superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
 ·WaveCrazy.Net
|  [Tech Ops] Fun with customers...........
I get a service call yesterday that on the phone had me confused. The customer calls and says that his connection was working great and when he went away and came back, everything was dead?. This is one of my very first customers, and he has been with me since the USB adapter days in 2001.
He is a great guy and he loves his gadgets. His house is full of them!. MP3 players, multiple computers, VOIP phone, networked storage servers and just about anything else you can think of when it comes to electronics. There are wires EVERYWHERE in his home.
Anyway..........I tried fixing the issue on the phone with no luck whatsoever. I drive over and start messing with things. He sits me down in front of his PC and says, "Look, no internet" and sure enough, he didn't have access even though the CPE checked out before I left for his house. When I plugged my notebook in directly to the CPE, I could get on instantly, and was able to surf and ping everything.
I start pinging everything from his main PC and just looking at all of this mess in general. There were 3 separate routers in the house. The CPE itself was in router mode and was handing out NAT'ed IP's via DHCP. That was plugged into the first routers WAN port which also had DHCP turned on. It then had a wire coming from the LAN side into the WAN port of router #2 which then had a wire coming from it's LAN port into the WAN port of the 3rd router. All 3 units had DHCP turned on. Router #2 is a wireless unit for the notebooks he has.
I noticed that all the PC's are brand new from Dell and he was very proud of this fact and took the time to mention all of their specs. and features. He missed one very important feature that I never saw, all the PC's had wireless cards in them and all had their wireless cards turned on, They were also all connected via Ethernet. The cool part was that each PC was connected to a different router with Ethernet, but all had connections from the same wireless router. I guess you all know where I am going with this?.....
The amazing thing was that this crazy setup WORKED for 3 days before it melted down?. The VOIP phone had always been connected to the first router in line. The wife decided she didn't like it in his computer room and made him move it to the kitchen. Well, when that happened, the VOIP phone quit working as it was now quad NAT'ed and it just couldn't handle that I guess. The other PC's melted down because they all had 2 different routes to the network and I guess a storm must have caused them to reboot while he was gone. I suspect this is the reason they all quit working, as they had been on when he set them the first time and after the reboot, Windows just said the hell with this and quit?
I removed all of the routers except for the wireless one, unplugged all of the Ethernet cables and then put a switch on the incoming connection from the CPE and plugged both the VOIP phone and the router into it so the phone was only Nat'ed once. When I left, everything worked great, his speeds were better than ever and his wife could get her Avon order out. Apparently, he was going to try and fix this mess himself, but she pitched a fit because her order had to go out that day and she was not having any parts of waiting around.
Oh well, it was interesting to say the least. 
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»www.wavecrazy.net
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tx_tower
join:2007-11-13
Blanco, TX
| good story SD, it amazes me to no end how much a person can know about computers in general while not even having the most basic grasp of ip networking. We've had several customers call us up and raise hell on the phone and when you get to their house they have the PC ethernet cable plugged into the printer... |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX | reply to superdog
My customers want to reset the radios and to do this they unplug the ethernet cable to their computer and the POE ethernet to the radio. Then when they plug everything back in, they always reverse the cables. |
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tx_tower
join:2007-11-13
Blanco, TX | yes we had to start color coding our POE's to match the correct cable to combat that problem. customers get really mad when you charge them $75/hr for 3 min of labor. |
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LLigetfa
join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON
| said by tx_tower  :customers get really mad when you charge them $75/hr for 3 min of labor. The trick is you have to put on a good show. Drag out some expensive and complicated gear and test things you know doesn't need testing. Spend more than 3 minutes on site.
In the end they feel like they got a clean bill of health and that you worked hard for the money.
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Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it. -- Stephen Vizinczey |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | reply to tx_tower
I have found the most dangerous people to deal with are programmers. We have more problems with programmers and networking than any other group of people. |
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kewlkeed
Grouch
join:2005-02-05
Knowlton, QC
| reply to superdog
Programmers and newbie kids fresh out of college who took some computer related classes. At least with the kids you can slap their hands and they will listen. Programmers have a different mentality and won't get anything through their heads half the time. I've also had my share of anal graphics people who don't understand simple parts of the trade such as "Emailing a 90meg raw data picture is a bad idea" |
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tx_tower
join:2007-11-13
Blanco, TX
| reply to LLigetfa
said by LLigetfa :said by tx_tower :customers get really mad when you charge them $75/hr for 3 min of labor. The trick is you have to put on a good show. Drag out some expensive and complicated gear and test things you know doesn't need testing. Spend more than 3 minutes on site. In the end they feel like they got a clean bill of health and that you worked hard for the money. bah, im too busy to put on a show. i just fix it and then tell them what their gonna be invoiced for, they usually gripe at the accounting ladies and not me onsite because we explain the service call charges in advance and i explain it again once i get there so they really have no recourse with me, i just pull the whole "out of my paygrade" card |
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LLigetfa
join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON
| said by tx_tower :bah, im too busy to put on a show. Never underestimate disgruntled customers. If they can't complain about being overcharged for 3 minutes of work, they will complain that you were rude to them, that you trekked in with muddy boots, that you backed over their prized roses, dog, whatever...
