What, exactly, is supported by Netgear?

[opt2bout]

First, I understand the need for technical support to exclude Beta firmware and unreleased, 3rd party add-ons.

That being said, the ReadyNas site features an exciting article about getting SVN working on the ReadyNAS. This required SSH access (although a 3rd party add-on was recently announced in the Developers forum).

Now, EnableSSH is a Netgear add-on, available directly from the web site. The article, also featured on the front page of the ReadyNAS.com web site, states to get the add-on from the web site and install it. When that didn't work for us, we contacted Netgear support.

Much to our dismay, we were told by the agent that it was not supported and that by installing the SSH add-on we have "lost all technical support for the unit."

When asked to speak to someone else, the agent went further to state that "[This] is pretty much as far as it goes..."

SO, what Excactly is supported by Netgear? There is no mention or disclaimer on Netgear/ReadyNAS web site that states if you follow this featured article, you void any chance of getting technical support--EVER. There is no mention of this on the ReadyNAS download page.

So is this just one agent having a bad day or is this the OFFICIAL position and, if so, shouldn't the consumer be made aware of this before they are tempted to follow the featured, front-page article?

[Dooku]

Can you please give me your case number. As far as support goes if you were having issues installing the root ssh add-on we should be able to help you do that. But once you install the add -on you do void your software support. You still have your hardware warranty.
The reason for this is that with ssh enabled there are just to many issues that can be cause by just one file being edited improperly and there is no way for support to help at that point as there is no way fro us to know exactly what has been done to the unit as most of it will not reflect in the logs.

[opt2bout]

I didn't get a case number for this...it didn't go any further than the agent telling me that there was no support.

We have recently had the unit "repaired" remotely on another case (#7521855)...which I suspect is the issue. The unit stopped responding to anything except AFP/CIFS. FTP, HTTP/S, etc. (including Frontview). The engineer on that case telnet'd into the unit and fixed it. Frontview works, but we do get other errors when we attempted to delete a couple of shares. The shares are now gone, but something thinks that they are still there. So I still think something is not quite right.

I think my issue here and now is that if Netgear is going to tout a feature such as the SVN article, they need to be up front and disclaim the loss of support. There is no mention of this until you get half-way down the road, and then you're screwed. I believe this complaint has been made before and yet corporate seems to ignore it but are quick to hang up on you when you call for help.

Since we have no ssh access, we can't even try to fix things on our own. The telnet mode is "secret" and thus doesn't afford us with any options but to brick the device and start with something else that has the services we can use without voiding our support.

[Jedi Knight]

Just a side note..

http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=94

EnableRootSSH - With the EnableRootSSH add-on, you can now remote login to the ReadyNAS RAIDiator shell as a root user. Initial password for root will be the same as the current FrontView admin password. Please keep in mind that NETGEAR may deny support if you've enabled root access.

[opt2bout]

Please keep in mind that NETGEAR may deny support if you.ve enabled root access.

The complaint here is that if you are going to advertise or publish a "feature" that voids support, don't you think that instead of being ambiguous ("NETGEAR may deny support") you would be up front with this?

"NETGEAR will deny support if you use this article to enable this feature."

[Grievous]

opt2bout, the SSH add-on was something created at the request of the user base. However, due to the nature of the add-on(enabling root access), this is far beyond the scope of function for the ReadyNAS product family. As such, it's an "at your own risk" add-on.

To make that a little clearer, if someone installs the ssh add-on, and suddenly has no access to their unit after accidentally dropping cup of coffee on the keyboard that just so happens to hit rm -rf / [enter] technical support cannot be expected to be responsible for handling such a situation.

The reality is, is that supporting the backend operating system opened up via SSH would be like asking Microsoft or Apple to not charge users wanting technical support for their OS. Microsoft charging $59 for basic phone support and $515 for "Critical after hours support"; apple does offer 90 days of free phone support, only until 6pm PST, otherwise it's $49 per phone support session for home products(OSX on a desktop) and $199 per phone support session for professional products(OSX on a server).

Granted, Netgear support does indeed have some paid data recovery services that can handle some SSH mishaps, but it does not cover the full spectrum of problems that could potentially arise from users simply not knowing what they're doing.

Does that help explain it better?

