Leadership By Numbers :: Sometimes, There Is No Support Help

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Siemens makes some great SMB networking hardware. It must be even better than I thought, considering there is apparently no need for support. I had a question on one of their SpeedStream routers, regarding LPD/CUPS printing. I sent off a question to their support team and received an answer the same day !!

Unfortunately, the e-mail server which receives their e-mails is caught in a loop, so that all of their e-mail exceeds the maximum hop count. Their e-mail reply turned out to be merely a routing error.

Hm. I might be somewhat hesitant in purchasing more Siemens equipment.

Reporting-MTA: dns;usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net Received-From-MTA: dns;stca216a Arrival-Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:12 -0700

Final-Recipient: rfc822;support@speedstream.com Action: failed Status: 5.5.0 Diagnostic-Code: smtp;552 stca216a: your "received:" header counts of 21 exceeds maximum setting 20

--==IFJRGLKFGIR-2147483647UHRUHIHD Content-Type: message/rfc822

Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:12 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:10 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:09 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk206a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:08 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk206a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:07 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk206a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:06 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk206a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:04 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk206a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:03 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:02 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:36:01 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:59 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk206a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:58 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:57 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:56 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:55 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk203a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:54 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:53 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:52 -0700 Received: from stca216a ([155.45.111.100]) by usnwk202a.ww017.siemens.net wi th Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:51 -0700 Received: from brmx1.boca.ssc.siemens.com (brmx1.boca.ssc.siemens.com [165.2 18.59.50])by fdns2.rolm.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k54KZnX1002107f or ; Sun, 4 Jun 2006 13:35:50 -0700(PDT)

Comments

2 - Nathan, that's a good insight to their corporate structure. I think it's inane for a company to ignore their support systems--having non-monitored e-mail failures is firing a signal flare over an unfolding catastrophe.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 08:34:37 PM On 06/05/2006 | - Website - |

1 - Siemens uses Exchange worldwide. Some divisions used to use Domino, but they were required to migrate. While I was working there a few years ago, they had a complete crash of their entire North American mail services, requiring about 48 hours of downtime while they restored tape on every server in the US.

Nice, huh?

I don't have any evaluation on the quality of their products. The people I dealt with from that side seemed very competant. But in IT? Well, you get the point.

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 03:04:03 PM On 06/05/2006 | - Website - |