O, they *do* offer software download only support.........its just that I am not entirely happy with that pricing either.
I love the hardware, but I'm not entirely happy with their software. A version of arc code that fixes one problem breaks 3 other things! I think 3com should make *all* their releases Beta, not just ERs. Because we seem to be the Beta testers even with their production level code. Has 3com considered a code freeze, so they can fix the problems in their existing code and not keep adding broken features to already broken code? Maybe 3com should do what Linux kernel developers do; have one version of code-base that is stable, and yet another version for those individuals who want to "live on the edge" with new features, but most importantly, keep working on and improving *both* versions at the same time. I know it's not easy 3com, and I understand that everyone wants new features right away. However, what makes me mad is the fact that 3com charges *us* to fix *their* mistakes. I understand small bugs, everything has small bugs, but *major* problems such as security flaws or bugs that effect the basic functionality of their products should be fixed free of charge. And when we do buy service contracts with software support, we should be able to at least access the code and security updates we had access to during our contracts after it expires on us. Because after all, we did pay for it. Either that or I'll just have to start mirroring. Even Micro$oft offers free updates without a "service contract" for most of their products when it comes to security issues; however, *like* 3com, Microsoft never seems to find all the bugs. ;) I know things will get better, because 3com has very smart people and they are listening, right? I hope 3com does the right thing and develops a more "customer friendly" approach when it comes to software updates and support. - andrew - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.