Working The Third Shift: Tips To Avoid Counterfeits When Buying And Selling Used Cisco

Telepresence and Holography / Holograms - November 2008

Editor’s viewpoint on their differences, likenesses and future...

We all just recently viewed an historic CNN holographic interview on an historic Election Night. CNN stated this type of imaging has never been done before on National TV and I believe that. I haven’t seen anything like it. The live interview caught me by surprise and sure had the “wow” factor attached to it didn’t it? Here’s a link to the actual interview.

CNN Hologram Video

The question now has to be asked. Is it Telepresence?

I’m no expert on the subject but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring, go out on a limb and say yes, I believe it is. Although I know many video conferencing purists are rolling their eyes and grabbing their guns right about now with my statement.

While I do know that Telepresence still hasn’t been universally defined (Houston, we have a problem), here’s how I see it…. Broken down to its simplest form - “tele” (through electronic means) and “presence” (present). This is how I’m justifying my opinion by lumping holography and Telepresence together. Just as Telepresence is surely an offshoot of video conferencing, holographic imaging (like we viewed on CNN) surely has to be considered an offshoot of Telepresence. The interviewer was “telepresent” from Chicago and beamed into the CNN Election Headquarters. She was most assuredly - “telepresent”. There was negligible latency, the imaging was fantastic and both interviewers were rehearsed on what they would say. I’ve just recently read that CNN actually “downgraded” the experience to make it “movie” quality and not as good as it could have been. Maybe they thought us mere mortals would be shocked if they showed their complete hand. I have a feeling it was so big to them, they didn’t want it to get upstaged by the historic election. I’m willing to bet we’ll see the “true” power of this technology in the upcoming weeks and months when they can put the pedal to the medal and show it off without having it sidetracked.

What an amazing time for this technology (all differences and opinions aside). Telepresence Doctors, nurses, teachers, schools and healthcare (healthpresence) will benefit from the recent gains in this state-of-the-art industry whether holograms, Telepresence or holography. Airlines also have to see the threat to a portion of their business travel. Hell, who wants go through security and fly to Miami for a two-hour conference when you can look them in the eye via Telepresence?

Beam me up Scotty! Simply amazing…!

Visit the free Telepresence Forum for more information and discussion

Your Editor and Administrator - L II
"Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" TM

San Francisco, California January 17th, 2006: If you've ever strolled down the streets of New York, you?re familiar with the enterprising street vendors offering imitation Gucci handbags and fake Rolex watches at a fraction the price of retail. Don?t be surprised if you?re offered a Cisco router on your next stroll down Canal Street. While clear statistics specific to the network hardware market are not available, according to a white paper by AGMA and consulting company, KPMG, counterfeit products account for nearly 10% of the overall IT products market. So whether it?s luxury goods or high-end data networking, illicit manufacturers have seized the opportunity to flood the market with fake merchandise.

Third-Shift

Recently, there has been an explosion of counterfeit hardware that has hit the market. While these items can be poorly made knock-offs, in some cases are actually made by companies licensed by Cisco and other companies to manufacture their hardware. Only the discerning eye of an experienced reseller can hope to detect the physical subtleties between the Cisco original and fake. Companies in China, for example, already have the experience, manufacturing capacity, and technical know-how to produce Cisco's products. And sometimes they run extra shifts or a "third shift" to produce a surplus of product, which they distribute illegally on the black market. The result has been a surge in the level of counterfeit products available on the US market. Often, these products can be traded unknowingly to either the buyer or seller. That is until a problem arises.

These counterfeit products have a dramatically higher failure rate due to lax manufacturing controls. Buyers often find out they've been duped when exercising a warranty. Naturally, Cisco will refuse to honor a warranty on counterfeit product hence the end user is stuck with a lemon. Sometimes users will find out an item is counterfeit when they attempt to register a serial number, only to discover that what they have is a duplicated number, which has already been assigned to another buyer.

Gray-Market Deals

While savvy buyers will sometimes be wary of fire sale pricing on new Cisco hardware, counterfeiters have become increasingly smarter and have started marketing these products as "used" and leaking these products to the secondary market. Following the dot-com bust, buyers became accustomed to buying new out-of-box equipment at liquidation prices. This created a new channel for counterfeit sellers to slip their wares into the gray market with less scrutiny. By selling a new "counterfeit" item, as used, deeply discounted prices are less likely to raise a red flag for buyers.

Safe Tips

Most buyers don't realize they have counterfeit Cisco hardware until it's installed and begins to have issues. Excessive network outages and failures are often a signal that something in your network is a fake. This begs the question of how to protect yourself from buying counterfeit equipment.

1. Be wary of anything being sold from China. Sometimes Chinese sellers will even use fictitious names and pose as an American company. Typically English language skills can be a tip-off. If it sounds like an ad or email was written by Borat, don't buy.

2. Develop relationships with trusted vendors. Companies that have a long-standing reputation and extensive client base will most likely only buy from trusted sources. By working with someone you know and trust, you are less likely to encounter issues with fake gear.

3. Make sure your vendor checks serial numbers in the vendor database for EVERY piece they purchase.

4. Use your eyes, and look for anything unusual. Inspect the item carefully for irregularities in logo size, packaging materials, holograms and chip sets.

Summary: Helpful tips for avoiding purchasing Counterfeit Cisco Hardware.

Peter Gilberd has a collective 10 years experience in IT sales. He is currently the President for Townsend Assets Group (TAG), a leading reseller of pre-owned data networking and telecom equipment. For more comprehensive information on the process of selling used hardware, refer to TAG's Buy-Sell Used Cisco page.

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To learn more about Telepresence, the revolutionary new style of immersive video conferencing; visit these websites:

Telepresence - "Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" - Telepresence
Telepresence Web Portal - Telepresence Internet web portal
Telepresence Report - 24/7 breaking Telepresence related news and information
Via Telepresence - Video conferencing via Telepresence
Telepresence Forum - Free user discussion forum for everything Telepresence related
Telepresence Today - Telepresence information and editor qualified headline news
Telepresence Resource Directory - Telepresence web resource directory
Telepresence Tube - Telepresence videos, pictures and more