…the same people that decided on the ASR920 MPLS L2VPN contructs… geez, I recall those being strange
Aaron > On Aug 6, 2025, at 2:50 PM, Dan Mahoney (Gushi) via NANOG > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Note: This is an attempt at Humor that I hope to make my fellow graybeards > go "wait, really?". It gave me a fun story to tell. But it may just read as > old-man-yells-at-cloud-hardware-vendor. > > While we're posting fun problems about SNMP polling, where the "S" stands for > "Simple" (?), and we're trying to walk 10's of megs of data out of a system, > but the protocol only ever uses UDP, even though TCP is totally in the spec... > > Can someone please tell me which engineer at Cisco decided that the serial > ports on some of their ASR920 would be: > > * not in an RJ45 shell (as we've seen since the C2501 days)... > > * nor a USB-micro that presents PL2032 serial port controller internally, > that connects with a micro-to-usb-A (like everyone has lying around to charge > their old stuff?), and like every other cisco device has had for 10 years. > > But instead, would be your choice of: > > * A usb "A" port, that presents a virtual serial port to the host PC, but > which then requires a USB-A-TO-USB-A cable that nobody has, and is next to, > and identical to, (but distinct from) the USB port where one can plug in > flash drives... > > OR > > * A totally different port on the other side of the main ports that has the > usual TXD, RXD, GND, CTS, RTS -- but ALSO inside a USB-A header, so you need > some special kind of unobtanium breakout box (And another of those for the > AUX connector.) > > === > > WHAT? > > If you don't believe me, go look up pictures of the Cisco ASR-920-24TZ-M > > I've had to walk people on the datacenter floor through splicing a serial > console together with twisted wires, (stripped with the teeth as the lord > intended), because of this, over a bad facetime connection -- because of > course that's where the cellular and wifi signal's worst, inside the building > with thousands of 10G connections to the internet. > > By cutting these corners, Cisco saved space for the RJ45 sitting right there > for an "ALARM" connector, I'm sure that's a crucial thing that everyone who > needs a small router like this will use. (My ASR9000's had it, my ASR1001X's > didn't, but a 920...sure?) > > Clearly Cisco hired someone from the iPhone headphone port division (let's be > "brave" and delete it!). Or the APC UPS DE-9 port division, where connecting > a straight-through cable would cause it to drop the load. > > This is as bad as the ham radio a friend sent me, that has a USB charger that > puts out 12V. (That one got some hot glue to make it a perma-cable, it's an > otherwise fine radio). > > i've known some awesome people who worked at Cisco (including one of dayjob's > board members, who just passed away. We miss you, Fred!). Jim Houts in the > TME lab and Xander Thujis have been incredibly kind and helpful to us, in a > bygone era. > > But this here, this is some temu-level stuff. > > I'll be here all week, try the veal. > > -Dan/W3ZUL > > -- > > > --------Dan Mahoney-------- > Techie, Sysadmin, WebGeek > Gushi on efnet/undernet IRC > FB: fb.com/DanielMahoneyIV > LI: linkedin.com/in/gushi > Site: http://www.gushi.org > --------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/7U4ECEOQ4NLSHSZ5AOZOM2Q675TIIUD2/ _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/UKRHK2XQ5ALYEBP7EZSZZ7ZOBKQI3QQH/