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Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it. -- Stephen Vizinczey |
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mtroup
Marty
Premium
join:2007-06-28
Hermitage, AR | reply to superdog
I too make it seem as though they truly are getting a major service done due to the fact that I am the owner, technician, network admin, billing staff, etc.. |
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tx_tower
join:2007-11-13
Blanco, TX
| reply to LLigetfa
said by LLigetfa :said by tx_tower :bah, im too busy to put on a show. Never underestimate disgruntled customers. If they can't complain about being overcharged for 3 minutes of work, they will complain that you were rude to them, that you trekked in with muddy boots, that you backed over their prized roses, dog, whatever... oh dont get me wrong, im nice to the customer and thorough but swapped ethernet cables is a VERY quick diagnosis and non-invase procedure to fix  |
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a1_Andy
Premium
join:2005-12-29
Campbellford, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
| My most recent was Sunday, CPE not working. Customer says she had rebooted the unit and still didn't work. I get to the house and go strait to the PoE injector. The injector is sticky....WTF? I unplug the injector and the network end is burned. I go to the wagon to get a new end and injector, but wtf is that smell? Cat pissed on the PoE. $69.00 + new $20.00 for PoE please.
Yech... always keep hand cleaner in the car. |
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AMD Phreak
Please do the needfull
Premium
join:2003-12-14 | I hate cat piss....
I refuse to service a house that smells/has cat piss all over. |
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a1_Andy
Premium
join:2005-12-29
Campbellford, ON | I can't smell it right away, wife has a cat and the box is in the bathroom.....
My house doesn't smell like cat piss and the customers didn't either just that one spot. But when its on the fingers and followed me....... |
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LLigetfa
join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON
| reply to slipstream1
said by slipstream1 :Then when they plug everything back in, they always reverse the cables. Heaven help you if you run a bridged network and it's their router's LAN cable they just plugged into your CPE and are now serving up DHCP to all your clients!
The other PITA is when they direct connect their PC onto which they hard code the IP settings but set their IP to your gateway by mistake. Now they are in conflict with your gateway IP.
Lastly, there are two jumpers running from a switch, one to the PC the other to a printer. After they rearrange their office, they not only connect the PC to the printer, but they loop the printers jumper from one switch port to another switch port. Since modern switches have Auto-MDIX you now have a quantum packet accelerator and if you didn't setup STP properly, well...
Disclaimer: None of this is personal experience, just stuff I've heard others have gone through.
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Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it. -- Stephen Vizinczey |
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Airnode
join:2006-09-01
Germany
| reply to kewlkeed
I have 2 customer that are programmers from SAP and they are
both a absolutly nightmare. The do now nothing about ip networking and just dont listen to you because they feel such
super-geeky. One of them gave his notebook the same adress as the cpe router and call'd me in the nigth why he don't internet. The other enabled ipV6 and jelled why ipv6 is not working.  |
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kewlkeed
Grouch
join:2005-02-05
Knowlton, QC
| reply to superdog
Quantum packet accelerator... LMFAO!
Yeah we've seen our share of destroyed PoE adapters, looped anything, chewed wires, whippersnippers/cats/mice/kids.
One big business we serve ended up creating a very big and expensive packet accelerator by looping some ports. Nice feature was their entire network was a huge bridge and they also brought down a couple fiber feeds to other branches of their network in other towns. (This was a case of 10 cooks in one kitchen of networking garbage)
Asides from programmers, some IT staff can be a real PITA. Anal windows sysadmins who can program active directory like it was their mother language, but can't subnet to save their ass...
The real fun starts when there are more than one IT staff involved with a place, and nobody knows what the other does, and everyone is clueless... Those are fun times. "Now what's the password for that box again? Anyone here know?" |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
·WaveCrazy.Net
| I have seen POE adapters and switches buried in cat litter. The cats then pissed on the switch and it quit. Gee.....I wonder why?.
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»www.wavecrazy.net
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tx_tower
join:2007-11-13
Blanco, TX
| reply to LLigetfa
said by LLigetfa :said by slipstream1 :Then when they plug everything back in, they always reverse the cables. Heaven help you if you run a bridged network and it's their router's LAN cable they just plugged into your CPE and are now serving up DHCP to all your clients! The other PITA is when they direct connect their PC onto which they hard code the IP settings but set their IP to your gateway by mistake. Now they are in conflict with your gateway IP. Lastly, there are two jumpers running from a switch, one to the PC the other to a printer. After they rearrange their office, they not only connect the PC to the printer, but they loop the printers jumper from one switch port to another switch port. Since modern switches have Auto-MDIX you now have a quantum packet accelerator and if you didn't setup STP properly, well... Disclaimer: None of this is personal experience, just stuff I've heard others have gone through. /hug mikrotik autosenseing rogue dhcp servers
heres a good one from yesterday, guy has been complaining of poor service, signal fluctuates wildly throughtout the day, finally get a tech out there when this guy is available. Guy has his house re-roofed and then just propped the mast up against his chimney "about where it was before" |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX | reply to superdog
If they reverse the cables, the radios will not even power up. No worries. I have alot of people that unplug the radios when a thunderstorm approaches. So, when weather gets bad, my flag on the dude indicator goes red and I start looking. |
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