RE: General AS/400 Question -- MIDRANGE-L

Hmmmm.  I mentioned help/systems in my reply also, and mentioned that I
had no direct experience with them.  
In light of your experiences, I will cease to recommend them.

...Thanks



Neil Palmer                                AS/400~~~~~      
NxTrend Technology - Canada   ____________          ___  ~     
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laura Ausel [SMTP:v2keaa42@us.ibm.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 12:10 PM
> To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      Re: General AS/400 Question
> 
> Paul Musselmann recently mentioned Help System's Robot products in
> response to
> this question.  Let me add my 2 cents about that.
> 
> About 18 months ago, I evaluated Help System's paging product as part
> of a
> project to un-staff my night shift.  I figured since they have
> market-share
> they MUST be a reputable company.  I was wrong.  Here's what happend:
> 
>   I loaded the program, according to the directions, as QSECOFR.   I
> fully
> realize that this, in itself can be suspect and I should (and did)
> require my
> software NOT to need QSECOFR for any reason.  However, I also realize
> that this
> is sometime the best way to load software, when the person doing the
> load may
> not have the legitimately needed authorities to do the setup (e.g.
> *IOSYSCFG
> for comm configuration, etc) under their own profile - even though
> they may
> have all the authority they need to run the product.  So I loaded.
> And I found
> that their install program, WITH NO FOREWARNING OR PERMISSION, in the
> documentation or on a screen at install time, CHANGED MY QSYSLIBL.
> They PUT
> RBTSYSADM (or some such library name, their baseline library at any
> rate)  AH
> EAD OF QSYS in my qsyslibl WITH *PUBLIC *CHANGE authority. Needlless
> to say I
> was not happy.  I was even less happy when I discovered *2*
> SYSTEM-STATE MI
> programs in their libraries.  I was told by their tech support that
> 'this is
> the only way' they can make their function run - but in the case of at
> least
> one of those programs they simply needed the correct MI command.  When
> I called
> them on these two intrusions, questioning the whys and wherefores I
> was told
> that they do this for their customers' convenience and that they
> didn't need my
> business (I was in state government at the time) if I didn't like the
> way they
> wrote their code.  That came from one of their Vice Presidents.  They
> didn't
> get my business.  I don't do business with hackers who hide under the
> covers of
> "this is the only way" and "our customers want the convenience".
> 
>  For those who want to know, my business went to MBA for their Page
> Manager
> product.  Yes, they needed QSECOFR to load - but only for the ease in
> creating
> line/controller/device descriptions.  And, when I called them they
> explained in
> great detail what happend in their installation program and why - to
> the extent
> of faxing me their source code to review.  I found their tech reps
> easy to work
> with and genuinely concerned with not only making life easier for
> their
> customers but also respecting their customers' security requirements.
> 
> Laura Ausel  -  Keane, Inc., Service Partner
> "Do something.  Lead, follow, or get out of the way."
> 
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