noob with some questions

[Eric Hilden]

Sorry to jump in here, but I feel like I have to defend something I 
believe in now.

I haven't read this entire thing, but I can say I have seen this a 
hundred times. If you cannot read or clearly understand the topic in the 
extensive documentation provided. Then you need to find someone else who 
knows Unix or BSD. There is no way anyone is going to give you a simple 
answer. The FreeBSD/Unix/Linux community provides vast amounts of 
documentation, research, and help. First look for your answer by going 
through old mailing lists, type in errors you are receiving in google, 
or other easy troubleshooting tips. But don't expect to say I can't get 
it to work and tell me how to make it work. I will admit I am a complete 
FreeBSD/Unix noob, but I have spent countless hours now playing with the 
operating system, pulling my hair out, and ready to blow it up. But that 
frustrating process is the knowledge base I develop in knowing how a 
particular program works.

As far as paying someone or a commercial product. Go for it. 1000% mark 
up on something that is already free. If you do not have the time, 
patience, or know how, then by all means this is your best solution. 99% 
of the companies go look at licensing agreements. You will see a lot of 
it documents back to what is already Open Source and Free.

PS.
As an end note it is just as fucking stupid as I post Message of Days 
for employees that never read it and always ask what are we doing. I 
can't answer 100's of the same question everyday. That is why the 
DOCUMENTATION is very well written generally, and lots of time goes into 
it. Hell you can figure out Unix by just installing the MAN pages and 
taking the time to play with the commands; then I see you as one of my 
fellow X-Employees that lied on resume of knowing how to READ something 
that is right in front of you everyday. So don't expect people not to 
get pissed face.

P. K. wrote:
> And Mr. Friendly wrote:
>
>> Yes.  It's clear you're not willing to pay for FreeRADIUS support,
>> and would rather go with a commercial solution.
>
> Huh? Well, that comment makes no sense but I'll try to squeeze 
> something useful out of it....  Just so I'm clear, because this would 
> be news to me, FreeRadius paid support is available? From where?
>>  It's also clear
>> you're upset that you didn't get immediate answers to all of your
>> questions, for free.  There's little anyone can do to solve that
>> problem.
>
> Ah, okay. So you do operate under the "you get what you pay for" 
> philosophy. And BTW Thanks for taking the time to respond to this 
> email with insults and accusations. Does the paid for service come 
> with your snide responses as well? I'd just love to be able to pay 
> real money for the honor of subjecting myself to your charismatic 
> attitude.
>
> --Paul
>
> Paul Kuchinski
> Network Administrator
> Smeal College of Business Administration
> Penn State University
>
> email: pbk105 at psu.edu
> phone: (814)865-0366
> fax:   (814)865-1845
>
>
>
> Alan DeKok wrote:
>> "P. K." <pbk105 at psu.edu> wrote:
>>  
>>> Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, the FreeRadius documentation 
>>> and support is so abysmal and my experience too limited to make good 
>>> use of the advice you gave. Each OSS package has its benefits and 
>>> weaknesses I guess. For instance I've used ISC DHCP server for years 
>>> and it has stellar support from the programmer, great on-line 
>>> information and documentation so much so that I can't imagine using 
>>> anything else.
>>>     
>>
>>   ISC DHCP has one, maybe two full-time programmers working on it, ISC
>> has 100's of 1000's of dollars in funds to support it, and companies
>> have paid large sums of money to for ISC to write additional
>> documentation.
>>
>>  
>>> Perhaps in the future the FreeRadius writer's will realize how 
>>> useless their software is with the level of documentation and 
>>> support they are providing and choose to make improvements or maybe 
>>> they'll just continue to operate on a "you get what you pay for basis."
>>>     
>>
>>   Yes.  It's clear you're not willing to pay for FreeRADIUS support,
>> and would rather go with a commercial solution.  It's also clear
>> you're upset that you didn't get immediate answers to all of your
>> questions, for free.  There's little anyone can do to solve that
>> problem.
>>
>>   And I will note that I've dealt with many people who've installed
>> multiple servers, commercial and open source.  Most say that the
>> FreeRADIUS documentation is more than adequate for their needs.
>>
>>   Alan DeKok.
>> -- 
>>   http://deployingradius.com       - The web site of the book
>>   http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog
>>
>>
>>   
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>