frame relay alternatives (dsl?)

[mrepko]

We are a large frame relay shop. We have about 500 access sites connecting back to corporate via frame relay. We have both Cisco and Nortel routers at the access sites but are currently switching over to

a total Cisco solution. We have two corporate facilities that each access site connects to.

So, if I have an access site in dallas - it would have one access port and two pvcs. one pvc pointed to the hq in california and the other pointed to the other hq in florida. In addition to this connectivity

the site would have and isdn (bri) in the event that the local access was severed.

This has been a relatively stable solution but is growing to be very expensive. we have been asked to lessen our costs and we are thinking of using dsl.

Has anyone out there used dsl to run corporate networks of this scope? What has the experience been? Has it been reliable? Has their been

increased latency?

Is the typical solution to have our access sites get a dsl connection to the internet and then vpn tunnel to a router at corporate with an Internet connection as well?

Also, if the dsl connection goes down at a site - how has the response been to get this resolved from the providers?

I am looking for anyone's input/experiences.

Let me know if more information is required.

Thanks,

MR

[cz96p6]

We have setup private DSL network from pacbell for our remote user , where they can only login to the corporate network. It depends what traffic will be running on between sites, plus how many users you have per site. VDSL is fastest in existence but there is distance limitation from CO. You can do it but you would have to do pretty good research. Try www.DSL.com. Good Luck

[g.hillabrant]

I guess it would depend on how much bandwidth you need from the remote sites. Your only going to get a realistic 400K of bandwidth with DSL, sometimes better sometimes worse depending how far from the C.O. you are.

Issue 2 is if your'e within 10,000 feet of your DSLAM then the carrier will not use a POTS splitter just a filter. Sounds great except there is an imbalance that occurs when the line rings and all data flow is stopped.

lastly about the service issue, DSL lines are not prioritized any higher than a regular phone line for service issues, they're considered a convience not a neccesity, so you will not get the response time that you are currently getting for FR.

DSL is OK for small business and home use, but would not recomend it for the application you're suggesting.

Greg

[mbjohnson]

Have you thought about VPN?