[c-nsp] "Software Download Area is Unavailable at this time"

[Phil Mayers]

Gert Doering wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 06:21:39PM -0400, Jared Mauch wrote:
>> 	They are now claiming the site is fixed, but I'm asking for a RFO
>> and what their maint policy is on the website.  If my bank can tell
>> me when they do maint, I would hope that Cisco can.
> 
> Where are you asking for the RFO?  I have not found a way to contact the
> folks responsible for breaking^Wrunning the WWW and FTP servers yet.
> 
> (And I have serious doubts that you'll get an answer...)

Agreed. The Cisco web team are obviously extremely clueless, and I doubt 
anything that individual users can do will persuade them to roll back 
these changes. The people on this list are, I suspect, too small a 
percentage of the customer base to overrule the "click and gawp" crowd.

(Unless there's someone from AOL or one of the major internet exchanges 
lurking here who can apply some pressure ;o)

But can I just make a recommendation to everyone here: next time you go 
out to competitive tender, specify the nature of docs & software 
availability. List "HTTP downloads without client software or plugins" 
as a mandatory requirement.

Those of you speaking to Cisco now, tell them that you're going to be 
doing that, and that they *WILL LOSE* the next competitive tender if 
they can't fulfil that requirement.

We did so, and I'm planning on smacking Cisco around the head with that 
document shortly. Doubtless it'll be futile, but it's worth a shot...