Ascend Archive
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Re: (ASCEND) Ascend SNMP browser

Kevin A. Smith wrote:

> At 08:25 PM 5/21/98 +0900, U. Keiko wrote:
> >Hi,
> >I just tried t follow a link from ascend's web page (outside support).
> >I ended up at www.loop.org which listed kit@connectnet.com as a point of

A dead-end web page reference, unanswered e-mail from someone who has posted to
the list recently... what's next a smoking gun or perhaps a
merger/acquisition.  Inquiring minds want to know.   Sorry, people are busy and
my imagination tends to run on the wild side.  I suppose that I'm really just
interested in prodding wwwcall from the rock it's hiding under or getting a
response from the contacts listed at dreamscape/loop.  And, actually, I thought
Ascend might be interested as well (as it should be).  Sort of odd that two web
based SNMP Ascend mangment products have dropped off the face of the internet.
...and WebAdmin (Infomedque) too, but that's another story/mailing list.

> >From where? I don't see any obvious link to this from our WEB pages.

let's see... I didn't write the question above, but anyway... I don't exactly
remember how I got there (probably by looking over the mailing list archive).
Still, if you plug in something like "+outside +support +ascend" into
Altavista, the first reference you get is :

1. Ascend - Outside Resources Index
     nbsp; Outside Resources. Service Family Advantage Services AdvantagePak.
Technical Documentation Configuration Guides FAQ's Outside Resources
     Technotes...
     http://www.ascend.com.au/630.html - size 7K - 13-Mar-98 - English -
Translate

On that page :

Tools and Services
                      SNMP Check Site (http://www.loop.org/ascend)
                      Shareware.com

This really isn't a dead wood or broken link web page management issue,
though.  I thought Ascend might like to know one of their links eventually
terminated at a dead end.  The copyright date on the final web page is pretty
old and I assume the software is out of beta (probably why the ftp link doesn't
work).  I still think that it would be nice if the e-mail contact worked.
Considering that it's a link on a Ascend's corporate web page, perhaps they
might feel the same.

> Other replies to this thread already referred to some popular alternatives,
> so I'll not do any sales-pitch here ;0

No sales pitch necessary.  MaxStat is cute, but it doesn't do what I need or
want.  Customer support's primary business is helping people getting connected
(and staying connected).  Customer support could care less who is actually
successfully connected through a max and it's probably none of their business,
as well.  Since we have our accounting and access situation under control,
customer support has no reason to hang people up.  So much for 90% of MaxStat's
functionality.  Don't get me wrong, (way to go MaxStat people! ...and
reasonably priced too!), it's just not what customer support needs.

Personally, I refuse to run a web server on a Radius box.  Actually, I'd like
to run no other subsystem (including NFS... yes, even if it's on a private
network) besides Radius on a Radius box.  This makes a lot of security sense if
you're going to use Radius for system wide authentication.  So, the web based
Radius management tools are right out the window.

Still, customer support needs to be able to see those failed authentications,
disconnect and progress codes.  Read only SNMP (as implemented in Will Pierce's
Ascend Viewer) seems to be a reasonable alternative.  Should SNMP
authentication actually be implemented, in the future, it will be even more
viable.  I'de also like to see some sort of non-plaintext authentication happen
between the Max and the Radius box.  I'm sure other regional/national ISP
probably feel the same way (and have engineered around the problem).  I
especially like the fact that the disconnect and progress codes are in plain
english.

I know... Ascend probably sells all the software tools I need... I guess I'm
just a hopeless fan of the underdog, non-corporate, GNU programmer who
understands apropo, well written software need not be expensive (and bug
ridden).  If I were Ascend, I'd be paying a lot closer attention to what's
emerging from the primordial GNU/free/open ooze.  But then, I'm not Ascend (I
just buy their (hardware) products (for now))... and there you have it.

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