Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!helios!ewillis
From: ewillis@cs.tamu.edu (Edward Dean Willis)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: Re: Price of FTP Inc.'s Stuff
Keywords: tcp-ip PC-TCP ftp inc.
Message-ID: <12704@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 26 Feb 91 17:33:52 GMT
Expires: 26 Feb 91 17:33:51 GMT
References: <12607@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Distribution: usa
Organization: Texas A&M University
Lines: 42

Yesterday I posted a set of questions about the price strategy of FTP Incs.
"PC-TCP" product line and the accompanying marketing and support. This 
was accompanied by a set of complaints about the level of support I have
received, and the single-copy pricing.

Enough of you have mailed me about it that I am posting a summary of
comments.

1) The software pricing is competitive. Single copy rates are too high,
but most users consider the large site licenses as attractive options.
The bigger the site, the lower the price. Really big sites may get prices
down to about 1/4 of the retail single-copy price.

2) The "software that never worked" was the NFS component, InterDrive.
The version I have has some distinct problems running with MS Windows.
FTP has released a new version, which by all reports works OK with 
windows. They are providing it as a bug fix due to our reported problems.
The public upgrade is about $30. I just wish they had notified me when
the new version became available (see 3). I retain some reservations
about their response to our original report, but that was almost a
year ago.

3) FTP has not habitually mailed out update notices or announcements of
new products. They have announced plans for doing so on a periodic
basis. Personally, I would like to see flyers as each major release
comes out, including a list of bug fixes and enhancements. FTP is
doing an email list for academic users, of which I was not aware.

4) Several users mentioned some problems with the socket library,
which provides at best limited support for newer compilers. I have
not used this optional part of the software.

5) Most of the users who responded consider the PC-TCP package very
reliable and use it as a "reference standard". Several commended
FTP Incs. work on establishing the packet driver standard. I think 
that the base package is pretty good stuff. I just wish it were under
the $250 mark so that we could buy it without having to go through
state purchasing.

Overall, the responses were generally favorable. It is good to see a company
with loyal customers.  I suspect that the customers would be even more
loyal if better informed as to updates, bug fixes, and new releases.


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