If you’ve ever gone through the process of having a system meltdown and be in complete crisis mode, you know it’s not fun. I’d rather gnaw off my right arm than go through that process again. Let me tell you about it…
We were using the Cisco 1800 series routers– a CISCO1841-T1 to be exact and we loved it. It’s an amazing product. I know this is a sidetrack, but let me explain why we love it so much. The 1841-T1 has two Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet ports, and provides advanced security features like on-board encryption, Intrusion Prevention and Firewall support. It also provides antivirus defense support through NAC (this is really, really important and we didn’t find that out until we got hacked on our old system and decided to actually pay attention to the kind of security features our new router had). It also has two
High-Speed WAN Interface Card Slots that allow it to perform concurrent services at T1/E1 WAN rates, increasing density and modularity.
Okay, enough about the 1841-T1. To make a long story short, we had a fire and the router went kaput.
So in addition to having to displace employees while we cleaned up– the fire wasn’t so bad, it was the water that saturated the rooms and ruined all the carpet and everything that was sitting on top of a desk or out in the open– I needed to get our network back up and running asap. EXCEPT… Cisco didn’t have a new 1841-T1.
Deciding I’d have to shop around, and being prepared to pay exorbitant prices to replace the router as quickly as I needed it replaced, I was actually really surprised when a friend tipped me off to an alternate Cisco provider called MULTI-LINK Communications Products. Long name, short lead time. I didn’t have time to do a quote sheet, I just called them in a panic. The next day, our refurbished, good-as-new router was at our front door and it cost me less than $1000.00. We were only down (network-wise) for twenty-one hours. Our physical office was down for three days. But at least we could continue to sell products and service our clients which is what was important. I can’t say enough good stuff about MLCP or about the Cisco 1841-T1.