Malware-infected flash cards shipped out with HP switches HP has sent out a warning to customers after the vendor found out it had inadvertently been shipping virus-laden compact flash cards with its networking kit. The unnamed malware appeared on flash cards that came bundled with HP ProCurve 5400zl switches. The flash card wouldn't do anything on the switch itself but "reuse of an …
No such problems here. 100% reliability (displacing Netgear, which was going badly downhill). That said, without knowing exactly which model in the ProCurve range, it's comparing oranges with apples. Are you completely sure that the problem is not with your electricity supply? Nothing likes being subjected to high-voltage spikes and surges. I've seen a router with its chips physically exploded after a thunderstorm. A lesser spike may just fry their innards.
Some Cisco switches have similar warranties; mainly the small business line. Do you really think they have a lifetime warranty? Read the small print, the lifetime warranty is clearly stated that it isn't. For as long as the are producing them and then a few years after, they will warranty it, after that, no such luck.
Actually HP do have a lifetime warranty "for as long as you own the product" on most of the ProCurve products (and a bunch of the 3com/H3C ones too by the look of it).
http://h17007.www1.hp.com/docs/support/warranty/HPNetworkingProductWarrantySummary.pdf
You should log a call and see how you go!
Interesting, it *does* have a "lifetime guarantee", so they can have them back. I still wouldn't use them anywhere that I neded reliability, a switch that dies after simply being switched off & then on again is way too fragile for serious use. None of the other servers or switches in the rack, or in any other rack in the lab, failed. Just the ProCurve ones.
Please read the small print.. go to www.hp.com/networking/warranty and download the terms and conditions.
It really is lifetime, and if you sell it to another end user, they *ALSO* get the lfietime warranty.
Switch fails ten years after end of life announced, HP will swap it out. Simples.
After you've read the small print, go an read Cisco or *ANY* other networking vendors small print about "Lifetime" warranty.. oh yeah, that stops five years after EOL.
DISCLOSURE > Work for HP.
Well, whatever I may think of ProCurve switches (why did 2 out of 3 die after simple power cycling, when none of the Cisco or Sun gear in the same rack suffered at all?) I can't fault HP's Lifetime Guarantee. I'm just off the phone to them, two replacement switches will be here on Monday. Thanks to those who suggested it. I think I'll give them to someone else, though :)
Incidentally, to the HP guy above, the guarantee says "for as long as you own the product" so I woudn't be so sure about the selling-on aspects. The rest certainly seems good.
In 2006-2007, TomTom shipped a load of satnavs with an Autorun virus on the flash, that could infect your PC if it had Autorun enabled.
The one I had didn't have a virus on it, but I had to get it fixed under guarantee - and it came back with a virus!. Evidently the PCs in their repair centre were all infected.
It also came with beta firmware on it. Sigh.
Bit of a strange attack vector, putting a PC virus on switch flash cards, sounds more accidental than intentional as it relies on the end user taking the swtch flash card and plugging it into a PC. Looks like hp will have to impose some security terms on those 3rd parties supplying such bits.
HP's Procurve lifetime warranty isn't lifetime either. They had to stick a specific length on it for legal reasons (whose life span do you base it on?) and settled on somewhere just over 30 years (can't remember the exact figure). So if your 10/100 switch you bought yesterday (yes, they still make them) dies in 30 years time you can get a replacement for it. Mind you, they do say it'll be of "nearest current equivalent" for EOL models, so the chances are that your 30 year old network card in your machine won't be able to connect to whatever it's replaced with.
Cisco's "Lifetime Warranty" seems to have been based on the life span of a mayfly.
I register the warranties for the ProCurve switches we buy, and they always come up as 99 years from the date of purchase when viewed in HP Support Center.
We've only has one fail (after about 5 years) and it was swapped out no problem (advanced replacement, all shipping at HP's expense). No complaints here on their service.
Procurve switches, for me, have been fabulously reliable.
Unlike the "big C", they also:
Don't charge for firmware updates
Don't charge for support generally speaking
Have a fabulous warranty (covers everything except 'consumable' parts like fans)
Don't have policies explicitly designed to eliminate the secondary market
Are far easier to use than 'that other vendor' (Decent GUI, plus curses-based text menus, plus the rudimentary line-editor sort of thing most people use on that Other Brand)
That said, I never saw this kind of issue prior to HP's absorption of that Chinese company that used to call itself 3Com that makes those cheap and ugly things. :P
I'm leery of the new Procurve stuff. Never liked 3com much, and never wanted much to do w/ Huawei either after learning about their attempts to copy Ciscos IOS into their products without permission.
Biggest downfall to ProCurve is feature support, which is dreadfully limited. I've worked two stints at HP in the last five years and can attest that there's little internal pressure to innovate. Most enterprises (and to some extent SMB) cannot use ProCurve anywhere but at the access layer for that reason.
Ask an HP Enterprise Service account team about it and they'll try to sell you the H3C gear in a heartbeat, for that very reason. Internally, ProCurve is on the way out, so it's possible the lifetime warranties get adjusted at some point. Would love for them to replace ProCurve with A-series under warranty.
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