[PLUG] Hardware Woes

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Sat Nov 19 18:07:42 UTC 2005


   I have problems with two hardware items and the response from each vendor
is underwhelming. I'm hoping to get suggestions from you folks on how to get
resolution.

   1.) Netgear VFS318 Firewall/Switch/Router/VPN gateway. This is a version-2
unit. It routes to/from the 'Net just fine, but the internal (host-to-host)
file transfer rate is 47KB/s maximum (on a 100MB/s Ethernet). When I plug the
hosts into a separate Linksys switch, and the switch into the Netgear, the
within-network transfer speeds jump up to 3-5MB/s. Ergo, there's a problem
with the Netgear.

   On 5 November I went to the Netgear web site, registered this unit, and
filed a support request. The unit is warranted for 5 years (according to
their web site). The web site also states that a response would be
forthcoming within 1-2 business days. Right.

   On 15 November I submitted a follow-up e-mail, then decided to give them a
call. A superficially-nice drone somewhere in the Indian sub-continent
confirmed that it had been 10 days with no response. He mumbled something
about the software not being under warranty (huh?), but that he would
escalate the request and someone would be in touch with me in 1-2 days. Sure.

   Here it is, four days later, and the silence from Netgear fills the office.
This unit cost me about $130 and I don't want to toss it, but it's not
working and I cannot get the company to make good on the warranty. Heck, I
cannot even initiate a conversation with their tech support people.

   I think that I'll try calling the President of Netgear on Monday. Anyone
have other ideas?

   2.)  Soyo KT600 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition motherboard. Now 14 months
old. I bought it because it had good reviews on the Web, supported the Athlon
XP/3200+ processor, and came with $110 in rebates from Soyo. Rebates have
never been paid; that's a different issue.

   Last month, just after the 12-month warranty wore out, the system started
to hang. Locked up tighter than a drumhead. You'll recall a thread on this
issue on this mail list. I ran memtest86 and every test passed with flying
colors. This morning, I again tried to compile the 2.6.13.4 kernel and the
system screeched to a halt during the build of ../kernel/module.o.

   Last month I filed a request for support to Soyo's USA e-mail address. I
also wrote to the vendor. The silence from those two compete with the silence
from Netgear for my attention. What do you folks suggest?

   I'm thinking of ordering a replacement motherboard from Monarch Computing,
because they support AMD processors. If I can get a Soyo replacement, I'll
sell it or use it in a MythTV box for my fiancee.

   I've not had such bad service from hardware vendors before. I would like to
get these issues resolved but I'm out of fresh ideas.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |   Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)   |  Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517         Fax: 503-667-8863



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