Greetings from Greensboro, NC. I am in the process of building a Forensics Workstation. I had noted somewhere that another member complained of not being able to acquire the Tableau T34589is Bridge, without purchasing a FRED Workstation from Digital Intelligence. I did some research, even calling Digital Intelligence, as well as my sales rep at Guidance Software, who recently acquired Tableau. True to the other members comment, this item is only available if you purchase a FRED Workstation from Digital Intelligence.
I voiced my concerns of such a ludicrous idea with my sales rep at Guidance Software, Mr. Steve Vaporis. Steve made some inquiries within the Guidance Software world, and confirmed the item can only be purchased with a FRED Workstation from Digital Intelligence. In my opinion, this holds the Computer Forensics world as hostage to Digital Intelligence, especially since they refuse to sell the item alone, without a FRED Workstation. Steve Vaporis requested that we, the industry, send written complaints to his business email steve.vaporis@guidancesoftware.com. His statement was that the contract between Tableau and Digital Intelligence is renewable on an annual basis.
In my opinion, we should do what we can to get this policy abolished, at the end of the contract between Tableau and Digital Intelligence. We should all have the same ability to purchase this item, irregardless of what type Workstation we choose to build. Any others feel the same way? Or is it just me?
Jim
Jim,
To be honest, I'm not that bothered. I have all that functionality with separate Tableau devices. With separate devices I can acquire more than one medium at a time, my record is 4. Occasionally (and I mean VERY occasionally) I get caught with my pants down and one or other of the acquisitions crashes.
If I was a 1 man outfit with limited finance I think I'd still lean towards the separate devices option rather than this jack-of-all-trades. I must admit the T35e is nice in a 'grab bag' kit but PATA/IDE drives are becoming a rarity in my experience.
Reliance on a device like this with loads of connectivity will mean it becomes redundant that much more quickly - where is the USB3 connector for example?
Paul
I have posted my frustration about this in the past, but in the end, it's probably a good thing that I can't buy it. Frankly, you only spend a limited amount of time acquiring or previewing, and therefore needing the write blocker, and the rest of the time it's wasted space that could have been used for a few more hard drives for storage. I have a nice tower case with front-side eSATA, and a set of Tableau write blockers (a DI Ultrakit in fact) so I can effectively do everything that the T34589is bridge does.
And as Binarybod said, I can replace my components piecemeal as technology improves.
I'm as a general principle against limiting consumer choice through restrictive contracts, so I'd support in principle Guidance changing their policy, but I don't know that I could back that up with a promise to buy one if they became available.
Agreed with Tony and BB that as much as I have complained about this in the past, in reality the pocket bridges work fine in the filed and lab. It would be a somewhat, sometimes convenient thing to have the T34589is in a rig but far from necessary.
Voom may not sell bridges or forensic workstations yet, but we also do not make any pretense of telling people (our customers) in a free country what they can or can not purchase.
Voom has several partners through which you may directly purchase excellent forensic workstations and/or bridges without 'strings' attached, including PATCtech, Digital Recon and others.
Please feel free to contact us or any of our partners in this regard.
info@voomtech.com
All,
This is precisely why we worked on the development with Wiebetech on their Forensic Labdock.
Our customers have long complained about the Tableau mindset. Most of the people who use the Wiebetech are converts from Tableau for a lot of reasons.
1. It will handle SATA or IDE and USB at the same time within the same dock, at the same time.
2. IT IS available as a stand-alone product or within our workstation (or anyone else's
3. You can use their forensic utility to capture and document the status of the labdock, Forensic UltraDock and USB Write-Blocker (standalone) all at the same time.
4. It retails for 450.00.
5. It has a recessed, fan-cooled bay for securing drives with minimal cable lengths and prevents you from knocking the HDD off of an extended tray.
Here are two links for more information
http//
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Well, although it feels better to have more freedom, I guess there are good reasons for a company not wanting to sell some "part" of a product. May be they don't want to support it, may be they spend more money on R&D that they need to recover?
Just being the devil's advocate here, but what is wrong about buying a FRED workstation and donating it to somebody, keeping just that part you need?
Price?
Well, then we can start complaining about high prices of virtually anything…
As suggested, look around and you may find better solutions to your initial problem (building a forensic workstation), there is no requirement "to have hardware XYZ".
Just my 2 yen,
Kalin.
Jim
I have complained about this on a number of occasions. It should of been addressed a long time ago. I have just built a new Forensic PC,it would of been a excellent piece of hardware for it.
However if this is successful, due to the fact of complaints raised here, I bet the RRP would be increased knowing that people would by it on its own.
I looked at the fred system a few years ago, now to be honest very expensive for what you get
So either way we cant win
Mitch
DI will only offer the T34589-is as part of their workstations. While we cannot offer that product, we do have the T3458is availalble for custom integrations. The only item "missing" is the firewire capture which can be performed with a T9.
Basically, if you are willing to commit to a certain volume, Tableau would help you "design" a product (comprised of other products they make), but with the constant changes, we never went this route.
I also never understood the benefit of "forcing" people to purchase a workstation when many forensic investigators are perfectly capable of building their own workstations. Seems like a way to generate sales but deteriorate relationships.
We would be happy to help you with any purchases and will also guarantee lowest pricing on the Tableau devices.
ForensicPC
800-474-2947
you can now!
http//