Exa Networks - Anyone use them?

[Tefters]

@exa_mark - Your Dark Fibre offering for MK, how far does it stretch? In particular Wolverton MK12 5BT (4 miles from central). There is already a BT leased line in place if this can be utilized and taken over.

Also can you bundle SIP offerings into the Dark Fibre as well, along the lines of carving out 1mb from the pipe as a VLAN and terminating our voice gateway into said SIP offering.

 

Thanks

[synaesthesia]

Almost certainly, @Tefters - https://darklight.city/cities/milton-keynes-gigabit/

[Tefters]

Almost certainly, @Tefters - https://darklight.city/cities/milton-keynes-gigabit/

Thanks, didn't find that myself on their website...

[EXA_Mark]

@exa_mark - Your Dark Fibre offering for MK, how far does it stretch? In particular Wolverton MK12 5BT (4 miles from central). There is already a BT leased line in place if this can be utilized and taken over.

Also can you bundle SIP offerings into the Dark Fibre as well, along the lines of carving out 1mb from the pipe as a VLAN and terminating our voice gateway into said SIP offering.

 

Thanks

 

Morning @Tefters You are pretty close looking at the postcode and our network map, about 350m, away depending on the route we could take. I'm going to drop you a PM as I need some specific information that you might not want to share openly on here.

 

In answer to the other parts of your question. For DarkLight, not we don't take over the BT leased line. DarkLight does not use any BT/Openreach fibre. Also lifting and shifting (common term used to describe moving fibre ends from one place to another, or ISP) more often than not ends up causing quite a lot of disruption, so even if we were going to use Openreach infrastructure (on a traditional gigabit leased line for example), we'd still have a new fibre pulled/spliced through and then migrate over to the new one when you ready to move, meaning very minimal disruption is caused.

 

SIP trunks, yes absolutely.

 

PM on its way.

[round2it]

Ok had our connection fitted and moved over from lea provided broadband connection it is so much faster for us the lag and delay has gone. For ages i thought is was our network .

The support is first class, every problem i had was rectified and they explained why it happend.

 

Just go ahead and do it the best thing we have done.

Surf protect fusion is working well albeit a little strict but unblocking sites is easy and key word search filters can be changed in seconds.

 

Only thing i had a problem with is that on emails from exa the signature they have a freephone number that does not seem to work and a few pages on the website dont work.

 

But as long as my connection is working i dont care.

 

 

Now thats nitpicking

[chrisjako]

Ok had our connection fitted and moved over from lea provided broadband connection it is so much faster for us the lag and delay has gone. For ages i thought is was our network .

The support is first class, every problem i had was rectified and they explained why it happend.

 

Just go ahead and do it the best thing we have done.

Surf protect fusion is working well albeit a little strict but unblocking sites is easy and key word search filters can be changed in seconds.

 

Only thing i had a problem with is that on emails from exa the signature they have a freephone number that does not seem to work and a few pages on the website dont work.

 

But as long as my connection is working i dont care.

 

 

Now thats nitpicking

 

Great feedback, I have already got the process started, OpenReach engineers came to fit the new fibre yesterday but had to stop as a tree root had collapsed their underground trunking. Was pretty cool watching them use a borescope camera to identify to blockage, needs to get me one of those!

[round2it]

Just make sure you know all your server ips ang get them white listed on the firewall this caught me out.

And dont forget to ask for the captive portal to be turned on for byod devices and ensure the right certificate is added otherwise you get a cert warning.

[olewnikj]

Hi All,

 

Would it be possible to get some feedback from anyone already using Exa networks? We are a MAT in Bushey, Hertfordshire looking to potentially move provider. With being one of the first to move away from our LA in Hertfordshire, and no other schools currently subscribed to Exa in our area, we are a little hesitant but have heard positive things so far, and the pricing is on the mark. If possible can you drop me an email or PM me with your details. Our SLT have asked for a short survey to be filled in from various schools before we sign up to anything. ([email protected])

 

Your assistance would be much appreciated.

[round2it]

I would be happy to fill in your survey

I have just moved over to exa 3 weeks ago.

 

but this is what I have found.

1. Equipment delivered well in advance of start day

2. you can keep all your internal IP range etc (do your homework on external ips required we have plenty available for web servers vle email etc)

3. You fit the equipment yourself (very easy to do)

4. Speed of connection is great

5. Surf protect fusion, is very strict in a good way one click protect filtering its really easy to separate filtering levels for staff students etc you can report on any user or ip address I have not looked at this in anger yet but it defiantly works

6. Support is first class no first line script monkeys you get to talk to someone who actually knows the product/service

7. Email filtering, since moving over the spam filter has blocked a number of emails that are from genuine senders but you do have control over what gets through easy to whitelist domains if you are having issues. get a list of your usual domains that staff email and whitelist them before going live (This may be helpful if exa ask this question during the configuration stages)

8. Happy staff all the youtube they can eat without slowdown.

 

As for myself a learning network manager I managed to get everything moved over with very little fuss.

one thing I would have done is get a list of websites the staff use and ensure they are whitelisted before going live it will save you time fire fighting and network tracing.

ensure you list all your domain controllers for the ad integration this caught me out as I do have a third DC exa only asked for primary and secondary may be my interpretation.

 

pm me your survey if you need it completing

 

 

if you have an issue with a website just give the guys a ring and they do a live trace on the ip address you are using they can identify what is being blocked and for what reason.

Overall I would recommend exa to any school and to be honest it is the best thing we have done as a school. no more lag and random dropouts for years I thought our network may be at fault but since moving the connection has been rock solid.

[round2it]

i have emailed you the survey answers