Remember, the SSH access is an option, not an out of box feature.

edit: By the way, installing the SSH add-on does not automatically void all of your tech support. For example, the SSH add-on has nothing to do with hardware, which is still covered by tech support. You can also restore your full access to support for software related issues at any time by factory defaulting your ReadyNAS and restoring the data from a backup. So no, you are not voided from using tech support forever.

edit again: Just for getting the whole spectrum, Ubuntu's support partner charges $2750 for a year of 24/7 support. Redhat charges $1299/year, and a number of other distros won't give you pricing till you contact them over the phone. These services are for basic support, not including things like remotely accessing a system for data recovery(those incidents usually have additional charges).

[masterash]

Hi,

Is it possible to install Togglessh and get the netgear software support or you have to do a full factory reset to get Netgear Software Support.

Can you please tell me How does the support work. When I initially set it NV+ (1 month ago). After installing the new firmware I was unable to access the FrontView. I contacted Australian Phone Number for technical support and got diverted to one of the other help desk support countries. There I was told to call back btw Mon-Fri 9-5 your local support as NV+ is not covered. Whereas on the NV+ box it mentions 24x7 support.

I fixed the problem by going through this forum and 12hrs of research (did a full factory reset after trying every possible thing). Just curious How support works?

Thanks

[opt2bout]

Grievous,

I just want to first thank the forum mods for their participation, input and assistance.

I completely understand why SSH access activation would result in a more restrictive support procedure.

However, my original point is that ReadyNas.com's own web site features a "benefit" of using the NAS device by enabling a feature that would result in 'de-supporting' the unit. This feels contradictory or possibly hypocritical.

[chirpa]

Support has been notified to be more lenient on SSH users. But if it is discovered that user SSH caused the problem, they will only be left with the option of factory default.

[jjames]

Grievous,

I just want to first thank the forum mods for their participation, input and assistance.

I completely understand why SSH access activation would result in a more restrictive support procedure.

However, my original point is that ReadyNas.com's own web site features a "benefit" of using the NAS device by enabling a feature that would result in 'de-supporting' the unit. This feels contradictory or possibly hypocritical.

kinda be like Microsoft offering a registry fix, but warning you to edit the registry at your own risk even though they provided the registry editor

[beisser]

kinda be like Microsoft offering a registry fix, but warning you to edit the registry at your own risk even though they provided the registry editor

nope,

it would be like microsoft offering the registry editor (ssh-access), but warning you at the same time, that phonesupport wouldnt help you if you destroyed your registry by editing it.

that would be more accurate.

[MrCyberdude]

Support has been notified to be more lenient on SSH users.
But if it is discovered that user SSH caused the problem,
they will only be left with the option of factory default.

This seems more reasonable if the user has caused the problem.

Thx for the clarification Jedi's as well as informing tech support.

[gonzonia]

Okay, I understand the support issues associated with enabling ssh and enabling root ssh. I actually installed the add-ons but then fiugured out how to fix my issue before ever needing to ssh. Now I'd like to UNINSTALL them. How can I do this? Do I just re-install the toggle add on to disable ssh?

Will that be enough if I need support to not raise questions? I'm just concerned about any possible questions being raised simply because I enabled something I never used.

[dbott67]

Okay, I understand the support issues associated with enabling ssh and enabling root ssh. I actually installed the add-ons but then fiugured out how to fix my issue before ever needing to ssh. Now I'd like to UNINSTALL them. How can I do this? Do I just re-install the toggle add on to disable ssh?

Will that be enough if I need support to not raise questions? I'm just concerned about any possible questions being raised simply because I enabled something I never used.

You can't uninstall SSH, but you can disable it by running the toggle.

In my mind, SSH access not an issue. NASes and similar RAID devices are not immune from failure (hardware, software or human). If the only copy of your data is on the NAS, you don't have a backup.

Suppose that the NAS isn't working and that support wants you to perform a factory reset to rule out some sort of "user-created" problem due to SSH access before they provide further assistance. If you've got a backup, then it's not really a problem, however, if you don't have a backup... it's a big problem.

The best way to prevent data loss is to always make sure it's backed up. Don't be like these guys: http://www.readynas.com/?p=3153

[gonzonia]

Thanks. Since I was still in the process of setting up and hadn't really moved much data over there, I decided to just do a factory reset now and prevent any sort of potential issue in the future. Of course now I've got some funky behavior...but that's for another post.