more detail on that I can
help, just wanted to give you the basics.

If this is a managed solution and Bellsouth/CBeyond each manage/config their
own equipment, you will just need to make sure that each provider has the
appropriate routes in place when a circuit is moved. You can hire a Cisco
engineer to oversee this transition or just get the two providers
communicating. But, bottom line is that you absolutely should be able to
migrate one at a time.

Now, my opinions....

PTP does provide a better CIR. However, it often comes at an expense when
running over long distances. If you can do it for cheaper with PTP, that
does make sense. That is just usually not the case, especially when
considering the extra equipment involved. I recently moved to Metro
Ethernet solutions since they are even a better offering on bandwidth per
cost than the traditional copper based services. Depending on your data
needs, that would be something to consider in the future.

I've certainly had my own share of problems with Bellsouth for a variety of
issues, not just circuit troubles. However, they still tend to be better
than the options in many cases. Unfortunately, you've seen these troubles.
I've just learned over time to kick down the right doors to get troubles
taken care of. Do keep in mind that when ordering services from many other
providers (possibly CBeyond as well), Bellsouth will be the ones coming in
to install the lines and smart jacks, your service will just be managed by
the provider of your choice. If there are troubles with the line, guess who
comes to repair - Bellsouth. And, you often get into finger pointing when
there are multiple companies involved.

I really don't want to start a pro/con Bellsouth war in this forum, I just
wanted to let you know what you are really getting and share some of my
thoughts. I have found that in spite of the frustrations, they are still
often the best game in town. I have developed a special/unique relationship
with Bellsouth and have some fairly high level contacts in the company. If
you'd like to share your issues, I can get the message to some people that
"really" care to hear about your situation. Please feel free to contact me
offline: netscooby [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Best of luck with the migration,

Jim

Is Cbeyond using their own circuits or going over the Internet?
If this is over the Internet, then I can't see any gurantee concerning any
stated CIR (unless it's zero).

Digital Doug






"krw1968" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>
> Hi,
>
> We are migrating our WAN from a BellSouth Frame Relay to CBeyond Point
> to Point VPN. Our WAN configuration is hub and spoke.
>
> We want to migrate our locations incremently as opposed to all at once.
>
> CBeyond's engineer tells me that they do not have a way to tie their
> service into the frame for an incremental migration and the migration
> will need to happen all at one time.
>
> Any ideas how I can migrate one location to CBeyond at a time while
> other locations remain on the frame?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>

"Digital Doug" <reply@to_newsgroup.com> wrote in message
news:y4b5e.5801$ m...
> Is Cbeyond using their own circuits or going over the Internet?
> If this is over the Internet, then I can't see any gurantee concerning any
> stated CIR (unless it's zero).
>
> Digital Doug
>
>

Well, they sort of can... If ALL the circuits are with CBeyond, the traffic
will never leave the CBeyond network. They will have full control over the
traffic and can QOS to be sure that the end user gets full CIR, if you want
to call it that. However, I'm not especially fond of the vpn solution and
you really couldn't call it a PTP connection.

Looking at the CBeyond web site, I don't see anything about private network
services, just internet/vpn. So, it most likely is an internet based
product. I'm thinking this is the product that Kelly is talking about:

http://www.cbeyond.com/services/internet-vpn.htm

Jim

Yes, that is the product we are getting.