:> a) Brad's organization does deal with at least two different :> manufacturer's lines, and his link was to resources about the line that :> is more likely to be suitable to the OP (the other manufacturer's :> products tend to go into larger businesses)
:And since I've started seeing his posts, he's only suggested CISCO as the :sole solution for everything he's recommended. That was the start of my :opinion, and his sig.
Solutions based on the other lines he deals with might not have been appropriate for anything he has happened to write about in your view.
:But many of us, not tied to a vendor for compensation in some means, use :multiple products for multiple solutions. No person, as a non-paid :employee of a firewall vendor, can make a living with a single product :solution path.
Brad's company is, amongst other things, a Cisco VAR. He is also in the "asset recovery" field for higher end equipment. He does not work only with firewalls. The Cisco VAR business is certainly big enough that one could have a company that deals only with Cisco equipment; he also deals with some other lines.
:As for his intent, I can only assume the intent due to the postings of his :that I've read - never seen one that suggests anything other than CISCO :products, have you?
Yes -- and I've seen him do so right in comp.dcom.sys.cisco .
:Brad, if you don't have a vested interest in selling/purchasing CISCO :products, then I apologize for my posting and assumption.
Your posting earlier implied that he was directing people to his company; instead he was suggesting that people might be interested in a particular manufacturer's products; and he included enough information in his signature to make it clear that his opinion might not be unbiased. Someone who works a lot with a particular manufacturer's equipment is more likely to know the scope of that equipment than a random passer-by.
Would Brad benefit if the poster followed up the link, liked what they saw there, and bought Cisco as a result? Yes -- but only in the "rising tide" sense that the more people that use Cisco equipment, the greater the number of people who are likely to want the services of his company. Is Brad a Cisco employee? Not as best I have been able to tell, but I am not privy to Cisco company records. Does Brad get paid by Cisco if someone decides to purchase Cisco equipment through his company instead of through a different dealer? Not as far as I know -- he gets a commission, which is different than being paid.
It is within the realm of possibility that Brad owns some Cisco stock and so benefits each time someone buys Cisco equipment even through a different dealer. I wouldn't know about that.
The first couple of times I saw messages from Brad, I too thought "spam", but as I saw more I realized that he directs people to Cisco's site more often than to his own, and when he does reference his site, in the large majority of cases it is for information or service that either is not otherwise publically available or else would otherwise be notiably more difficult fo find directly.
I have no financial interest in Brad's company, or in Cisco. [I'm a government employee, not in private industry, and I've never bought stock in -anything- as I do not wish to be in conflict of interest. FWIW, one of the mutal funds I have invested in might not have completely sold it's Nortel shares; I haven't looked at the prospectus for years.]