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cellioYou've just got to love support conversations that include phrases like "how long did you say this has been working for you?" and "who told you that?".
We've had DSL since September 1999. This in itself is a problem for Verizon's tech support; every person I talked to asked me (sometimes more than once) questions about my PPPoE software/configuration. Ain't got it. We've got a fixed IP address. Always have. We like it that way.
Anyway, last night I talked to a very friendly, apparently-clueful support person. After 20 minutes or so, she was convinced that (1) I knew what I was talking about and had done all the correct diagnostics on my own, (2) the problem was not in my network, and (3) she could kick me up to level-two support without me having to dismantle the network first. I asked if we could store this information in such a way that I could call back later and jump straight to level two, as it was getting late and I wanted to continue this the next day. She was happy to oblige.
Tonight, sadly, the level-one tech who answered my call could find no record of this conversation whatsoever. He was also far less technically ept than his predecessor, and insisted that (1) we were going to walk through his diagnostic tree in order and (2) I would reduce my network to one machine talking directly to the modem without a firewall before he would bump me up to the next level. (Yes, as a preliminary step before ever calling Verizon, I verified every component of my network except the modem itself, which I can neither duplicate nor bypass.) We went through all the usual stuff, at his slow pace. Ok, whatever. Then we got to the point where he said I'd have to move cables and stuff. I wasn't real thrilled with this support person anyway, so -- after asking him to make sure he saved the notes -- I said it would take me a little while to twiddle things around and I'd call back. (I figured the odds were good that I would get someone better. It didn't really take me long to move things around, but he didn't have to know that.)
I did get someone better. I summarized the problem while she pulled up the notes (slow databases, apparently), she asked me to have Windows verify what I'd already told her predecessor about my IP address and DNS servers (yes, I'd eliminated the possibility that it was just a DNS problem), and then she transferred me to level two. (His name was Chris.)
Chris asked me to tell him about my TCP/IP settings and I proceeded to rattle them off. When we got to the gateway he stopped me. What did I say my gateway was? (Something not in my own IP space. I thought it was weird 2.5 years ago when they set it up, but I let it pass.) He said that couldn't possibly be right. I said it had been working until Tuesday, but I'd be happy to try a different one if he could supply it. He gave me a different setting (in my own IP space). I entered it, waited for the reboot (because Windows can't possibly detect a dynamic setting -- Linksys could have...), and voila, network connection. (Oh, we also had to change the subnet mask at the same time. No big deal.) Elapsed time with Chris: about 5 minutes, mostly reboot time. Total (active) time before I was allowd to talk to Chris: about an hour and a half.
I don't actually know what the gateway is, by the way, and would welcome enlightenment.
We've had DSL since September 1999. This in itself is a problem for Verizon's tech support; every person I talked to asked me (sometimes more than once) questions about my PPPoE software/configuration. Ain't got it. We've got a fixed IP address. Always have. We like it that way.
Anyway, last night I talked to a very friendly, apparently-clueful support person. After 20 minutes or so, she was convinced that (1) I knew what I was talking about and had done all the correct diagnostics on my own, (2) the problem was not in my network, and (3) she could kick me up to level-two support without me having to dismantle the network first. I asked if we could store this information in such a way that I could call back later and jump straight to level two, as it was getting late and I wanted to continue this the next day. She was happy to oblige.
Tonight, sadly, the level-one tech who answered my call could find no record of this conversation whatsoever. He was also far less technically ept than his predecessor, and insisted that (1) we were going to walk through his diagnostic tree in order and (2) I would reduce my network to one machine talking directly to the modem without a firewall before he would bump me up to the next level. (Yes, as a preliminary step before ever calling Verizon, I verified every component of my network except the modem itself, which I can neither duplicate nor bypass.) We went through all the usual stuff, at his slow pace. Ok, whatever. Then we got to the point where he said I'd have to move cables and stuff. I wasn't real thrilled with this support person anyway, so -- after asking him to make sure he saved the notes -- I said it would take me a little while to twiddle things around and I'd call back. (I figured the odds were good that I would get someone better. It didn't really take me long to move things around, but he didn't have to know that.)
I did get someone better. I summarized the problem while she pulled up the notes (slow databases, apparently), she asked me to have Windows verify what I'd already told her predecessor about my IP address and DNS servers (yes, I'd eliminated the possibility that it was just a DNS problem), and then she transferred me to level two. (His name was Chris.)
Chris asked me to tell him about my TCP/IP settings and I proceeded to rattle them off. When we got to the gateway he stopped me. What did I say my gateway was? (Something not in my own IP space. I thought it was weird 2.5 years ago when they set it up, but I let it pass.) He said that couldn't possibly be right. I said it had been working until Tuesday, but I'd be happy to try a different one if he could supply it. He gave me a different setting (in my own IP space). I entered it, waited for the reboot (because Windows can't possibly detect a dynamic setting -- Linksys could have...), and voila, network connection. (Oh, we also had to change the subnet mask at the same time. No big deal.) Elapsed time with Chris: about 5 minutes, mostly reboot time. Total (active) time before I was allowd to talk to Chris: about an hour and a half.
I don't actually know what the gateway is, by the way, and would welcome enlightenment.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-04-05 06:59 am (UTC)I guess I had this simple-minded view of networking: I figured my machine contacted a DNS server (if needed) to get an IP address, and then slapped that address on those packets and shipped 'em out automagically. My modem needs to know how to do that, but I guess I assumed it was automatically detected (use the same path that lets packets in). Thanks for the lesson.