RE: Diagnosing VPN connectivity issues

Marlon:

The only way I can sell connectivity between sites is if I own both sides,
and since I don't, my options are leasing them a T-1 or Ethernet, which
raises it to a rate that they don't want to pay for.  I think they prefer
spending $500 a month in frustration (where frustration is = lost
productivity, sales, tech time, etc) than $1000 a month with no frustration
but it working reliably. =)

Some of them already outsource their VPN functionality to a third party, who
should be "doing it for them", but that right now seems to extend to box
management/configuration, not resolving connectivity issues.

And our CEO says that for the MRC that they're paying we should spend at
least some "free" time helping them out.

So I agree with you in principle, but it doesn't work out so well in
practice.

Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: Marlon K. Schafer [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 2:50 PM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Diagnosing VPN connectivity issues

Not that this really helps Frank but we try to eliminate fingers.

Try to sell the customer the connectivity between the sites.  YOU handle all

of the connectivity and vpn issues.

Also, I've found that people just don't want to help us fix a problem.  They

just want it all done for them.  We simply bill them for figuring out what 
it is if it's not a problem related to OUR network.

marlon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Bulk" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2010 10:29 AM
Subject: Diagnosing VPN connectivity issues


> We have several small enterprise customers who, on occasion, complain 
> about
> VPN tunnel stability issues to their remote branches.  After eliminating 
> the
> obvious physical plant issues (whether that be cable broadband, ADSL, 
> SHDSL,
> or fiber), we have them run PingPlotter in both directions.  While
> PingPlotter is better than nothing, I would say it helps identify the 
> issue
> only 10 to 20% of the time.  Not to speak of the time helping the customer
> properly interpret the PingPlotter results (they get caught up on ICMP
> packet loss at one hop that has no packet loss any further, and my 
> attempted
> explanations regarding control plane rate-limiting usually loses them and
> they point at the red lines).  And you know how it goes -- they point the
> finger at us, and we honestly want to help them, but if our L1, L2, and L3
> checks come up clean, what then?  I hate to point to fingers.  If I ask 
> for
> basic information such as VPN debug logs from their VPN gear the customers
> aren't able to help.  It's usually frustrating -- they want to the issue
> resolved, but often aren't willing to spend the time to work with us to
> identify the issue.
>
> What are others doing to help their customers with their VPN issues?
>
> Frank
>
> -- 
> Eat sushi frequently. - Avi
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-- 
Eat sushi frequently. - Avi
[email protected] is the human contact address.
[email protected] is the list posting address.
See below URL for subscribe/unsubscribe and list options:
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