Advice on Smartnet choices

Over 400 different Smartnet packages on CDW. Sheesh, whoever
is in charge of marketing at Cisco needs to wake up.

Any advice on which package to get? Is there such a thing as getting
telephone or email support on legacy equipment, like for configuration
problems. I'd also like to be able to follow links from places like
the Cisco forums where people post links that lead to CCO for which
a guess login apparently isn't enough.

Thanks

Ron

 

Ron, i feel your pain... We buy alot of our cisco items from CDW, you
probably don't have a sales rep, as mine usually does all the leg
work... but what i've learned with cisco and smartnets is that once you
buy one, even the cheapest version, you register it through cisco and
then get a CCO log-on, it's only as good as long as the smartnet is
valid.

HTH's

AL

 

:Over 400 different Smartnet packages on CDW.

Slackers ;-)

There are over 20000 Cisco support contracts.

http://groups.google.ca/group/comp.dcom.sys.cisco/msg/0f034dd2629e5d4d

:Sheesh, whoever
:>is in charge of marketing at Cisco needs to wake up.

:Any advice on which package to get? Is there such a thing as getting
:telephone or email support on legacy equipment, like for configuration
roblems.

Depends on how legacy. If you look at the End of Sale notice,
you will find that one of the dates listed is the last date to create
a new support contract on the equipment. (The last date supported
for those with existing contracts is usually a few years after that.)

After the "last new contract" date, you can't get new support
on the product, at least not from Cisco. Though of course if you
have a few million dollars floating around, support is negotiable.


:I'd also like to be able to follow links from places like
:the Cisco forums where people post links that lead to CCO for which
:a guess login apparently isn't enough.

Find the cheapest Cisco device for which a contract is available,
buy it and the least expensive contract that gives you CCO access.
Once you are on CCO, there are no restrictions about where you
can look -- for example, if you bought a SOHO71 contract then you can
still look at the GSR12000 support pages.

 

Appreciate the replies.

There's just no excuse for this being so complicated, all we need is
some occasional help with a configuration issue. I can do most of what
I need on freebsd with 2 nics and dot1q vlans. I'd rather spend my
time becoming proficient with that than wasting my time trying to
understand all this Cisco legal mumbo jumbo and categorical BS.
I look for them to go the way of GM.


-

 

To be fair, they have a few categories. 7x24, Next Bus Day, 7X24 parts
only, NBD parts only, 7x24 onsite tech support, etc. Now multiply that
by every device Cisco sells. You get the picture.

The release notes actually tell you what "class" applies to the
particular hardware. Once you buy one, you get the hang of it.

--

hsb


"Somehow I imagined this experience would be more rewarding" Calvin
**************************ROT13 MY ADDRESS*************************
Due to the volume of email that I receive, I may not not be able to
reply to emails sent to my account. Please post a followup instead.
********************************************************************