5 ms·

It is kind of telling how we accept that companies hide their support channels in every conceivable way and that this leads to random and arbitrary contact poi

It is kind of telling how we accept that companies hide their support channels in every conceivable way and that this leads to random and arbitrary contact points sticking out more than the official ones.

heraldgeezer 2y ago
It could also be USERS of the Cisco anyconnect contacting him. End users should NEVER email Cisco directly. End users should contact their IT. If needed, IT then opens a Cisco TAC case. :)
- hulitu 2y ago
  > End users should contact their IT. The IT has been outsourced. Now the IT is a chat bot. /s
  - GuestFAUniverse 2y ago
    Then contact management. Their decision, their problem.
Moru 2y ago
I have actually gotten a few customers that way, when they couldn't get hold of the provider they just called whatever other provider existed and that happened to be us. Me: "Sure we can fix it. Oh, you don't seem to be a customer. Maybe you called the wrong company?" Non-customer: "Well, they don't answer, maybe you want to sell me the service instead?".
- hobs 2y ago
  Calling someone who has no interest in the problem but helps anyway is definitely a way to make a friend for life. I remember it happening to me once, I bought a house and I called a guy (turned out to be in maine) about a sauna since it had a name and a dead telephone number on it in my new house - he runs the same named sauna service on the east coast as I was looking for in the midwest and was the first result on google. I thought it was a great time for him to bill me for a little consult, but instead he walked me through a sauna he had nothing to do with for 15 minutes on his cell phone and identified major features and areas to manage and maintain to someone who had no idea what was up. Makes me want to move out to the east coast and build a sauna.
Hikikomori 2y ago
If you're using Cisco products like this you have a support contract with them or one of their partners, so to get support you would open a ticket with them.
- acdha 2y ago
  Access to their support portal is limited to the handful of people your IT department allows, and in the enterprise space it’s not uncommon for the Cisco people to be defensive about the products they recommended buying or dismissive of problems which aren’t critical or only impact platforms they don’t favor (often Linux or macOS).
  - bradleyjg 2y ago
    I don’t like Cisco, but it’s a little much to blame them for your employer hiring and not firing support staff that are actively hostile to the people they are supposed to be supporting.
    - Spooky23 2y ago
      Few vendors attract the fervor that network dudes carry for Cisco. It’s a weird and unique phenomenon.
      - UltraSane 2y ago
        As a CCNP I think I can offer some insight into this phenomenon. I feel that it arises due to a few reasons: 1) CLI familiarity. Networking Professionals invest thousands of hours in learning router, switch, and firewall CLIs and want a return on this investment and this can only happen if their employer uses the equipment they are familiar with. If someone only knows the Juniper CLI then they will most likely have equal fervor for Juniper hardware. Having to use a CLI you are not familiar with adds stress to an already very stressful job. 2) Operational streamlining. Generally if every device on a Network is Cisco they will work together more reliably than if not. This isn't as true as it used to be but is still true. If your company network is Cisco only then Cisco cannot blame other manufacturers for an issue. Personally I'm fine with having non-Cisco hardware. The Cisco Firewpower "next gen" firewalls are utter garbage compared to palo alto. My company has dozens of Cisco 2960 access switches and Cisco in their infinite wisdom has replaced this very cost effective product with the extremely NOT cost effective 9200 and 9300 series switches. If you only need gigabit ports and VLANs then the 9200 and 9300 switches are an incredible waste of money.
bubblethink 2y ago
It's also sad that we've given up the ability to contact people directly although everyone is online. The only people I can contact directly are authors of papers whose emails are still published in the papers. For everyone else, you would have to go through an intermediary (social media).
- diggan 2y ago
  You consider email to be without intermediary while social media is with one? Both have some sort of intermediary usually, but in the case of Mastodon (or ActivityPub in general) it at least uses a protocol, just like email.
  - bubblethink 2y ago
    Yes, traditional social media requires me to create an account on its website and jump through various hoops before I can contact the person. Social media is also geared towards broadcasting and will discourage you from DMing people. Mastodon is closer to email, but hardly anyone uses it.
    - diggan 2y ago
      Email also requires either an account at a service (with various levels of hoops) or setting up your own email (with even more levels of hoops), so judging by "hoop count", they're more or less the same?
      - account42 2y ago
        Social media has terms of use that apply to everyone. This makes the social media operator an intermediatary who decides who you can and cannot talk to and what you may or may not talk about. With email you get to choose your provider (or be your own provider) and in general providers are prety hands off. SPAM filters are a thing but you won't have your email account banned because of a single conversation. That makes email providers act more as facilitators than intermediaries.
- 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

heraldgeezer 2y ago

It could also be USERS of the Cisco anyconnect contacting him. End users should NEVER email Cisco directly. End users should contact their IT. If needed, IT then opens a Cisco TAC case. :)

hulitu 2y ago
> End users should contact their IT. The IT has been outsourced. Now the IT is a chat bot. /s
- GuestFAUniverse 2y ago
  Then contact management. Their decision, their problem.

