[K12OSN] switch advice: Netgear or 3com

["Terrell Prudé, Jr."]

I tend to agree with Norbert on this one.  If the vendor's advertising 
"works with Linux" on their packaging, then I would expect the same 
functionality as, say, using the device in a Windows-based system, and 
the same level of support as for a Windows-based system.

Les has a point about vendors teaching configuration, but I don't see 
that as the issue here.  For example, I don't expect Cisco to teach me 
how to properly design a switched network.  However, I do expect Cisco's 
switches to work with our preexisting boxes out there, of various types, 
including the Macs.  One example:  the Catalyst 3500XL works beautifully 
out of the box with DHCP-speaking Apple Macintoshes as well as with 
IBM-compats, like just about every other switch out there.  However, the 
Catalyst 3550 does not!  You have to do special tweaks to that switch to 
get it to work right w/ the Macs.  This turned out to be a bug in the 
Catalyst 3550 IOS (I forget the bug ID--it's been over a year), which 
was fixed in subsequent IOS releases.

Were Cisco, in this scenario, to have told us, "Oh, you've got to pay 
yet extra on top of the promised support since you're running Macs and 
not Windows PCs," then they'd have lost a big customer in a hurry.  
Never did they say that they made a special exception for Macs in any of 
their literature.  If you say you work with a given product, then that 
means that you work with a given product, and unless otherwise 
explicitly told, the support needs to be the same for that product as 
the other ones that a vendor supports.

I sure won't buy Netgear after hearing this.  Amer.com is looking better 
and better...and they're quite familiar with K12LTSP already.

--TP

norbert wrote:

> Hi Les,
>
> Normally I would agree, however when the problem is in the vendors 
> product I do expect them to support it without charge, and in this 
> case it was the routers firmware that was problematic.
> Second if the package says "works with Linux" or .... hmm "Linux 
> friendly" then it is the vendors responsibility to provide initial 
> setup support when problems are encountered. I wasn't suggesting that 
> netgear should "teach" me or anyone how to do the configuration but 
> rather provide support with the configuration when the outlined 
> instructions don't work.
> If, however, the issue is that the user can't connect a cable... then 
> that's totally different... :-D
>
> norbert
>
> les at futuresource.com wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 2004-09-27 at 12:17, norbert wrote:
>>  
>>
>>>The original reason that I had bought the netgear product was that the
>>>literature & package both indicated that it worked with linux.
>>>Needless to say I was extremely "!@#$%#@@###" when I learned that
>>>linux support came at a price, since linux issues had to be escaladed
>>>to their 2nd tier support & that level of support was not free!
>>>I never got to considering a third party driver or application after
>>>that response.
>>>    
>>>
>>
>>Does any vendor teach you how to do configuration without some kind of
>>support contract?  I'm usually happy to see 'works with Linux' on the
>>box and don't expect it to mean more than that.
>>
>>---
>>  Les Mikesell
>>    les at futuresource.com
>>
>>
>>________________________
>>