The trials and tribulations of Idiots..
Jul. 14th, 2004 10:10 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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techrecoveryOkay, I *heart* this community. It echoes so many of my own stories. So I thought after lurking a while that I'd finally share one of my own.
I'm a Network Admin for a mid-size healthcare distributor. Thanks to the fact that we don't have all that many workstations (under 100) and we have a nice, stable, good network I really am pretty much on my own. Aside from the IT Director who pulls double duty as the VP/Ops. Yeah, it's fun.
Anyway, so recently the boss and two of the other execs decided that those two execs should move to Kansas and work out of their home. In principle, it was an excellent idea. Both of them were usually on the road anyway, and mostly deal with our Kansas accounts. I said "no problem" and added the caveat that they should ensure that they can get broadband at home before buying a house, as VPNing and using certain services over dialup would be painful.
So what did they do? They bought an "acreage" out in the middle of Egypt, Kansas. No, Egypt isn't really a town in Kansas - but it should be. They are literally in the middle of no-where. Granted most of Kansas is, but they are special enough to be even further out.
Oh, and guess what else. They done listened reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallll good and of course they asked about Internet, right? EEEEEEEEERRRRRRR, WRRRROONG.
Yeah, they are in one of those "black holes". You know, THAR BE DRAGONS!@#!@#
It gets better. They had to have Sprint BUILD IN THEIR PHONE LINES because the house they bought DIDN'T HAVE ANY. This isn't a cheap house, or anything, just some freaky old coot owned it before that didn't care.
Sprint can give them ISDN lines, but there is nobody to dial in to. Hell, they can't even get a local 56k ISP. Because of the telco exchange(s) in the area, they can dial locally only to the 300-person community they are a mile outside of.
I'm seriously chuckling. You would think that if you buy a house to work out of that the fact that it DOESN'T HAVE ANY FUCKING PHONE LINES might clue you in?
THE CLUE TRAIN, STOPPING IN KANSAS.
Oy. How I hate users.
I'm a Network Admin for a mid-size healthcare distributor. Thanks to the fact that we don't have all that many workstations (under 100) and we have a nice, stable, good network I really am pretty much on my own. Aside from the IT Director who pulls double duty as the VP/Ops. Yeah, it's fun.
Anyway, so recently the boss and two of the other execs decided that those two execs should move to Kansas and work out of their home. In principle, it was an excellent idea. Both of them were usually on the road anyway, and mostly deal with our Kansas accounts. I said "no problem" and added the caveat that they should ensure that they can get broadband at home before buying a house, as VPNing and using certain services over dialup would be painful.
So what did they do? They bought an "acreage" out in the middle of Egypt, Kansas. No, Egypt isn't really a town in Kansas - but it should be. They are literally in the middle of no-where. Granted most of Kansas is, but they are special enough to be even further out.
Oh, and guess what else. They done listened reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallll good and of course they asked about Internet, right? EEEEEEEEERRRRRRR, WRRRROONG.
Yeah, they are in one of those "black holes". You know, THAR BE DRAGONS!@#!@#
It gets better. They had to have Sprint BUILD IN THEIR PHONE LINES because the house they bought DIDN'T HAVE ANY. This isn't a cheap house, or anything, just some freaky old coot owned it before that didn't care.
Sprint can give them ISDN lines, but there is nobody to dial in to. Hell, they can't even get a local 56k ISP. Because of the telco exchange(s) in the area, they can dial locally only to the 300-person community they are a mile outside of.
I'm seriously chuckling. You would think that if you buy a house to work out of that the fact that it DOESN'T HAVE ANY FUCKING PHONE LINES might clue you in?
THE CLUE TRAIN, STOPPING IN KANSAS.
Oy. How I hate users.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 09:12 am (UTC)1) There actually is an Egypt, Arkansas. I'm not far from there!
2) The location I live in here in AR is PRECISELY like you described. The ONLY saving grace is the city of 60,000 20 miles north of us. Blessedly, an ISP here offers radiowave wireless broadband, so we're not up the "56-k creek". I can't even IMAGINE no internet access at all. >_
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 09:24 am (UTC)Sometimes, ISP's are worse than users, I swear.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 09:25 am (UTC)If you wanted to make it really painful for them you could suggest satellite internet access. https://store.earthlink.net/cgi-bin/wsisa.dll/store/product.html?product=satellite
Then again maybe it got better since I last saw someone using it. :-)
It'd be better than nothing I guess . . .
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 09:30 am (UTC)What software and online activities might not be optimal with an EarthLink Satellite connection?
Your satellite connection is optimized for surfing and routine internet usage. However, certain time-sensitive Internet applications (NetMeeting, NetPhone, some online games, and any application that connects to a virtual private network) won't perform their best over a satellite connection.
Any signal you send from your computer via satellite has to travel over 44,000 miles to space and back again in order to deliver your information, and because of this, Satellite products have a degree of latency. Latency is the time it takes for a signal from your computer to reach its destination and then for the response to flow through the satellite back to your computer. Therefore, certain time-sensitive applications are not recommended for use with EarthLink Satellite, powered by DIRECWAY:
* Real-time online communication tools such as NetMeeting or NetPhone.
* Real-time online games that emphasize reaction time such as Quake, CounterStrike, Diablo, and EverQuest. NOTE: Online, turn based, games such as card games or chess will play well on EarthLink Satellite.
* Any application that connects to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is not supported and will be very slow on EarthLink Satellite.
THE CLUE TRAIN, STOPPING IN KANSAS.
Date: 2004-07-14 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 10:36 am (UTC)Thank god my parents, who just moved out to a town of 5000 this week, checked to see if they got broadband first. Of course, they also tried wireless internet with the cell phone, but then they discovered they could get verizon dsl.
I'll stick with my cable modem, I think.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 10:43 am (UTC)You have 3 options.
Date: 2004-07-14 08:08 pm (UTC)2) Wireless. And I don't necessarily mean 802.11, tho it MIGHT work. If you have a LoS for 12 miles, you might want to consider Tsunami ($$) or terrestrial microwave (Wok-on-the-Wall type stuff: $$$, FCC Permit reqd.)
Also consider Motorola Canopy. Their new 2.4 GHz stuff can rach 12 miles and after playing with it, I can tell you it just works.
3) I'm assuming Sprint has ruled out the possibility of a T1.. so, that leaves you with... Fiber! Now we're talking some serious green!
The problem with 2) is you need an ISP in the nearest wired town willing to piggyback your gear onto their network. WIth 3) you need a LEC than can run you fiber. Sprint is pretty good at that.
Good freakin' luck on this one.