Moru 2y ago

I have actually gotten a few customers that way, when they couldn't get hold of the provider they just called whatever other provider existed and that happened to be us. Me: "Sure we can fix it. Oh, you don't seem to be a customer. Maybe you called the wrong company?" Non-customer: "Well, they don't answer, maybe you want to sell me the service instead?".

hobs 2y ago
Calling someone who has no interest in the problem but helps anyway is definitely a way to make a friend for life. I remember it happening to me once, I bought a house and I called a guy (turned out to be in maine) about a sauna since it had a name and a dead telephone number on it in my new house - he runs the same named sauna service on the east coast as I was looking for in the midwest and was the first result on google. I thought it was a great time for him to bill me for a little consult, but instead he walked me through a sauna he had nothing to do with for 15 minutes on his cell phone and identified major features and areas to manage and maintain to someone who had no idea what was up. Makes me want to move out to the east coast and build a sauna.

Hikikomori 2y ago

If you're using Cisco products like this you have a support contract with them or one of their partners, so to get support you would open a ticket with them.

acdha 2y ago
Access to their support portal is limited to the handful of people your IT department allows, and in the enterprise space it’s not uncommon for the Cisco people to be defensive about the products they recommended buying or dismissive of problems which aren’t critical or only impact platforms they don’t favor (often Linux or macOS).
- bradleyjg 2y ago
  I don’t like Cisco, but it’s a little much to blame them for your employer hiring and not firing support staff that are actively hostile to the people they are supposed to be supporting.
  - Spooky23 2y ago
    Few vendors attract the fervor that network dudes carry for Cisco. It’s a weird and unique phenomenon.
    - UltraSane 2y ago
      As a CCNP I think I can offer some insight into this phenomenon. I feel that it arises due to a few reasons: 1) CLI familiarity. Networking Professionals invest thousands of hours in learning router, switch, and firewall CLIs and want a return on this investment and this can only happen if their employer uses the equipment they are familiar with. If someone only knows the Juniper CLI then they will most likely have equal fervor for Juniper hardware. Having to use a CLI you are not familiar with adds stress to an already very stressful job. 2) Operational streamlining. Generally if every device on a Network is Cisco they will work together more reliably than if not. This isn't as true as it used to be but is still true. If your company network is Cisco only then Cisco cannot blame other manufacturers for an issue. Personally I'm fine with having non-Cisco hardware. The Cisco Firewpower "next gen" firewalls are utter garbage compared to palo alto. My company has dozens of Cisco 2960 access switches and Cisco in their infinite wisdom has replaced this very cost effective product with the extremely NOT cost effective 9200 and 9300 series switches. If you only need gigabit ports and VLANs then the 9200 and 9300 switches are an incredible waste of money.

bubblethink 2y ago

It's also sad that we've given up the ability to contact people directly although everyone is online. The only people I can contact directly are authors of papers whose emails are still published in the papers. For everyone else, you would have to go through an intermediary (social media).

diggan 2y ago
You consider email to be without intermediary while social media is with one? Both have some sort of intermediary usually, but in the case of Mastodon (or ActivityPub in general) it at least uses a protocol, just like email.
- bubblethink 2y ago
  Yes, traditional social media requires me to create an account on its website and jump through various hoops before I can contact the person. Social media is also geared towards broadcasting and will discourage you from DMing people. Mastodon is closer to email, but hardly anyone uses it.
  - diggan 2y ago
    Email also requires either an account at a service (with various levels of hoops) or setting up your own email (with even more levels of hoops), so judging by "hoop count", they're more or less the same?
    - account42 2y ago
      Social media has terms of use that apply to everyone. This makes the social media operator an intermediatary who decides who you can and cannot talk to and what you may or may not talk about. With email you get to choose your provider (or be your own provider) and in general providers are prety hands off. SPAM filters are a thing but you won't have your email account banned because of a single conversation. That makes email providers act more as facilitators than intermediaries.
2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]