Seeking NDS support

NDS is by far the most prevalent, powerful and scalable directory service today. Yet every vendor seems to want to just "sit tight" and wait for Microsoft's Active Directory Service to be fully implemented and then only support ADS. How many horror stories have to be written about botched implementations of ADS before vendors start looking at supporting other directory services? And what about the fact that ADS only runs on and supports Windows 2000 systems, while NDS can run on multiple platforms and support multiple clients?

Recently my company wanted to add some network-attached storage (NAS) devices to our network. None of the NAS devices on the market at the time supported NDS, so we had the extra administrative overhead of adding the users to the NAS security model. Although this was not difficult, it is one more disparaged system that must be managed separately. Approximately six months after deploying the NAS devices, I read a review of a new NAS device that was touted as supporting NDS. I visited the vendor's Web site and went to the section that discusses its support of NDS and ADS.

After going through the entire site and reading every PDF document, I found plenty on how its products work with ADS but nothing on NDS. Then, in a recent issue of an industry magazine, I saw a print ad for this same NAS device. The print ad specifically states it supports ADS but says nothing of NDS. I decided to call the maker of the NAS device and ask about its NDS integration. I spoke with a salesperson who had no idea how it integrated with NDS and had to get a technician on the phone. The technician informed me that the device fully integrates with NDS and becomes a manageable object in my tree.

This was wonderful to hear, but my joy soon turned to frustration as I asked them why they have no information on their Web site about their level of NDS integration and nothing at all in their print ads. Of course they have no say in such matters in the company, so I told them they should tell the powers that be that they should promote their NDS integration more prominently.

Industry pundits love nothing more than to talk about the demise of Novell, even though Novell dominates the directory service market, where Microsoft has yet to make a dent in its market share. I have always felt that these stories of demise have kept vendors from supporting NDS, because if the pundits say it will happen, then it must be true, right?

I hope this is the beginning of a trend of more serious support for NDS.

Jayson Hahn

Vice president of IT and CIO

Merrimac Industries

West Caldwell, N.J.

Regarding Kevin Tolly's column "Will Cisco suffer Yahoo's fate?" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4128): Despite the company's bad moves, they've still got an army of newly hatched Cisco Certified Network Associates and Cisco Certified Network Professionals, all of whom are working to become Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts.

Ever try to work on another vendor's products? For example, take a Lucent AC120: It has a cruddy code, no upgrades, its Web site is a black hole and good luck finding a technician that understands the stuff.

Now go to Cisco's site and pick out an obscure product the company stopped selling in 1997. All the documents are there. Everything - example configurations, what works with what, and a software library back to the very beginning. And when I call tech support, the worst I've ever had them do is put me on hold for a few minutes while they found someone to answer my obscure question.

I'd say Cisco's position is more closely related to Novell in 1993 than Yahoo this year, and they're much more likely to understand what is going on and make the needed changes than the one-dimensional Novell.

Neal Rauhauser

IP network designer

Americanrelay.com

Omaha, Neb.

The article "Tool sizes up Exchange migration costs (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4129) makes light of the fact that you must already have Active Directory and Windows 2000 in place before upgrading to Exchange 2000.

Implementing Active Directory and Win 2000 is the expensive and resource-intensive part of implementing Exchange 2000, and it should be included in the complete analysis. It is an arduous task.

Tangi Hodulik

Battle Creek, Mich.

One correction to your article "Companies warming up to PKI" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4130): Ford has chosen to encrypt all Web-based transactions with our business partners, not all data as mentioned. Internal data typically would not be encrypted unless sensitive in nature.

Paul Rathbun

eSecurity specialist

Ford Motor Co.

Dearborn, Mich.

Regarding your review "The trouble with trunking" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4131):

My company recently conducted what your article calls trunking tests on the Cisco Catalyst switch using Spirent Communications gear, as well as failure tests and other various throughput tests.

We even had a Spirent tech assisting us. We are using Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, not Open Shortest Path First. I am surprised that you did not inform your readers about the oddities of Cisco's "trunk." When the flows traveling over port X exceed the capacity of that port, the frames are dropped; they are not sent to another port in the "trunk" that has not yet reached its bandwidth limit. This could be a difficult issue to troubleshoot if you are not aware of it.

Ron Pieronek

Houston

Regarding "Computer sabotage case back in court" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4132):

The government must have recovered the six lines of code they claim Tim Lloyd planted. But if the file system is badly fragmented, how do they even know the six lines really go together? Don't they have backups from, say, the day before the crash? If the suspected code was then found, they could even check the ownership of the file, when it was created and so forth.

Also, usually one logs on as supervisor on NetWare 3.1x servers. If the servers were rigged to trigger on the next logon, it sure would have been embarrassing to have that happen as Lloyd logged on with someone looking over his shoulder. This sounds more like a highly fragmented, unmaintained server to me.

Randall Pastrone

Whittier, Calif.

Regarding "Deciphering Microsoft's .Net puzzle" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 4133):

All I see is the introduction of a new model that will require purchasing lots of new Microsoft products and services, thus negating users' return on investment in earlier Microsoft products.

And what does one actually gain from surrendering to this new model compared to the solutions offered by others? Or sticking with what one has already (perhaps improved a bit here and there at strategic points)?

Arthur Bommele

Vlissingen, Netherlands

I also agree that e-mail customer service is lacking. I try communicating via e-mail as opposed to calling, but I end up in a series of never-ending replies, often because my questions are not answered in the first place.

Although I have ordered items requiring shipment very few times, I have had bad experiences. I think the problem points back to a problem with customer service communication. However, I have been much more successful in online auction buying person to person. The replies I receive are accurate and fast. People care.

Guillaume Roy

Toronto