Insert Head A into Desk B

[kalidor.livejournal.com]

Please note the following. Dates, names, and ips have been changed to protect the innocent, and the pathetically stupid.

Client : Midsized corperate with several offices. Ticket deals with newest and busiest location. Probably one of our top five clients.
ISP : Three person company
Our Responsiblity: The Computers, Lan. Connection to WAN is grey area due to bosses hazy partnership with ISP.

Layout : Computers --- Linksys VPN router --- Netopia T1 router ------ ISP T1 router @ NOC


10/29
Arrived on site to replace Netopia T1 endpoint that customer dropped. Installed device in ten minutes. Called ISP for settings as D-mark was not labeled with setting information. Spent 2.75 hours on phone with ISP going through various settings as they had not seen that Netopia type before and did not know what the proper settings were for it to Connect to their T1 line.
Ticket Closed.


11/01
Ticket Reopened. Customer complaining about extreme latency and periodic disconnects. Arrived on site and found latency. Unfragmented continuous ping to Linksys DSL router proved reliable connection. Unfragmented continuous ping to Netopia router proved reliable connection. Unfragmented continous ping to ISP's T1 router proved choppy but acceptable connection. Ping to backbone IP (4.2.2.2) proved horrible connection past ISP's NOC. Attempted to phone ISP but got static. On a hunch, tested various MTU's. Administrativly throttled Linksys MTU to 1200 and connection seems to have stabalized. Suggest ISP debug their NOC. Ticket Closed - SEP.

11/03
Ticket Reopened. Customer is experiencing frequent timeouts. ISP claims they can ping with 1500 bytes to Linksys, from their off NOC computers. Linksys does not respond on ICMP, administrativly. ISP suggested that Linksys is dying due to faulty hardware. Replaced device with test linksys. Issues continued. Connected laptop directly to Netopia Router. Issues remained. Contacted ISP while looking at configurations. ISP asked me to look at Quickview on the Netopia and finding no errors, said it was our problem. Still have good pings on Lan and DMZ. T1 pings choppy, NOC pings are crud. Checking logs in linksys found Netbios attack from Netherlands being blocked by linksys. (ISP is allowing NetBIOS?) Found logging function on Netopia. Logs indicate massive framing and PPP problems on T1. Emailed logs to ISP. ISP claims if the T1 was truly having problems they would be seeing the same logs on their T1 endpoint. When asked if they new where the logs were, they said they could see the quickview well enough.Implemented NetBIOS blocking on Netopia.

11/5: 1300-1430
Went on site regarding continued internet problems. Was informed that ISP had diagnosed Virii on LAN side. Full scan of all three computers revealed no viral infections. Netopia logs were wiped. Linksys logs revealed continued attacks on NETBIOS port from Europe and the Caribean. Implemented harsh firewall on Netopia. Internet and VPN stabalized.

11/5: 1600-1700
Returned on site due to lack of internet connectivity. VPN Program still worked fine. Could find no issues. Perhaps DNS was timing out. At approximately 1647 the internet returned to normal with no configuration changes.

11/6 : 1130-1230
Returned due to lack of Connection. Netopia and DSL were being flooded by Netbios requests. Implemented Aggressive connection keeping on Linksys to compensate for T1 instabilities. Continued testing connection. Seemed fine after 45 minutes.



Network Accessable up thru 11/8 - 0035
( Netopia Shows continued T1 issues : )

(no subject)

[residentgeek.livejournal.com]

There's a big difference between "I can't login" and "I push the keys on the keyboard, but nothing happens".

Message #1 is the one I received when I got in this morning. #2 is what was really happening. I love troubleshooting without any important information.

Turns out the wireless keyboard batteries were dead. Apparently it's too difficult for regular people to troubleshoot that.

I've also apparently been promoted to VCR technician, multimedia guru, and in charge of everything with electricity that's within 20 feet of a computer monitor.

Because I can't say it out loud.

[kitschicat.livejournal.com]

It's just a Powerpoint presentation. You don't need me to hold your hand. Honest. Me being there will have no effect on whether the presentation "looks how you want it to" because I didn't make the presentation. YOU DID. Furthermore, you know more about Powerpoint than I do because you USE it. I don't.

Everyone in the bigwig meetings that did their presentations today had no problem at all with the laptop and projector. We loaded your presentation file onto the desktop just like everyone else's. There is no real need for you to ask me to stay late because your boss called you and asked you to verify it is working how you expect it to work in tomorrow's meeting. What am I going to do for you if it doesn't look right? I'm sure as hell not going to modify your file for you. That's YOUR job. Not mine. I've done my part.

What I want to know, is, how do they perform the simplest of routine daily tasks on their own? Do they call their doctor to come help them blow their nose?

*bangs head on desk*

It's your crap computer, not mine.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

You've upgrade to XP with the minimal processor and ram and you wonder why it takes so god damn long to install our bloated software program. When I tell you it is going to take at least 45 minutes or so to install on your dinosaur I mean it will take 45 minutes or more.

Clicking on stuff, banging your computer and restarting it will NOT make things load faster.