Why do tech companies make their products so difficult to use?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Why do tech companies make their products so difficult to use?

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#2694284 17-Apr-2021 19:47

billbennett:
Let's say there are two products.

One is $200 and it works. The other is $100 and it takes three days and frustrating hours spent online to get it working.

Which one is overpriced?

What price do you put on your time and sanity?

This is why for wifi/switching I try to stick with Aruba

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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#2694286 17-Apr-2021 19:55

Is Aruba kit available for consumers, home users?

When I dealt with the company a few years ago it wasn't selling into those markets.

Bill Bennett www.billbennett.co.nz @billbennettnz

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#2694289 17-Apr-2021 20:04

billbennett:

Is Aruba kit available for consumers, home users?

When I dealt with the company a few years ago it wasn't selling into those markets.

Kind of. The distribution model is more catered to resellers, but there is nothing stopping people from just rocking up to somewhere like PB Tech and buying it - but licensing and support will be a problem. There is so much 2nd hand Aruba gear around going cheap (such as the guy in Wellington who has been selling 2nd hand Aruba AP's dirt cheap) and it's a fantastic solution for home users being able to get enterprise wireless gear so cheaply.

In the last year or so they've also aggressively pushed their Aruba Instant On hardware which is a small business solution and readily available for anybody.

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#2694290 17-Apr-2021 20:06

It's the brand I'd recommend, but wasn't sure. Good to know.

Bill Bennett www.billbennett.co.nz @billbennettnz

nztim

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#2694292 17-Apr-2021 20:22

sbiddle:

Kind of. The distribution model is more catered to resellers, but there is nothing stopping people from just rocking up to somewhere like PB Tech and buying it - but licensing and support will be a problem. There is so much 2nd hand Aruba gear around going cheap (such as the guy in Wellington who has been selling 2nd hand Aruba AP's dirt cheap) and it's a fantastic solution for home users being able to get enterprise wireless gear so cheaply.

In the last year or so they've also aggressively pushed their Aruba Instant On hardware which is a small business solution and readily available for anybody.

Both the Instant and the Instant on, It can be configure by most people with their hands tied

I like the fact also their Long Term Support is fantastic - Unlike UBNT which has such short life cycles for support

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

lxsw20

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#2694294 17-Apr-2021 20:31

billbennett:

There's a huge opportunity for someone to do an Apple-like play with networking.

IME Cisco Meraki is probably the closest thing to that.

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#2694298 17-Apr-2021 20:39

lxsw20:

IME Cisco Meraki is probably the closest thing to that.

I would not touch Meraki with a 10 foot barge pole

Question: What hardware vendor has the right to say, my product will completely stop working and is worth nothing more than a door stop if the support has lapsed ?

Answer: A product I would never select for a deployment anywhere

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#2694323 17-Apr-2021 23:40

nztim:
lxsw20:

IME Cisco Meraki is probably the closest thing to that.

I would not touch Meraki with a 10 foot barge pole

Question: What hardware vendor has the right to say, my product will completely stop working and is worth nothing more than a door stop if the support has lapsed ?

Answer: A product I would never select for a deployment anywhere

I 1000% agree. Never use Meraki as it stops working if you don’t want to pay their tax for their over priced and under powered gear and then you like me have expensive paperweight.

lxsw20

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#2694324 18-Apr-2021 01:12

nztim:

lxsw20:

IME Cisco Meraki is probably the closest thing to that.

I would not touch Meraki with a 10 foot barge pole

Question: What hardware vendor has the right to say, my product will completely stop working and is worth nothing more than a door stop if the support has lapsed ?

Answer: A product I would never select for a deployment anywhere

Yeap I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. It comes down to what you see as value at the end of the day.

I used to look after a decent size Meraki setup and wouldn't hesitate to use it again, but that's not to say its right for every situation.

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#2694332 18-Apr-2021 08:38

Meraki, hmmm, an organisation I look after several of its branches were told by hq they were to move to a meraki solution, the initial cost was not too bad but it was the on going licence that was hidden in the fine print which annualy exceeded the 5yr cost of my unifi/hp switching /mikrotik routing/vpn solution.

So I alerted my branches of this, they quickly declined the hq edict much to the cto's annoyance.

One year latter, the other branches receive their annual licence bill, moments latter my phone rings hot. 😊

Cyril

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#2694333 18-Apr-2021 08:47

BarTender: I 1000% agree. Never use Meraki as it stops working if you don’t want to pay their tax for their over priced and under powered gear and then you like me have expensive paperweight.

And to think Meraki was originally developed for community-based mesh WiFi deployments until a large corporation decided it was time to stop with this thing and buy them...

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#2694335 18-Apr-2021 08:54

billbennett:

Networking gear is the worst for this. And it's not as if the technology isn't daunting enough for non-technical users. I'm struggling to think of a really good user experience I've had with routers or other network kit.

There's a huge opportunity for someone to do an Apple-like play with networking.

I think in some ways the problem is the move towards an Apple like play.

Every vendor now wants to offer an app and/or cloud based config to make configuration "easy". You could almost argue not wanting to give local access to the web GUI unless you take additional steps t allow that is even part of that approach.

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#2694338 18-Apr-2021 08:57

freitasm:

BarTender: I 1000% agree. Never use Meraki as it stops working if you don’t want to pay their tax for their over priced and under powered gear and then you like me have expensive paperweight.

And to think Meraki was originally developed for community-based mesh WiFi deployments until a large corporation decided it was time to stop with this thing and buy them...

Same with Open-Mesh who built hardware for geeks and in many ways were pioneers in the cloud based configuration space until they were then acquired by Datto who decided to start charging everybody who wanted to still keep being able to use and configure the hardware.

It is one of the huge risks with going down the whole cloud based path. I know people who will never touch Ruckus again after being burnt badly with their Xclaim hardware which was abandoned.

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#2694388 18-Apr-2021 13:39

Won’t someone send Steve some thoughts and prayers??

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#2694495 18-Apr-2021 16:37

sbiddle:

Same with Open-Mesh who built hardware for geeks and in many ways were pioneers in the cloud based configuration space until they were then acquired by Datto who decided to start charging everybody who wanted to still keep being able to use and configure the hardware.

It is one of the huge risks with going down the whole cloud based path. I know people who will never touch Ruckus again after being burnt badly with their Xclaim hardware which was abandoned.

Aruba got balance of this bang on, give enough features away for free, if you want to do more complex stuff, you need to subscribe to ClearPass

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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