Re: Netserver Bug at 4.5 IBM won't PTF?

Hello Walden,

I meant to reply to this earlier but 'lost' it in the in-basket.  For
Win95/98 the client user ID and password MUST match the AS/400 user id and
password.  For NT/2000/etc you should be prompted for a user ID when the
windows user ID fails to connect.  I presume this problem shows up on
NT/2000/etc.

You wrote:
>IBM, after much yelling, screaming, and line tracing, has said, "Yup, it's
>a bug in 4.5 and 5.1. We've PTF'd it in 5.1 but we don't want to PTF it in
>4.5"

That seems to be the standard response number 1 from the NetServer team.
Standard response number 2 is to fix in a future release -- even when the
release for which you want the fix is still supported.

>Has anyone hit this problem? We can't go to V5R1 because of office vision.
>We can't roll out CA Express because of this net server problem so we're
>forced to roll out the 95/NT client. Of course when we do go to V5R1 we'll
>have to update all clients to CA Express since 95/NT isn't supported.

Oh yes! I discovered a bunch of of REALLY basic bugs in the 420/430/440
NetServer APIs and had a very hard time getting them to fix any release
prior to the current (then 440) release.  In many cases they wanted to fix
in a future release.  I did manage to get most of them fixed by being
persistant and annoying and refusing to close the PMR.

>Suggestions? How can IBM call V4R5 supported if they're unwilling to PTF
>bugs in it. How is V4R5 different from V4R1?

The magic word is 'escalate'.  You must tell them that this problem is
causing disruption to your business and if it is not fixed you will escalate
the issue.  You must also be able to prove that it is disruptive and there
is no acceptable work-around.  Escalate the problem to the manager of IBM
customer support, to the manager of your local IBM branch, and probably
contact customer satisfaction via iNation since they are very helpful.

In my case I had a product that depended on the correct working of the
NetServer APIs <http://www.flybynight.com.au/ONcmd.html> and I could use
that to justify the requirement for fixes.

>BTW, the "PTF" in 5.1 is that if netserver "Sees" the same request repeated
>it ignores it instead of attempting to connect with the incorrect userid
>and password again. IMHO, the correct fix would be to send the correct
>error message in the SMB block to begin with.

Surprise me!  NetServer is full of stuff like this.  I've traced the SMB
transactions because NetServer refuses to talk to OS/2 via SMB.  NetServer
sends back a 'bad password' message when that isn't the case.  NetServer can
tell that the request is from OS/2 and simply refuses to process it.

What ticks me off the most about this is that OS/2 SMB can connect quite
happily to Windows SMB servers and I **KNOW** Microsloth aren't doing
anything special to support OS/2.  If OS/2 can connect to Windows, why can't
it connect to NetServer?  'Cause NetServer deliberately reject it and get
very upset when you point out that NetServer documentation says OS/2 is a
supported client!

Mac OS X can connect to NetServer, Samba clients can connect to NetServer --
everything except OS/2.  Bastards!  Needless to say after my experiences
with them I have very little respect for the NetServer team.  NetServer is
the worst (as in flaky and bug-ridden) piece of software to come out of IBM
since PROFS!

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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