This brings me to my point: If you're having trouble with a particular
modem, by all means *report it to support*!!!!! After upgrading to
3.8.2, our Cirrus Logic users suddenly could not connect. They worked
fine with 3.8, but 3.8.2 killed them. I immediately downgraded back to
3.8, and e-mailed support. Within a few days, a Lucent engineer was in
my PM3 running traces.
When Lucent started the beta program, they e-mailed me and asked if I
wanted to participate. I obviously told them yes! Participating in the
beta was *a lot* of work--I was constantly asked for trace after trace
from various modems we were having trouble with, but look at the
results: *All* of the modem issues that we reported are fixed in
3.8.2c2. It makes me wonder if those who are always complaining about
modem code on the lists have ever informed support about their
problems. If they participated in the beta, did they give feedback? I
know that I was told, not long after the beta started, that Lucent had
cut some of their initial beta sites from the beta program because they
weren't providing any feedback. We were one of the sites they kept
because we provided constant feedback on how things were working with
each new beta revision. We supplied them with traces each time they
asked for them (I'd say I ran close to 50 traces on various modems
during the beta). It was time consuming, but guess what!?!?! My modem
issues are *fixed*. Maybe if more people had reported their problems to
support, and participated in the beta, and given feedback, more problems
would be fixed! Maybe there are too many people out there who think that
Lucent can wave a magic wand and automatically fix all the modem
problems in ComOS. They need feedback from users through proper support
channels!
One of the things that frustrate me the most in the ISP business is the
number of people who go around telling others that they're having such
and such a problem with their account with us, and that we suck because
we never fix it. In most cases, these users have *never* previously
called our support lines to let us know there was a problem. I mean
really, how can we fix a problem that we don't know about! By the same
token, how can Lucent fix ComOS without feedback on what's happening???
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that every PM3 owner who has
complained on the list about 3.8.2 should have participated in the
beta. If you are one of those, and you didn't participate in the beta,
why? Is it because you didn't report the issue to Lucent??? I ended up
in the beta for one reason: I reported problems with Cirrus Logic based
modems to support. I can only assume that anyone who reported specific
modem problems to support would have also ended up in the beta. Am I
wrong?
Obviously, there are a few exceptions to this. For example, the
European users who are having E1 problems, etc. I can't really speak
for them because from what I understand, their support process is
different from that used here in the states. So there may be problems
or breakdowns there--I don't know. Also, I know that there are some
people who have stated that they have reported trouble to support
without any response. If this is the case, then it's wrong. Lucent
needs to be attentive to the needs of all its customers. Maybe my
experience was the exception rather than the norm, but I don't think
so. Anyway, my intent here is not to offend anyone, but to say that I
think Lucent is doing a great job! Sure there are problems, but they're
working on it, and from what I've experienced, they're more than willing
to fix those problems if they have people who are willing to report them
as well as troubleshoot and help isolate them.
I hope I haven't violated my NDA in talking a little about the beta.
I'm assuming that since the beta is over, it's okay to talk about it.
If not, sorry, Lucent!
Okay, I'll climb off my soapbox now... :-)
Craig
Xpressweb Internet Services
bairdc@xpressweb.com
http://www.xpressweb.com
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