[tomsite]

About time that somebody puts some experiences down with Crossbeams C-Series, and especially the C10s.

Having evaluated the C10s last year we decided that it was usefull enough. Everything we setup and tried worked. However after the decision was made to use these appliances the problems started. Based on 4 C10 devices we had 6 replacements of the complete Hardware already and the 7th replacement is waiting now. Main issues were here a) the wrong IDE cable caused the HDDs to become corrupted (cause of 4 replacements so far, but read on), b) we had two devices with failing switching engines. The intial problem with the wrong IDE cables was rectified by Crossbeam by replacing our entire base of Crossbeam C10s including customer systems, even though Crossbeam made an entire mess of this replacement (but also partially caused by our warehouse sending new devices back and keeping the old ones). Now we have another device again failing with an unrecoverable HDD error despite that this is already new HW with the fixed IDE Cable. All in all one can count on the fact that every 6 months at least one device has to be replaced. Our environment is not cause of the problems (everything is controlled and fully climatized)

We also asked for support for BGP and other dynamic routing protocols, got a so called Beta Code of a routing daemon, which i frankly would not even have released as Alpha Code. it was the most buggiest piece of SW i have seen since a long time (even more buggy than Windows ;o)). Generally Crossbeam Support is useless. The guys don't even know what a computer is, let alone that they know anything about their own products.

All in all i can only recommend to not touch these devices with a barge pole. It is really not worth the hassle. I would not even recommend these appliances for test labs or as 'play-around' kit and rather implement a Watchguard SOHO FW (sorry for the use of the swear word Watchguard and the mentioning of Watchguard and Firewall in the same sentence) and poke my own eyes out with hot needles.

C30s: This is a different fish alltogether. So far the C30s we have run relatively stable, even if not very smooth. You always hit a slight snag with Crossbeams. All of a sudden active/active fails for no apparent reason, however a reboot helps in most cases. For no apparent reason the trust between module and Mngmt Server is lost and one has to re-establish SIC. No indication in any logs as to why. Best one on this is that i was asked beginning of last year by Crossbeam support what SIC is.

X-Series: After the problems we had already with the C-Series we did not go any further down the Crossbeam track and are throwing all Crossbeam devices out. It will be a huge pleassure for me to take a sledge hammer and fix these boxes into something arty and send the bits and pieces back to Crossbeam as one huge pile of rubbish. For me it will be a 'Crossbeam? Never, ever again', even if somebody offers me shed loads of money to use them.

If you plan to use any Crossbeam HW i suggest that you do a very thorough evaluation (minimum of 8 weeks in average to heavy load environment) if the device is fit for purpose in your specific scenario, and if possible use Loadtesters to blow the box apart. You will very quickly notice that the more traffic the box has to handle the more likely it is that it falls apart. Then get Crossbeam to send an Engineer our to verify the design and setup and get it in writing that the appliances are fit for purpose. If anything goes wrong you can kick Crossbeam up the backside and ask for your money back. If you don't do it Crossbeam just turns around and shows you the middle finger. Important!!!!: Get it in writing and signed by Crossbeam! I can't stress it enough. Crossbeam is interested to get your money, but they are by far not interested in customer satisfaction, all you get of them is a scottish greeting (kick in the privates and a headbutt) and afterwards a moonie (for our foreign Friends: A Moonie. Scottish thing where you show your bare bones backside, preferably whilst wearing a kilt with nothing underneath).

Crossbeam as alternative to Nokia: If you want sleepless nights, lots of support calls and if you like to gamble the Crossbeam plattform is certainly a good choice. The chances that you get a fully working device is not any better than the chance to win the lottery.

Tom