The CROS.NET Network

Design
Our network is designed with industry leading hardware. Dial-in access is provided by two Cisco AS5800s loaded with 1,440 v.92 capable modems each, for a total of 2,880 modems! We use only Cisco routers. Cisco routers are estimated to handle 80% of all Internet traffic. Our network is designed around industry standards and utilizes best-practices to insure more up-time. We are the only Cisco Premier Reseller in the area, and we use our knowledge of Cisco equipment to provide you with better service.

Bandwidth
Many Internet providers in the local area have only one or two T-1 connections to the Internet. If they don't have many subscribers and don't offer broadband Internet, this can suffice. When you have the number of users we have, that just won't do. CROS.NET has a full T-3 (45MB) to the Internet! - We are connected to Qwest with a single T-1 in Chicago, and a full T-3 to Sprint.

Broadband Internet Access
In Mid 2002 Cros.net installed a full T-3 ATM connection to Verizon Advanced Data's ATM network. This allows us to provide ATM and Frame-relay access up to a full T-3 and ADSL up to 7.1MB to any Verizon customer in LATA 326.

In early 2003 Cros.net connected to SBCs ATM network. We can now offer ADSL to SBC customers anywhere in LATA 326.

Email Services
Our email services are built upon a Cisco LocalDirector which load-balances incoming email across our spam and virus filtering, Linux based server cluster, to provide our customers with minimal spam and viruses and maximum availablity.

Current Projects
We are working to consolidate and expand our network. Currently we operate 9 physical Points of Presence (POPs). Each POP serves an area that would normally be long distance to our main POP in Port Clinton. Each POP contains dialup modems and other networking equipment required to connect our users and route their traffic back to Port Clinton and out to the Internet. This is how most ISPs expand their network to new calling areas.

There are many drawbacks to this arrangement. If the equipment fails or there is a power outage or the backhaul T-1 fails, then the entire POP could be out of commission. Sometimes it can take an hour or more just to drive to the remote POP to investigate the problem.

The Solution? Our partnership with Ohio Telecom gives us the ability to have dialup lines from the remote telephone companies central offices, backhauled to our POP in Port Clinton. The end result will be that the entire LATA will be served from one "Super-POP" that is provisioned over an OC-12 fiber connection from end-to-end. An OC-12 fiber connection is the equivalent of twelve T3 connections, and can support up to 622 megabits per second of bandwidth or over 8,000 simultaneous calls.

We are fortunate in having highly qualified people on staff to make sure our network runs well. We have several Microsoft Certified Professionals on our staff, and our router infrastructure is maintained by a Cisco Certified Network Professional.

It's 3:00 AM... do you know where your bandwidth is? We do. Our network is monitored 24/7. After hours, both the owner and our Network Engineer get paged when something goes down. We are actively monitoring more than 150 services (from RADIUS, SMTP, POP3, to a channelized T1 used for dialup). And the list is growing. Every time we find an issue, we try to find a way of preventing it from occurring again. Often an issue is resolved before any of our customers are aware of it.

It all equals...
A better value for you, our customer. We realize that there are many providers in the area. We strive to offer more services and better value for your dollar.