Comments on some points you recently raised:
<snip>
>A) Had to wait 3 month to get a stupid letter-sized piece of paper with some
>20 char code on it. Then I had to email Cisco the code and wait and wait and
>wait untill I received the right activation key.
The process is pretty straight-forward. You buy a 3DES license from a
reseller, who gets it from the distributor. The distributor sends you an
entitlement paper, usually overnight. You call Cisco or access a web page,
and give Cisco your entitlement number. Cisco e-mails you back a new
firewall license which enables 3DES on your firewall, usually within 24
hours. The whole process rarely takes more than 3-4 days. I'm not sure why
you had to wait so long for your entitlement document, but a) it is NOT
normal, and b) is handled by distributors. While we monitor our
distribution and reseller channels, we do not have absolute control over
anomalies like yours.
>B) You can not get any sort of support without support contract. Not even
>install support which even smaller companies offer.
You are correct in general, although if you call on a slow evening you may
get more help than on others. I've spoken with folks who have also called
TAC without a contract and TAC helped them configure their box from
scratch. You can also contact your reseller for assistance, or a Cisco SE
in the Cisco office in your area. While you may be frustrated by being
pointed to web sites for help, if you'd RTFM (or in this case, RTFWS) you'd
find an outrageous amount of help, including sample configs,
troubleshooting, and more right on-line, and for free. I'm willing to stack
our ON-LINE support against any support that available from any other
vendor for the same price.
>C) Could not get a current software for the pix without calling my
>distributor. The pixes were delivered with some 4.xx release. 6.xx is current
Right now, PIX boxes are warehoused with the latest GD (general deployment)
version of the software installed. This is because a large number of
customers have a requirement to only install GD software. One phone-call to
your distributor gets you any version of software you'd like to install.
They'll e-mail you the image and you can be on your way in usually less
than an hour.
-bill
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Bill McGee, CCNA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
VPN and Security BU Phone: 408.859.7942
Channels Manager and Evangelist Pager: 800.365.4578 (or
[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Cisco Systems, Inc. FAX: 408.527.5173
Make your Cisco network "SAFE" The power to end extreme poverty is
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http://www.cisco.com/go/safe/ www.netaid.org
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