Everyday I am reminded how much I love Cisco stuff over the competitors (although, to be fair, I like JunOS although have only run it in Olive and its EXPENSIVE. I would HAVE a Juniper router if the cheapest router wasn't the SRX @ around 500$ Yikes!). Today I am reminded again.
I grabbed this off of Ebay for 65$. I noticed my company uses extreme gear and I wanted the chance to learn some of the CLI. Seeing all the Layer 3 features, including NAT, at a little less than I can procure another 3550 I jumped on it:
So I am cruising along, getting used to CLI - it works pretty good. Definately different than IOS or JunOS but not shabby then I encouter this:
Damnit. Thanks Extreme. I just bought a junk switch. I simply can't make use of this if I can't even enable things I need. I am not COMPLETELY against this business model, in a way, it makes perfect sense. Customers can procure a device and only pay for the license for the features they need. However, this is an EOL device. Going to their site I am still greeted with a page where I need to log in and register and I **MIGHT* be able to procure the license I need to get this working. Please Extreme, I would rather not torrent your software, and wade through potentially harmful downloads that may damage my equipment to get what I need.
I guess this is really no different than the SMI/EMI debacle, but it is really hard for people like me who want to learn the technology and perhaps put in a good word for the company in the end (positively impacting purchasing decisions) but I just can't do that here. If Extreme doesn't respond to my registration, I will send them an E-mail and if I can't get them to pony up a license for this I am shipping this switch off ASAP and not ever looking back to Extreme again. I will learn it when I am directly faced with it in production and will recommend Cisco equipment until then. Buying this switch was a mistake at this point and I should have just found another Cisco 3550 to prepare for the INE topology like I was doing in the first place. Buyer beware!
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