I truly hesitate to offer replies like this, but occasionally it seems appropriate to potentially resolve an issue. There is a company, Chicago-Soft, Ltd, for which I work, who offers a product MVS/QuickRef. QuickRef, among other things (and there are many more), contains tons of documentation from IBM and most ISV's (a few will not allow us to reproduce their manuals). Our library includes Broadcom, BMC, LRS, Rocket, and many small vendors, as well as large amounts of IBM documentation. We stay current on product updates over the course of a year and offer updates between releases, as vendors release documentation out of our release cycle, so anyone can stay current. We also accept requests to add specific documentation if it is not currently in our database.
I don't intend this to be a shameless plug for our product, though it probably is, but it certainly resolves the issue of trying to ftp documentation from a website or having to use outdated documentation. I simply mention this as a possibility to resolve what is becoming a very real problem for many shops. Ramsey On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 4:45 AM Barbara Nitz <[email protected]> wrote: > >We have ftp blocked at the corporate level. Has anyone found an HTTPS > link to download this file? I used 'Contact IBM' at the bottom to inquire > but not optimistic. > > You're not the only one. Now that the 'modern browsers' don't support ftp > in websites anymore, I wonder if IBM will wake up and change their practise > of providing ftp-links. At some point in the not-too-distant future IE will > not be available anymore in a corporation, and then there won't be any way > to get at (sometimes vital) information: > > - Holddata are ftp-Links only. And I want to download holddata without > ordering anything via ShopZ. Not to mention that it will be cheaper for IBM > in the longer run to provide these data another way. > - The ++HOLD's in ptfs often only contain ftp-Links for any documentation. > I shudder to think what happens if I can't use ftp anymore and the doc says > that some default was changed, only I cannot read the doc. 2 Alternatives: > Hope for the best or open an SR for each ptf to have IBM support send me > the doc. Again expensive for IBM. > - (Updated) PDFs like recently for the 2.4 docs. Again an ftp-Link, and if > I cannot get at it, then I either have to manually download each and every > book in the collection via http(s) in the browser or use old docs. Pity > when I didn't install ptfs with documentation as ftp-Link only until the > books are updated and I can see what the ptf does. In this case, it would > be very time-consuming for each customer to get offline docs. > > I'm sure there are other cases where IBM only provides docu via ftp-Link. > Or equally as bad - as a link into some public 'data room' (The one with > 'box' in the name comes to mind) which is also forbidden at the corporate > level here. > > My colleagues tell me that the same is true for CA and BMC (or whatever > they're named today). > > IBM, when will you wake up? > > Barbara > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
