In article , Ron wrote: :Over 400 different Smartnet packages on CDW.
Slackers ;-)
There are over 20000 Cisco support contracts.
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: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.
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.