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

Reply to
Ron
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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

Reply to
Foad

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.

Reply to
Walter Roberson

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.

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Reply to
Ron

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.

Reply to
Hansang Bae

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