🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <mbt.717961736@Able.MKT.3Com.Com>, mbt@ESD.3Com.COM (Brad Turner) writes:
> vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) writes:
> ...
> >That's a reasonable statement.  Why does 3Com allow their boxes
> >to do FDDI-ethernet bridging?  When they drop 4K IP FDDI packets?
> 
> Because in some instances it solves real customer problems. As a vendor
> it is our challenge to educate/advise customers as to the pros and cons
> of various methods of interconnecting networks and help them design
> the best solution to fit their specific needs. In some instances
> translation bridging is a valid solution.


I understand that kind of pressure.  There are always salescreatures
who find multi-million dollar deals that the system (yours or mine)
does not quiet fit.  The salescritters I deal with never, and even some
management often does not understand my concern that while doing the
deal is good for this quarter's revenue numbers and this month's
commission check, selling a bad solution now can prevent ever selling
anything to that account again.  Or even selling anything other
accounts which have in future years hired someone who worked at the
first account.  I don't even try to convey my fear and loathing for the
support hassles, arguments, and verbal abuse generated by such a bad
fit.

For a typical example, I have watched customers of fancy ethernet hubs
decide network problems were the fault of the hubs, and refuse to ever
deal with the vender again under any circumstances, even though the
problems were not really caused by the hubs.

There are several companies selling FDDI-ether bridges that do not work
in the presense of real FDDI hosts using UDP.  I continue to wonder
what their customers think after they discover they have purchased
bridges that work "some of the time for some traffic."  No matter how
great the bridge may be otherwise, do they ever deal with that vendor
again?

I know that I would be skeptical of any company that tried to sell me
an FDDI-ether bridge that just dropped 4K UDP/IP/FDDI packets, because
if the bridge vendor does not understand the importance of 4K FDDI
packets and just tells me to "change the MTU", then the bridge vendor
may not understand other, more important issues.


Vernon Schryver,  vjs@sgi.com