IBM "Registered" SoftwareKnowledgeBase -- MIDRANGE-L

I've been working at odd moments during the past several hours trying to find my way back into IBM's Registered Software Knowledge Base area. It's been at least a couple years since I've gotten in.

I'm sitting at a panel now where I'm supposed to reset my password. It apparently knows "who" I am because it filled in the IBM ID correctly, including capitalization of the three parts of my user name. For some reason, the site won't accept what I'm sure my password is; perhaps my 'entitlements' aren't sufficient although my access to a lot of other areas seems to contradict that.

Anyway, it poses a security question: "What is your product umbrella name?"

Huh?

I suppose I must have seen that question somewhere before, but I sure don't know what the answer is. I'm not at all sure what a "product umbrella" is, much less what the name of mine is.

I don't want to go into the details of the tortuous path of pages that I went through to get this far, but I will post a link that is behind the text saying "guidelines for IBM IDs and passwords":

https://www.ibm.com/account/profile/us?page=regfaqhelp#4

That link should take you to a part of a kind of FAQ. That section is titled 'What are the rules for specifying an IBM ID?' and begins with "Your IBM ID must have the format of a valid email address." A bullet point in that topic even says "must contain an '@' character that separates the user and domain values (example: lorem@xxxxxxxxx)".

No big deal except, of course, none of my various IBM IDs have _ever_ been in the form of an e-mail address and I've regularly created new ones every time I've been notified that they're migrating to some new, improved version of everything. _AND_ a couple topics down the FAQ we see an entry titled 'What if I can't sign in with my current IBM ID?'. Guess how that begins?

"If your IBM ID is over 32 characters or contains an "@" symbol, it may not give you access to certain password-protected parts of ibm.com." Naturally, the Registered Software Knowledge base is password-protected, though I have no reason to think that has anything to do with anything else.

Sheesh.

I first used the Registered SKB quite a few years ago. Cool stuff in there. But how can it possibly continue to become more and more complicated to get in? You'd think if anybody knew how to streamline this stuff, it'd be IBM.

Well, no, you probably wouldn't think that. But wouldn't it be nice?

Anybody compare the WebSphere InfoCenter to the iSeries InfoCenter lately? The link earlier today about WebSphere Application Server V6 went there. Wow. What a contrast.

Wouldn't it be great if there was _SOME_body in charge of bringing stuff together within IBM?

Just letting off frustration...

Tom Liotta

--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788 x313
Fax    253-872-7904
http://www.powertech.com


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