Hi there!!!

[whitewolf3399.livejournal.com]

Newb to the community, have so enjoyed reading others pain I figured I'd share one of my own as well as a funny that happened recently :)



I work at a large ISP providing second tier support for what internally is termed medium to large business. Basically that means if you have a fractional-t1 or higher circuit or one of our VPN products you have to call us for help if it doesn't work. Two years or so back management finally got their head out of their posteriors and realized we were woefully short on both in-house tier1 and tier 2 support so internal only notices got posted.

We hired thirty new Tier 1 analysts!! But wait... This is a unionized org, all Tier 1 support is done by craft employees. Meaning anyone in the same paygrade/slot could/can move over into another slot if positions are available. Does anyone see where this is going yet? 90% of the people we got for our Tier1 had never touched a router, couldn't spell 'IP' and thought 'ethernet' was something Dr's use to administer anesthetic.

Just how woefully under-educated most of them were was revealed to me one morning whilst I was out on our loading dock getting my morning ration of nicotene. One of our new 'analysts' was out there and we were chatting mostly about work and the over-demanding customers we tend to get when a truck with huge letters on the side "Sysco" backed in and began unloading foodstuffs for the cafeteria.

Tier 1 pipes up: Wow, I didn't know they delivered food too!
Me: Pardon?
Tie1: You know, Sysco... isn't that where we also get our routers?
Me: Uhm... no, that company is Cisco.

At that point I decided avoidance was prudent and fled back to my cube....






Tier2: One of my co-workers
TCON: Technical contact for a fairly large company, in theory the network admin or local router jockey

Co-worker and tcon had been working for a few hours on what the customer was calling a 'throughput' problem. Basically his complaint was he wasn't getting the download speeds he thought he should across his dedicated T1 line. After working with the guy for a while co-worker had eliminated our circuit, router and core infrastructure as the problem and from the kindness in his heart trying to help the customer isolate what on his LAN was causing the bottleneck. Co-worker has the guy on speakerphone at this point so we're all listening in to the following:

Tier2: How is your LAN connected to the router? Is it running through a firewall or directly to a hub or switch?
TCON: I don't know... I think it's wired directly to our LAN
Tier2: Do you only have one computer hooked up?
TCON: No, we've got 15 pc's linked up
Tier2: Ok, then you've got to have something else behind our router to distribute the data... what kind of device is it
TCON: I have no idea, this is what we pay you folks for...
Tier2: No sir, you contract with us to provide the connection to the LAN, getting it to the desktop is your responsibility... Do this, see the cable coming out the back of the router?
TCON: Yes...
Tier2: Trace that back to the next box it plugs into, tell me what name is on the front.
TCON: There's three wires here, which one is it?
Tier2: What color are they?
TCON: Black, wait that goes to the power... then there is a light grey one and a blue one.
Tier2: Trace the blue one back, that should go to the wall jack for the T1
TCON: Yep, it goes to a fancy phone plug
Tier2: !?!?!?! Yes, thats called a smartjack...
TCON: Oh... ok, the gray cable runs up and over to this other rack... say...
Tier2: Do you see something that doesn't look right?
TCON: Well, this cable is a little skinny... Do you think it's just to small? All that data is just getting tied up trying to go through this tiny cable and we could get better speeds if we went with a thicker one...

We all had to leave the room for a bit we were laughing so hard.... Oh and customers problem turned out to be the cheap a** wireless router he was using behind our router. It could handle the bit rate just fine but was choking on a high packet rate per second.

Comments

[kallell.livejournal.com]

Sadly, some company could make a small fortune mareting "Thicker" Cables for ethernet to speed access

[turningallblue.livejournal.com]

iawtc
I'm surprised no one's tried it yet.

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

I've seen companies advertise the gauge of there ethernet cables. To which I responded "as long as it's big enough to handle 8 wires and some shielding, whats the big deal?"

[prevailing.livejournal.com]

I pray they don't. I'd be getting thirty billion calls from family saying, "IS THIS REALLY BETTER?!"

[kallell.livejournal.com]

its a careful recipe tho, people, while willing to fall for it will have some notice of it not working and thus return it, its a matter of how do you give them the feeling, of faster speed, w/o actually doing it.

What would work however is as an aside marketing gimmick to incude it as a selling feature with a modem/router/etc.

The only real way to make and KEEP the small fortune is produce the cables, sell a crapload, and dissapear

[jecook]

Welcome to the insanity. Please enjoy your stay.... Although it's like the Hotel California: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. MUHAHAHAHAAA!!!111oneoneone :)

Because I'm not quite awake yet...

[jecook]

the customer was calling a 'throughput' problem.

a switch to a high fiber diet would help with that... :snigger::

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Along those exact same lines as the first example, I am reminded of a network map we got at a previous job. We required an "official" map; this is what we got:



Sorry for the crappy resolution, but besides the fact that my four year-old daughter could draw me a better network map, notice that the router is identified as a "Sysco." I wanted to sak him what kind of packets were being filtered, and if they were in fact ketchup packets...

Anyhow, welcome and enjoy the pain of the masses.

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Bugger. My HTML skills are made of lose.

[omg-teh-funnay.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever heard of unionized helpdesk... how terrifying.

Also, welcome. We can't make the hurting stop, but we CAN help you mock those who need it

[meijhen.livejournal.com]

When I very first started working in IT years and years ago, I had only ever heard "Cisco" said, not even seen it written down...and I thought it odd that the company that supplied the cafeteria also provided IT equipment!

Luckily for me, I never expressed that to anyone ;) And it only took about half a day working in Operations to pick up on the fact it wasn't the same company!

[canray.livejournal.com]

I've seen it.

Even worse, I've seen it when all that's required is "Grade 7". :-(

I walked in, slept through training, and got a higher mark than anyone in the group. Lasted longer at that job than most of the class, too.

Sad part is, that's the best job you can get in the city. :'(

So glad I moved.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Too bad. They could supply electronic toys and caffiene at the same time if they were. ;-)

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

Think big Telco that also does IP. It's to be expected there.

[manuka.livejournal.com]

Ethernet cable is going to be either 24 gauge (cat 3/Cat5) or 23 gauge (Cat 6). That's defined by standards, it's not like any one manufacturer has a special gauge. The gauge refers to the conductors themselves, not the jacket around them. (and no, ethernet cable is not typically shielded)

I remember when Monster Cable was selling cat5e "modem cords" that were "capable of 10 megabits", and by logical extension, that your modem would run faster over their $30 cable that was 6 feet long. Because somehow, the 3KHz audio signal running over it was somehow going to work better than it would over a 10-cent piece of Silver Satin.

[manuka.livejournal.com]

I knew you worked for a telco the second you said "craft" :)

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Now there's a business idea that's bound to succeed!

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

I'm not the guy that said craft, but I play with large unionized telcos everyday. They do some silly things.

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

A student in my fencing class a few years ago mentioned that he worked at Cisco. I was moderately tickled, followed by moderately let down when a few comments later it became clear he had said Sysco. *sigh* :)

[merlin-t-wizard.livejournal.com]

They did; it was called thicknet. But people didn't like the sound of 'vampire taps'...

[asbrand.livejournal.com]

Gee, I wonder why this company sounds so familiar... ;-)



-Az