NZ broadband in the dark ages or just a Hissy fit?

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › NZ broadband in the dark ages or just a Hissy fit?

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MadEngineer

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#1309489 21-May-2015 19:30

sorceror: I'm not bashing Mikrotik - it has its place, but that place is not service providers.

If you make statements like that perhaps some elaboration to back it up would help? Take your pick from this list of successful service providers and cross-google them with Mikrotik, then you try telling them they should not be using Mikrotik: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/index.php?Itemid=36&option=com_us_retailer&id=menu%3Aid-36.html&view=retailer

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

sorceror

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#1309531 21-May-2015 20:01

technical 'quirks' aside, Mikrotik is simply an unacceptable business risk. What happens if your core devices fall over? How do you get support? Post on their forum? They have 100 employees... scary stuff.

MadEngineer

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#1309541 21-May-2015 20:36

hah well yes although they're certainly not commonly used in the 'core'. I did hear a couple of what were complaints masqueraded as questions on some issues and went something like yes, I asked support, yes I submitted to support, yes I submitted again, no I hadn't heard of the ability to submit feedback [on the lack of support]

on the flipside there was also talk of how some had been working with Mikrotik for some time on various things and successfully came out with solutions - suggesting there was closer contact than you'd get elsewhere

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

ajw

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#1310315 23-May-2015 09:36

Video interview here.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/lack-second-cable-keeping-nz-in-broadband-dark-ages-6316976?autoStart=true

DonGould

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#1311191 25-May-2015 11:35

ajw: Video interview here.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/lack-second-cable-keeping-nz-in-broadband-dark-ages-6316976?autoStart=true

Showed we're doing a poor job about educating people about the cables we currently have heading out of NZ and plans on the table.

A cable to the US and a cable to AU (which can then hand off to any number of other cables to the rest of the world).

A new cable planned to AU by Spark and VF.

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DonGould

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#1311194 25-May-2015 11:44

sorceror: technical 'quirks' aside,

Mikrotik seem to release bleeding edge updates for their RouterOS.

I attempted to get my hands dirty with some new Cisco gear a while back and that had just as many issues as I've ever seen on Mtk kit.

sorceror: Mikrotik is simply an unacceptable business risk.

Unacceptable to who?

That's a very unqualified statement and one that many businesses just don't agree with.

sorceror: What happens if your core devices fall over?

That depends on what caused the failure?

Poor design? Redesign
Hardware failure? Hardware replacement - given the cost of this gear, hot standby it very doable.
Configuration fault? Reconfigure
Software fault? Software patch.

Same answers no mater that platform you're using.

sorceror: How do you get support?

Make contact with your vendor. Same as any provider.

sorceror: Post on their forum?

You can if you want.

sorceror: They have 100 employees... scary stuff.

Actually they have more than that and over 2000 trained techs.

These are exactly the same sorts of comments we used to read when talking about Linux.

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ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1311701 25-May-2015 23:08

Anyone saying "poor support" makes lesser known brands a risk hasn't worked with major vendors ...

sorceror

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#1311992 26-May-2015 13:38

ubergeeknz: Anyone saying "poor support" makes lesser known brands a risk hasn't worked with major vendors ...

i wasn't saying poor support, more like non existent support. even bloody NETGEAR has a phone number you can call.

anyway, anyone (Don) trying to claim that mikrotik is a valid choice for a service provider needs to get their head out of the clouds. i'm not going to waste my time arguing with you if you can't grasp why it is such a liability (to both the provider and the customer) - you have clearly not dealt with anyone large enough to have something to lose.

DonGould

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#1312009 26-May-2015 14:05

sorceror:
ubergeeknz: Anyone saying "poor support" makes lesser known brands a risk hasn't worked with major vendors ...

i wasn't saying poor support, more like non existent support. even bloody NETGEAR has a phone number you can call.

In New Zealand Mikrotik are represented by Gowifi and Campbell Software. Both have phone numbers.

sorceror:
anyway, anyone (Don) trying to claim that mikrotik is a valid choice for a service provider needs to get their head out of the clouds. i'm not going to waste my time arguing with you if you can't grasp why it is such a liability (to both the provider and the customer) - you have clearly not dealt with anyone large enough to have something to lose.

A growing number of small service providers grasp this 'liability' every day. I remember exactly the same sorts of comments being made about the idea of using that networking software from that silly company in Redmond v's Novel.

I also know of local service providers who have risen up on Mikrotik gear to other vendors as they out grew the limits of the Mtk kit for their needs.

Really smart networking guys know the limits of this sort of gear.

The same rules really do apply as we had when we moved from using mainframes to using PCs for large billing processes.

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sorceror

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#1312060 26-May-2015 14:48

Don, like many people on this forum have already done, I am going to stop engaging you. If you can't tell the difference between a distributor and a vendor you have way bigger problems.

The opinion of 'really smart networking guys' doesn't mean anything in this context. This is a business problem, not a technical one.

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