Yes, I have to agree. While I *have* waited a week for a callback from
support, the incident was not a dire emergency and the problem was caused by
my own blunder. When we *really* had a problem, two support engineers were
on the other end of the phone, diagraming the network on a whiteboard while
telnetted into the involved routers. In that instance, we all learned that
the OR-HS doesn't like having an IPX network number that ends in FF.
Strange things happen.
Ultimately, despite Livingston's rapid and steady growth over the last year
or two, it's easy to end up feeling "connected" to the company. Sometimes
you do end up talking to people who actually wrote or designed a piece of
the box or code.
Most of my "Livingston education" comes from other people on this list who
have also made the decision to implement Livingston solutions, so the need
to call support is rare. Since I suspect that about 80% of Livingston
support calls are from people who simply don't quite grasp something that's
explained elsewhere, if you know what you're doing you may never need direct
support. Another 15% of issues raised with support probably originate from
problems unrelated to the Livingston product itself, but through telco
issues or other equipment issues. People like the Kyles and Patricks on the
list who are experts in network design and who find actual bugs and
interoperability issues probably amount to a small fraction of a percent of
support calls, and since these issues can't be 'fixed' by support techs...
So the bottom line is that if you are comfortable with configuring routers,
and take advantage of resources like this list, you'll probaby never need to
call support unless you box goes belly up for some strange reason. And in
that case, you'd get assistance right away.
Damien