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Watchguard again
Aug. 13th, 2007 09:45 pmWhat is it with these computer hardware/software vendors? Why do they believe that we have nothing to do but comply with their eccentric ideas of how things should work?
In order to upgrade the "appliance software" contained in our Watchguard firewall, I am apparently expected to bring the entire network down for hours or days while I figure out their inadequate documentation. Not only that, but they provide no simple means to convert the existing configuration to the format required by the new software. Instead, their migration guide tells me to rebuild the entire friggin' thing from scratch, on a new and badly documented user interface that is probably just as unreliable as the old one.
Their software spews cryptic messages into a log, but they provide NO documentation whatsoever on what those messages mean. Their configuration program offers lots of little checkboxes and options, but not one of their manuals, not even the "Reference Manual" tells you what those options mean or what they refer to, let alone offering any explanation of why you would want to use them (or not.) What is "aggressive mode?" What do they mean by "Clear type of service?" In some cases, the manual doesn't even mention these options, and in the screen shots the check box doesn't even appear.
The only day of the week when I could leave the network down for hours on end is a Sunday. And of course, once the network is down, you lose all access to the vendor's support site (not that it is much good anyway, I guess, since it's badly indexed and contains next to nothing of use.) So I could work on a Sunday and take another day off, except... Everybody else is taking days off so there is no other day I can take off without leaving a gap in coverage.
No wonder people become Luddites.
In order to upgrade the "appliance software" contained in our Watchguard firewall, I am apparently expected to bring the entire network down for hours or days while I figure out their inadequate documentation. Not only that, but they provide no simple means to convert the existing configuration to the format required by the new software. Instead, their migration guide tells me to rebuild the entire friggin' thing from scratch, on a new and badly documented user interface that is probably just as unreliable as the old one.
Their software spews cryptic messages into a log, but they provide NO documentation whatsoever on what those messages mean. Their configuration program offers lots of little checkboxes and options, but not one of their manuals, not even the "Reference Manual" tells you what those options mean or what they refer to, let alone offering any explanation of why you would want to use them (or not.) What is "aggressive mode?" What do they mean by "Clear type of service?" In some cases, the manual doesn't even mention these options, and in the screen shots the check box doesn't even appear.
The only day of the week when I could leave the network down for hours on end is a Sunday. And of course, once the network is down, you lose all access to the vendor's support site (not that it is much good anyway, I guess, since it's badly indexed and contains next to nothing of use.) So I could work on a Sunday and take another day off, except... Everybody else is taking days off so there is no other day I can take off without leaving a gap in coverage.
No wonder people become Luddites.
