Well, it took almost 4 months, but now Paetec is insisting the cable run is too long from the smart jack to the CSUs. The run is almost 1/4 mile in an old Westinghouse manufacturing facility turned into a business park. My client, is, of course, on the direct opposite end from the Verizon Demarc.
I'll spare you-all the details, but we ran single mode fiber from the smart jacks to the CSUs. I bought the fiber from FIS in NY and, until this job, they have been right on recommending their products for their fiber. I have always used Transition Networks media converters when going from copper to fiber and then back again. They work and have never failed me. However, the going price for a SSDTF1014-120 is nearly $825 per unit and I need four of them. When ordering the fiber and the associated mounting hardware, etc. I asked the sales rep if they had T1 media converters? He said they do, but I insisted he make sure we were talking about T1-E1 to fiber and then back again. He consulted with his technical people and they assured me a SigmaMax unit would do the job. I believed him. Mistake #1. He then said the peice was about $250 per unit. I believed him. Mistake #2. Since he assured me this would work, I never bothered to call Signamax to make sure the media converters would do the job. Mistake #3. I installed the Signamax units and hooked up the fiber patch cables, but it was getting really late and I did not TEST the circuits last night. BIG MISTAKE #4.
Today was the big cut. All the dignitaries (and I use the term loosely) were there. The scheduled time for the cut was 4 am. I insisted I needed to test the circuits before committing to the cut. Well, you can guess the rest. The cut did not happen because the Signamax media converters, although they work well for ethernet to fiber, don't work, at all, for T1-E1 to fiber. After a few long calls to FIS, Signamax and Transition Networks, it was clear that I have to either find some used Transition Networks media converters or eat the $3,000 (My cost) and that's after the refund from FIS for the Signamax units to make this all come out with a happy client and two working T1 circuits.
The bottom line here is does anyone have 4 Transition Networks or, for that matter, any other brand of T1-E1 to Fiber media converters that they would like to sell? Cash and quick is how I want to do it. The Transition networks part number is SSDTF1014-120, but that is the new unit number. The old style works just fine. It's the same number with a 105 on the end. The detail is RJ-45 copper input, SC-SC Fiber Single Mode. Thank you.
Rcaman
