[c-nsp] Article: Beware of counterfeit Cisco gear

[Scott Granados]

I'd tend to agree with your conspiracy theory.  Cisco has held a
negative view of even used equipment resellers or the Ebay type market
for as long as I can remember.  While true, if I'm CTO at boing I
probably don't want to be making my router decisions based on what's
available in my local area for sale in the next 24 hours or less (or buy
it now :) ) but for a lot of businesses this makes sense.  Startups with
very lean budgets can get a lot of horse power for a little money.
While I certainly don't support 3rd party knock offs and black market
parts, I'd think Cisco should take a more open view of their products
and allow some entry by 3rd parties in to making official parts.  ($7000
for a 512 meg memory upgrade that's Kingston made and available direct
from them for $50, I don't think so)

G. Scott Granados
Sr. Network Operations Specialist
OFFICE: 415-946-2112 EXT. 222
CELL: 408-569-4017
URL: http://www.jeteye.com

-----Original Message-----
From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net
[mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Jon Lewis
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 11:25 AM
To: Ted Mittelstaedt
Cc: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
Subject: Re: [c-nsp] Article: Beware of counterfeit Cisco gear

On Tue, 24 Oct 2006, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> It isn't as bad as your making it out to be.  A lot of the fakes
aren't 
> fake at all, they are theft.  What they are is illegal runs off the
same 
> production lines that the authorized runs are under.

The conspiracty theorist in me says cisco may be making things sound
much 
worse than they are in order to scare people into buying from "normal 
distribution channels" rather than ebay or shadey network gear
resellers.

> Additionally, in the auto industry, this sort of thing goes on all the

> time, and there's nothing illegal about it, they call it "aftermarket 
> parts"  General Motors does not have a problem if I buy a new
Alternator 
> from NAPA and put it in my GM car.  Cisco should not have a problem if
I 
> buy a new WIC card and put it in my Cisco router.  The fact that they 
> do, pushes this stuff underground which exacerbates the problem.

If the parts skip quality control, are sold cheap by 3rd parties (not 
cisco) and claim to be cisco (not cisco compatible, but actual cisco) 
parts, there are multiple problems there.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Jon Lewis                   |  I route
  Senior Network Engineer     |  therefore you are
  Atlantic Net                |
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