SWGfL Support isuues

[MicrodigitUK]

We access the Networks Maps on the SWGfL ESI to monitor our connection. Login to Cacti No problems for years until recently it became intermittent and was responding with squid errors. But not all the time!!! Then the other day when I really wanted to access them I couldn't.

 

So fine, I'll open a support ticket with SWGfL as it looks to be a Proxy configuration error in there proxy farm. Just thought they would ask a couple of questions and find the problem.

 

Then this morning I basically got this response from RM India and the call was closed immediately: "network map on SWGfl ESI page service is replaced with SafetyNet Plus Bandwidth. Network map service will is no longer available."

 

Fair enough but hang on a minute!!

 

1) No information was given to customers that this service was going to be removed.

2) It is working intermittently on SWGfL main proxy! It works from home ISP! It even works on the staff proxy 100%, so "no longer available" is not true!

3) This looks like a proxy farm configuration issue so what other issues are there with the configuration?

4) What technical investigation was even done into the issue? (Not much once they saw some internal note that the website will go one day!)

 

Just looked to me like a issue they could not be bothered to fix as the monitoring network maps are going to be decommissioned some time in the future. So thought I would share this lovely support experience.

 

What type of support is that? I cant be bothered to fix it because that website will go eventually, but I don't have a date when so Ill just lie to the customer and say service is no longer available.

 

If it was any other website than one of there own they would have looked into it and not given an excuse to why its not working.

 

Not impressed and that level of support on top of the Proxy outage issues the other week I think its time to look elsewhere.

 

RM and SWGfL Support you have let me down! @JGoswell

[speckytecky]

SWGfL support has been one reason why we have stuck with them - through thick and thin. I can't recall an instance when a UK based support Agent has let us down. Our experience of their overseas call centre support has been pretty good as well. Odd occasions where they have difficulty understanding my Cornish national accent and equally odd occasions where I have had difficulty with their spoken English but on the whole satisfied. Sounds like they have badly let you down though @JGoswell

[JGoswell]

Hi @MicrodigitUK

 

If your avatar is your school’s logo, then I think I’ve identified your support ticket (I was a pupil at your school).

 

The response you received was correct in that we’re moving from the old bandwidth monitoring tool, which you’d access via SWGfL’s ESI portal, to it being part of RM SafetyNet filtering. This will be more accurate, as it collects more data points, have a far better user interface and be easier to use, as it’s integrated in SafetyNet, as opposed to being a stand-alone tool.

 

All schools with a SWGfL connection get a basic version of SafetyNet for free and it comes with everything mentioned above. Some schools opt for SafetyNet+ and get additional customisation options, including filtering by groups and the ability to add their own rules.

 

We’ll work with you to investigate the intermittent access to the SWGfL portal issue you reported on your support call. We also recognise communication regarding the switch over, including from RM international, has not been great. We’d like to apologise to you for that and we’ll do our best to learn from it.

 

Jamie @ RM

[jbunoomally]

What stats will schools who use their own onsite appliance see (who don't use safetynet upstream)?

JB.

[JGoswell]

Hi @jbunoomally

 

Your school has a SafteyNet+ licence so you can login to it to check your bandwith usage.

 

Jamie @ RM

[jbunoomally]

Thanks - am aware we have SN+ licensing for users which may not go through our LS appliance. What i'm asking is whether the new system will show the data that goes through the SN+ as well as the transparent upstream as used by our onsite Rocket appliance?

JB.

[jbunoomally]

I've just had a call from the Grid this morning clarifying that the stats are collected directly from the router and not at the other end at SN(+), which is good news. However, after having a look at the new monitoring system, it is not as granular as the old Cacti system (i.e. cannot view unicast traffic stats etc.) and you are limited to viewing 1 weeks worth of historic data. Cacti offered the ability to chart 2 years worth of stats and was very useful in identifying trends - they did say that if we wanted information we could ring up and log a call and they could investigate, but in my opinion this turns what should be a 5 minute job for me to look up into a faff because i will have to log a call and explain what i'm trying to do and then await a reply (which may not contain the information i want and have to ring up again) - i have suggested to the Grid that it is worth replacing the ability to view at least 1 years worth, but would say that this is more likely to be listened to if more of us request it.

 

JB.

[JGoswell]

Hi @jbunoomally

 

Thanks for your time earlier.

 

I can confirm we've discussed your query with our developers, who'll add this improvement to a future release.

 

Jamie @ RM

Edited November 24, 2015 by JGoswell