Broadwing Communications claims customers can keep a better handle on their VPNs with enhanced tools the carrier announced last week.

Broadwing eClass IP VPN users can now change traffic prioritization, create or delete remote user access privileges, access additional network performance reports, and create and track trouble tickets right from their desktops.

Since the provider launched its VPN service last June, it has updated and tweaked its Customer Network Management Service (CNMS) software to offer more control, says Tony Tomae, vice president of Internet and data services.

While the CNMS tools were available when the VPN service was launched, the software was limited. Now users can change traffic prioritization on the fly. If a company's CEO is addressing employees via a live videostream, the network manager can give that traffic top priority.

Broadwing is using Differentiated Services to set prioritization, which is supported on the Nortel Networks Shasta devices that are the heart of the service provider's network-based VPN service.

Customers can now create, delete or modify dial-up remote-access accounts with the enhanced tools. "In the past, customers had to call our 800 number to add or delete users, and that wasn't productive on the user side or the carrier side, especially if you're trying to manage 1,000 remote users," Tomae says.

Before the CNMS enhancement, users could only access monthly network performance reports that measured latency between cities on the carrier's network. Now users can view daily and weekly reports.

» posted by ITworld staff

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