Networks go down all the time for lots of reasons. Bad routers, switches, modems, bad or cut Carrier lines or people forgetting to pay the bills. Your internet provider can go down as well. Lots of reasons that will bring down peoples networks all the time. So I find it hard to believe someone has not heard of one going down.
I am in IT\networking as a profession so I am familiar with hardware and network troubleshooting. So I know how to troubleshoot network and hardware issues but not everyone does. Mine would not work unless I had physical access to it. Nothing else worked including direct connect, crossover cable or otherwise. I even called Apex support and they tried. Guess what they told me after they could not fix it? Use the display so you can config it to your network!! Your experience with no issues is not something that happens for everyone and it is not the norm and direct connect doesn't always work. Just look at any forum for all the people with network related issues with any controller and you can see the large amount of issues.
Let me ask you this. If direct connect doesn't work how are you to set up your NIC to the same subnet of the Apex if the default config didn't work, the apex discovery tool didn't work and you don't know what the subnet that the Apex just pulled, if your network is down or the apex was reset? If your network is down or unable to connect to it the Apex will not be able to grab an IP anyway. How are you to access the Apex and set a static IP if you can't get into the apex over the network and have no idea what the IP settings are or Apex could not pull an IP because you could not connect it to your network? Sometimes Physical access is the only way to fix an issue I have experienced this. This is why they have a display. For someone to say you never need physical access is just not accurate information because sometimes that is the only way to fix something. Do you need it all the time? Defiantly not but when you do it is well worth having. Not everyone has a buddy that has an apex or someone that is willing to lend them parts.
As for the firmware being corrupt and the display not working you can get it to do a repair and a boot diagnostic by unplugging the module for 24 hr so the onboard battery dies and when you plug it back in it starts a initial diagnostic that resets your boot sequence and repairs the firmware so it boots up. So yes the display can be used in those situations just not initially.
Don't get one if you don't want to but some day Murphy's law will make you eat it and you will be saying damn I wish I had one. I have been in the hobby for a long long time and I always have a backup way to do something because experience has shown me if it can go wrong it will.
I am in IT\networking as a profession so I am familiar with hardware and network troubleshooting. So I know how to troubleshoot network and hardware issues but not everyone does. Mine would not work unless I had physical access to it. Nothing else worked including direct connect, crossover cable or otherwise. I even called Apex support and they tried. Guess what they told me after they could not fix it? Use the display so you can config it to your network!! Your experience with no issues is not something that happens for everyone and it is not the norm and direct connect doesn't always work. Just look at any forum for all the people with network related issues with any controller and you can see the large amount of issues.
Let me ask you this. If direct connect doesn't work how are you to set up your NIC to the same subnet of the Apex if the default config didn't work, the apex discovery tool didn't work and you don't know what the subnet that the Apex just pulled, if your network is down or the apex was reset? If your network is down or unable to connect to it the Apex will not be able to grab an IP anyway. How are you to access the Apex and set a static IP if you can't get into the apex over the network and have no idea what the IP settings are or Apex could not pull an IP because you could not connect it to your network? Sometimes Physical access is the only way to fix an issue I have experienced this. This is why they have a display. For someone to say you never need physical access is just not accurate information because sometimes that is the only way to fix something. Do you need it all the time? Defiantly not but when you do it is well worth having. Not everyone has a buddy that has an apex or someone that is willing to lend them parts.
As for the firmware being corrupt and the display not working you can get it to do a repair and a boot diagnostic by unplugging the module for 24 hr so the onboard battery dies and when you plug it back in it starts a initial diagnostic that resets your boot sequence and repairs the firmware so it boots up. So yes the display can be used in those situations just not initially.
Don't get one if you don't want to but some day Murphy's law will make you eat it and you will be saying damn I wish I had one. I have been in the hobby for a long long time and I always have a backup way to do something because experience has shown me if it can go wrong it will.
