I love HP Servers, I've been running them for over 10 years now, with very few issues.  The only way I could hate their website more was if it commited genocide.  I've never found a company with more obtuse URLs, horrific navigation, inconsistencies, broken URLs and miserable performance.

Search for the Truth

I wanted to download the HP Array Controller Utility for the Linux command line. The search on hp.com did everything in it's power to crush my spirits short of killing my dog. Luckily a fledgling company named Google pointed me in the right direction.  You can download the Linux CLI ACU from this page:

http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/software-management/acumatrix/sw-drivers.html

Go ahead, try and download the Linux Command Line Version (CLI) ACU.

Hot damn that's useful!  It takes you to a Search page with 138,361 results.  That won't take too long to page through at 10 items per page.  Luckily the kick-ass search functionality will only allow you to see the first 500 matches, or 0.36% of the results.

Dissecting an HP URL

Here's a typical HP URL:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3288134&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=1121516&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2025#7832

Let's break it down and analyze it:

• http:// – This is standard on most websites. See also: https://
• h20000 – This is obnoxious bullshit.  It's meaningless and there is are no servers with h19999 or h20001.
• .www2 – There is no reason to have this AT ALL. There's not even any reason to have www you douchebags.
• .hp.com – They need this.  If they didn't have hp.com you'd most likely be on a pleasant and operational website.
• /bizsupport – We support business, but we'll call it 'biz' to look cool.
• /TechSupport -In case you didn't get it, this is SUPPORT. Case sensitive URL by the way, /techsupport/ will break it.
• /SoftwareIndex.jsp – SoftwareIndex because god-forbid you have a normal default index file. Removing this will result in a 404 page.  Why have a default choice when you can complicate things and add two choices! .jsp because Java is cool, just like our server admins black fingernails and emo music.  And their TIME MACHINE((Tip of the hat to Don and Mike, whose voices I'll always hear saying TIIME MASHEENE)) that lets them perform their job duties while living in the year 1995.
• ?lang=en – Just in case they want to support more than one language. Which they don't.
• &cc=us – Gotta track the region. This parameter also does nothing. Try setting a cookie you pricks.
• &prodNameId=3288134
• &prodTypeId=15351
• &prodSeriesId=1121516
• &swLang=8 – You can never have too many ways of setting a language preference.
• &taskId=135
• &swEnvOID=2025

What's a 404 page look like?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/service/site/404/Bsc404_en-us.html

That page redirects to:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/service/site/404/Bsc404_en.html

Notice they dropped the -us.  Watch out though, sometimes the redirect doesn't work properly and it'll keep redirecting to itself. Forever.

 

Tags: HP

Posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 5:46 pm | Filed under Software, Technology
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