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Technology Stocks : Network Associates (NET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MoonFather who wrote (3551)	11/16/1998 1:46:00 PM
From: Joanna Tsang	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6021

Every so many months someone stands up and tramples on the NAI software quality They are referring to buggy software...sure, the marketing angle is fine and people paid money for the product, but the quality of the product (i.e. software bugs, crashes, etc) is going to cause nightmares in support and in maintanance agreements. I wouldn't worry too much about it. NETA has been going the way they're going (buggy software and all) for many years and they are STILL profitable. The thing you should worry about is whether Bill can pull off making a profit thru changing the company from (what they claim in the annual reports to be) a "desktop tility company" to an "enterprise system management company." Cheers, Joanna

To: MoonFather who wrote (3551)	11/16/1998 4:24:00 PM
From: Just_Observing	Respond to of 6021

Here is how NETA's software reputation gets a bit tarnished: Here is a post from NETA's Yahoo board -----Original Message----- From: owner-firewall-wizards@nfr.net [mailto:owner-firewall-wizards@nfr.net] On Behalf Of xxxxx, yyyyy Sent: aa:bb:cc To: firewall-wizards@nfr.net Subject: NAI Guantlet "Best of Show Award" The Real Deal Note: I do not work for any security product vendors. Also note that these are my opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer xxxxx yyyyy The LAN Times and Data Communications sponsored "Best of Show Networld + Interop '98" has been a major marketing coup for NAI. If you read their press release (http://www.nai.com/about/news/press/1998/october/102898.asp <http://www.nai.com/about/news/press/1998/october/102898.asp> ) it would lead you to believe that they actually won the Best of Show Award in the "Network Security and IP Tools" category. It is nothing more than a wonderful example of creative writing and word play. The fact is Gauntlet came in fourth. If you don't read the article very carefully you would think they won the award. I don't consider fourth place winning. I mean no one says "I won fourth place in the track meet today". Do they? That's not even a Bronze Medal in the Olympics. If there was a fourth place medal, maybe NAI would win the "Lead Medal", or perhaps the "Recycled Aluminum Medal" is more fitting considering NAI has repackaged old technology to make it appear new and cutting edge. The thing that really chafes my buzz is that at least two NAI personnel, a regional channel manager and a territory manager, told me (on more than one occasion) that they won the award for their adaptive proxy development. (which they told me they were in the process of getting a patent) Here is the real deal on NAI "winning" Best of Show at "Networld + Interop '98" per "Data Communications" (one of the sponsors): Results: data.com <http://www.data.com/datacomm/best98.html> "Internet Devices' Fort Knox VPN engine" won the "Best of Show Network Security and IP Tools" category. Finalists: data.com <http://www.data.com/datacomm/best98_extra.html> Gauntlet came in fourth. I have contact with all the major firewall vendors. All are prone to slight exaggeration about their products. It's the nature of the business. However, I have noticed that NAI has developed a pattern that really makes me wonder whether or not they....well I won't say...draw your own conclusions. I will say this: Integrity is important in any vendor relationship. I need to know that the people I talk to are telling me the truth and can call a spade a spade. If a vendor can't do that I don't want to deal with him or her. Hmmm...I wonder how many NAI product recommendations I'll make in the future? Here's something you could do if your really bored...call your local NAI rep and ask them if Gauntlet won best of show.