Ernst J. du Toit wrote:
> 
> To my suprise NSSI Europe faxed me a non-disclosure agreement and 24hrs
> after signing faxes me 25 pages of protocol.
> 
[...]
> 
> NSSI has been taken over by Fiskars of Sweden (Norway?) anyway the range

Actually they were bought by Deltec, which is owned by Fiskars, but it's
the same thing :-)

Unfortunately Deltec seems to be another "we'll take the protocol to
with us to our graves" type of company, and doesn't give out this
information anymore (the guy I talked to listed only two cases where
that has happened.  One was Compaq, I forget the other but it was a
similarly huge company).  On the other hand the guy, Tony Tartol, was
very sympathetic and helpful. Apparently he runs into this a lot and
often petitions the higher-ups to change this policy. He said he'd try
again, but wasn't hopeful on my chances. 

Deltec does makes a box that slaps on the back of their UPSes with TP
and cheapernet connectors that speaks SNMP and RFC1628 (the UPS MIB). 
This would be great, except that it lists for $700-$800 (ow!) and speaks
SNMPv1, with no authentication.  Anyone can send commands to it to shut
off the output power.  Hmmm.... that's just a *wee* problem :-) On the plus
side, they are developing a new unit for $400 or so (list) that sounds
like it's SNMPv2 maybe with some authentication.  It might be out in a
month.  Tony is going to try to find out more for me.  So, jeers to
Deltec, but cheers to Tony, a very cool and helpful guy!

APC is apparently willing to give out information under NDA to ordinary
folks, and they also offer an SNMP SOTS-box (and it sounds like it's
SNMPv2 with authentication! dunno yet what it costs...). I'm waiting for
them to send information.

-Ty

[who dreams of a return to the day when computers and related
equipment came with a coupla hundred cubic feet of documentation, with
more information than one could ever want to know.  ("Where have you
gone, o' Orange Wall, our hackers turn their lonely eyes to you [woo woo
woo]")]