techrecovery | "Thank you for calling Crapcast. To save time, you can gnaw your own leg off while you hold."

So WeFixAnalProbes gets their broadband installed today.

'Bout time. Sharing a 28.8 dialup doesn’t cut it when you have half a dozen users.

They call me after the cable tech has accomplished nothing whatsoever in his comings and goings. This is expected, but not the next part.

I arrive onsite to discover the router is plugged into the switch and has been left on the default IP address in a subnet almost but not entirely unlike the one the LAN is using.

Oh, and it has the DHCP service on. And the 802.11b Access Point. How thoughtful! It's nice to know they've got me covered. If the Win2k server can't respond quick enough, the workstation can always nab an IP address from a totally different range! Ditto for our 802.11g gear. Hey, who needs 50 Mbit and WEP anyway?

Yeah, this is all just dandy... let me just make some little changes... so what's the password to the damn thing?

So I call Comcast Business Support. The first tech I get tries to be helpful... yeah, I tried comcast/1234.. yeah, I tried admin/admin... no dice..

he escalates...

The next guy tells me he can't give me the password, 'cause it's a business account and they retain control of the CPE. He'll have to remotely configure it.

I tell him what I need done..

on hold, a LONG time..

"Sir, there seems to be a problem. I can't get in remotely."

"So you mean to tell me you can't give me the password because you insist the router be managed remotely.... but you don't have that feature enabled?"

"Errr... yes."

Cue to me changing the IP addresses of a domain controller, an access point, a very wonky print server, creating a new DHCP scope, taking down the old one, and convincing a dozen or so PCs to renew their leases, just to get past the incompetence of "cable guy" and whoever else prepped this thing for service.

Not to mention we STILL have a rogue DHCP server and AP to worry about.

Asshats.