Ascend Archive
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(ASCEND) Upgrade procedures: so simple. Not!
>On Sun, Mar 01, 1998 at 06:43:08PM -0600, Brett Hawn stated
>> Curious, am I going blind or did I not see a tik.m40 in there :(
>>
>> I've 0 use for the rest of the stuff, but alas... Ascend apparently dropped
>> the ball on this one.
>
>Ok, it appears that I missed something when reading the release notes and
>tik.m40 is now some other really stupid name and requires half a dozen
>tftps. *sigh* who pulled out the 'let's make things complicated' pills and
>handed them out at Ascend? what a crock.
To some extent, I agree with this. I guess I take it for granted that
things are going to be complicated with equipment at the level of a Max or
a TNT, but with a device like a Pipeline, it's ludicrous.
We just put up a page on our web site for people with our two most common
client routers, Pipelines and Netopias. It's like looking at the difference
between installation instructions for the same software on a Mac or a PC.
The Ascend section is vague and muddled, and suggests you download release
notes and documentation, just so you can begin to pick the right file to
download. Then you've got to get it installed. Do you know how many of my
clients run a TFTP server? Roughly, oh, zero. The chances of blowing your
config away are 100% with a serial connection, which is what everyone uses.
And then your password is gone. Between picking a load, saving your config,
knowing your passwords, loading the new code, loading the config,
reentering passwords in various places, all with resets in between... well,
people just bring 'em in and let us do it.
To upgrade a Netopia, you go to their web site and tell them the model of
your router. They tell you a filename. Then you tell your Netopia to
upgrade to the new firmware from Netopia's TFTP server. When it's done, it
resets and comes up under the new load. With it's config. Every time.
I think the difference comes from Ascend's background providing arcane
equipment like Maxen to engineers. IMO, taking this approach with Pipelines
is a recipe for beefing up your tech support budget and irritating
customers. Or just having them buy Netopias.
And as you can see from this list, people running Maxen aren't too thrilled
with it either. And we're supposed to know what we're doing.
Just a thought...
Peter Lalor
Infoasis
plalor@infoasis.com
http://www.infoasis.com/
415-459-7991 x102
415-459-7992 fax
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