NAPC | Hardware Horror Stories

Often, customers tell us reassuringly, "Don't worry, we'll buy the right thing." Problem is, as many of them have found out, you can buy the right thing and still get the wrong thing! What's worse, getting a satisfactory response may be difficult, depending on who sold you the hardware.

When NAPC is involved, you avoid these kinds of problems. We purchase only from sources we know and trust, and thoroughly test everything before it comes to you. If anything is wrong, we take care of it. You can rest easy.

Below are some recent horror stories we've witnessed. Remember, these unfortunate incidents happened to some very large corporations. They really can happen to anyone.

Customer A bought an EMC RAID from Dell. It took 4 months and 5 onsite visits from both NAPC and EMC to get it operational. This same customer later bought a tape library from Dell. The wrong card was supplied to work with their Sun e450 server. The hardware is still not operational.

Customer B bought a library and card from a third party. The card is not compatible with the operating system being used. This issue has yet to be resolved.

Customer C bought a server and RAID from a local reseller. The RAID came misconfigured, with the wrong type of drives. The server arrived broken, having been packaged and shipped improperly.

Customer D bought a Sun server from eBay and had it delivered to us for staging. The backplane was broken, there were several bad drives and the drives were not the ones advertised.

Customer E bought a tape library from a third party. The library does not work for the intended usage. Apparently, the customer is now saddled with hardware they cannot return.

Customer F bought and attempted to install a RAID themselves. Printing services were broken and had to be reconfigured from scratch.

Customer G had a SAN they used for data storage. The SAN went down monthly, every time they upgraded firmware on it or did any routine maintenance.

Customer H bought a server on eBay that arrived DOA.


	Current Course Offerings: *NAPC Refresher Training Class* Date: New Dates To Be Announced Soon! NAPC's Refresher training two day course will review the general theory of each program. How it works and why. We review every option available within the GUI and some special command line configuration options, you may not know about. FullPress Admin • Volumes and Configuration ~ FPO Options and Settings ~ Access Controls. • Print Queues ~ Configuration and Options ~ Input Spoolers and Hot Folders ~ Logs and Troubleshooting • Security Settings ~ Access Control Lists ~ Queue Master Clients ~ Admin Controls ============================ WebNative Admin • Users and Groups ~ Volume Assignments ~ Rights and Privileges ~ Logs and Troubleshooting • Styles ~ Assignment to Users ~ Group Defaults ~ Customization • Plugins ~ Assignment to Users and/or Groups ~ Customization ============================ Venture Database Admin • Configuration ~ Enabling Volumes ~ Administration and Location ~ Backup Schedules • Data Fields ~ Creation and Style ~ Editing • Templates ~ Creation and Editing ~ User Assignment and Permissions ~ Viewing Styles • Triggers and Actions ~ Configuration and Settings ~ Rule Sets ~ Multiple Action Sets ~ Logs and Troubleshooting ============================ Also included: ~ Debugging tips and common repairs • Unix ~ Common Unix commands ~ GUI tools