Very impressive. I don�t know of
ANY company that would send out their latest RMA issues. I feel better
about committing to Smartbridges products. J
-----Original
Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Nish Park
Sent: Monday, June 23,
2003
5:38
AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [smartBridges] Peeling the
Onion
We are trying to understand and resolve the issues
being reported with our products. In order to make this an interactive
process, we are sharing with you an analysis of a recent batch of RMA units.
This is done with the hope that we will be able to close the gaps by informing
you on how we are resolving the issues. As you may note from the below
narrative, I think we all have come a long way on peeling this onion and make
the issues smaller and smaller.
The attached RMA report is for 24 units returned from
various distributors and also the ones that customers sent to us directly to
try to better understand the �Ethernet Burnout� issue. In order to provide the
perspective, this RMA report is quite similar to what we see for the overall
3% return rate that we had reported before. From these 24 units - 10 are
confirmed DEFECTIVE, 11 units are confirmed OK and 3 units are in the Other
category.
1)
OK
units � We have not been able to find any defects with these 11
devices. A simple reset to factory default or the F/W upgrade brought them
back to life. Also note that 6 devices were loaded with the wrong type of
firmware. Perhaps inadvertently people ended up loading wrong firmware in
their devices. A few weeks ago the F/W upgrade utility has already been
enhanced to prevent this in the future. These units were returned to us
because the customers were having some problems. So we have to close the loop.
We will return some units back to the sender and see if they continue to have
problem with their installation.
2)
Defective
Units - Of the 10 defective units, 5 have problems with
the power supply. Another 4 units have defective Ethernet port. You may also
note that all of these are Outdoor devices. These two issues make up almost
all the returns.
We think these issues are related. Our hypothesis is
that for outdoor units, atmospheric EMP and noisy power supplies are causing
the stress/failures. As part of our normal quality enhancement activities,
this hypothesis was developed a few weeks ago and we have already made some
changes to further increase the noise immunity of the input section of the
devices. For past 2-3 weeks, we are now shipping these products. We believe
these changes will go a long way to reduce/eliminate this issue. In addition,
we are developing an enhanced version of powerShot for outdoor devices (more
details to come).
In the mean time we recommend use of surge protectors
on the RJ45 cable (required by National Electrical Code), shielded RJ45 cable
and high quality 18V power supply with low ripple current.
Let me also take this opportunity to comment on the
other most frequently discussed issues.
a)
Frequent
Reset or Power Cycle of airBridge
After solving this problem in airBridge firmware
version 09.08 and above, we have not been able to reproduce this problem in
the lab. But we know that few users are reporting this issue. This kind of
makes it difficult because we do not know what to fix. Nevertheless, in next
2-3 weeks we will release a software utility simpleWatch that will reset the airBridge
units under certain error conditions. This utility will run on the PC. This
temporary solution will reduce the customer inconvenience while we continue to
follow the issue and identify the root cause.
Many users are reporting that by changing the pre-amble setting to Long, their devices
are more stable. Some users are also reporting that by increasing the Fade margin of the link also helps with
this issue. Both are reasonable things and provide logical explanation. Some
people report that power cycling of the Router or the PC also clears up the
issue.
b)
Password
Lockout
There appears to be some incompatibility of the
enhanced security features with some of the older radios. We were not able to
reproduce this problem in the lab. However, based on the field reports we have
enhanced the simpleMonitor recovery algorithm. Since this affected only some
of the older radios, problem is now occurring less and less often.
c)
Mikrotik
Compatibility with airBridge
It has been verified by Mikrotik that v2.7 is ok with
airBridge F/W 01.04 (with Multi Mac and Remote Management). Users of v2.6 are
advised to stay with airBridge F/W 09.10.
d)
PPPoE
support by airBridge
airBridge F/W 01.04 has been verified to work with
RASPPPoE client. There are some problems with WinXP�s native PPPoE client and
investigation is under way.
e)
Various
Networking related issues
DHCP and Gateway settings had created a lot of
confusion resulting in people reporting strange networking behaviors (e.g. sub
netting, Ping). We have provided additional documentation,
suggested IP numbering schemes and enhanced the simpleMonitor ToolTip to
properly guide the users.
f)
Repeater
Mode for airPoint Pro
This issue has been fixed with aPP F/W version
1.4j.6
g)
Mounting
Brackets for TOTAL
Metal thickness will be increased and better quality
washers will be provided. Additional powder coating will be applied to the
brackets to improve the aesthetics.
h)
Device
Search Failures
SNMP queries can be lost on busy networks. We have
increased the Retry count of certain SNMP queries by simpleMonitor to increase
the consistency of the device search function and the Site Survey
results.
i)
Enhanced
FAQs
Our support staff now maintains the FAQs in real time.
We will put increased emphasis on this to get the user community to check this
resource. There should be no reason why a user has to re-discover the known
issues.
j)
Slow Web
site and Downloads
A new server web is in the process of configured. This
server will be located in USA and connected to a Fiber
backbone.
k)
Web based
Forums
We will implement Advanced Search function to this
forum�s archives to facilitate web based access to this rich knowledge
base.
I know it can be frustrating at times to spend a lot
of time debugging the installation. But I think we all have come a long way in
peeling this onion and quickly leaving the issues behind. We will continue to
work with our customers to enhance the product and service offerings.
Thanks for your support.
With best regards,
Nish
