With all due respect, how long should 3Com support old products? How long should any manufacturer support old products? At what price? How much would those of you who don't have support contracts pay for a V.92 upgrade for the quads? Like you, 3Com's goal is to make a profit, and unless they can recoup the development cost, it doesn't make sense to invest in the upgrade. Technology changes. Should Microsoft continue to support the 486 with Win2K? How about the 386? It's not even clear that the quad modem cards have enough memory or CPU or that the rest of the hardware will support V.92. I realize that there are a lot of ISPs that are using the quads, but it's simply not realistic to expect 3Com or any other manufacturer to support old equipment ad infinitum. Let's get real. 3Com is not doing anything different from most any other manufacturer in this business. Any box you buy will be obsolete in just a few years, and it's hard to move forward if you carry too much baggage from the past around with you. Mark Levy FSInet
From: Jeff Mcadams [mailto:jeffm@iglou.com] Yeah...and EOL'ing the quads was a collosally bad mistake. They need to be "unEOL'ed". They pulled this same exact crap two years ago with the NETServer to HiPer Arc transition and EOL'ing of the NETServer, two years before that, it was the dual modem cards. What's it going to be two years from now? Either we need to get 3Com/CommWorks to realize that installed customer base is important, or they're going to loose us as a customer.
I know Paul, they've already lost you, and I *certainly* don't fault you for that decision, and I'm almost there myself, but I'm trying for one last ditch effort here.
3Com/CommWorks clearly has no clue what sort of installed base in still out there for thier equipment. I bet Al and Irfan barely remember the dual modem cards (if they remember them at all)...I still have several in production use sitting at the bottom of a rack, never being noticed or messed with at all until we start getting busy signals on that hunt group and we go and physically reseat them to reset them.
3Com/CommWorks clearly has no clue what their issues are with support contracts.
OK...screw it...I'm gonna tell this, its been two years. Two years ago, with the NETServer being EOL'ed, and the transition to HiPer Arcs, I raised about the same issues that I'm raising here, with about the same response initially. After screaming and yelling about the situation for a couple of weeks (I think it was) I was contacted about getting NETServers swapped for HiPer Arcs...this was the doing of the sales side of things within 3Com at the time...this wasn't a deal that 3Com as a whole corporate body was doing...this was a special deal that the sales folks there made with IgLou because we made the ultimatum, "Either you resolve this issue to our satisfaction, or you loose us as a customer." They resolved it. They did a 1 for 1 trade of HiPer Arcs for NETServers, at no cost to IgLou. The deal, however, was that I couldn't tell anyone how this came about because it was a special deal they were doing for me and they couldn't have everyone coming to them demanding the same thing.
So, for those of you that remember the NETServer to HiPer Arc thing, if any of you wondered why I suddenly went silent on that issue (or nearly so anyway), that's why.
So...what was the result of that...I got my HiPer Arcs, and I no longer suffered from Quake Lag or multi-chassis multi-link MPIP instabilities. However, 3Com continued in their ways and didn't learn anything from the situation, and here we are, 2 years later is *exactly* the same situation, just with a different card and 3Com is making the same *exact* mistake. 3Com/CommWorks still hasn't learned of the importance of installed base. 3Com/CommWorks still hasn't learned of the importance (or economics, apparently!) of reasonable availability of support contracts.
Well...here we are again...and here's the situation again. 3Com either resolves this situation to my satisfaction, or they loose me as a customer, period. Its the same ultimatum as two years ago with NETServers. This time, however, there will be no silencing of me with the deal. Whatever deal I get better be one that 3Com/CommWorks is willing for everyone to know about, because I will not be silent on it.
-- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm@iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456
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