Tech Support HELL

Read it again and add a sarcastic tone to the office techie targetted question. I know the guy and I assure you he's *far* from stupid.

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All that would do is make him sound like an arrogant know-it-all wannabe, which doesn't quite help his case. Since you claim to know him, what's his real job title? He may have an IQ of 220, but he sure as shit doesn't know diddly about networking.

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yuethomas.livejournal.com

What 'local techie' worth his/her salt would say that www.whatismyip.com gives you an IP? fish posed a very valid question - he needs an IP - but the response given by the techie was sheer stupidity.

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Oh, I'm not saying that bit isn't stupid. But what "sysadmin" worth s/h/it's salt would write a paragraph like "Nothing is offered by DHCP, so I run tcpdump and try giving my machine similar settings to what the other machines on the network appear to be using," says fish. "Nothing. Can't even ping the router."? It's sheer fuckwitrry.

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Seems like a quick way of seeing what the other machines are doing when you're new in a place, can't yet get access to anything to take a better look and have to get a sense of what's going on.

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How many times have you walked into a place as an admin and had instant access to everything without having to either get your claws into the existing tech or getting the manager to unlock the guts of the network so you can sort it for yourself?

While you're at it you might want to try a bit of socratic irony to find out what historically what you're letting yourself in for by posing a few dumb questions at the resident 'expert' to see what they say.

And while you're waiting for *that* you might as well have a poke around to see what's happening elsewhere. I personally can't see the problem..

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mawz.livejournal.com

I've done that before. It can work if DHCP is b0rked for some reason.

Provided that you give your box the same gateway that's being assigned.

Sysadmin was mildly silly. Techie was a fuckin' moron.

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It does, does it? Are you sure about that? In the context of this item, that is.

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Yes. I've done this before too.

Link was live, the TCPdump was showing various IPs in use, trying one in approximately the right range didn't result in any success which is a simple enough thing to at least try. Everyone appears to be fine, the NIC is happy enough, time for grass roots fiddling..

What follows was crawling under the table, locating and trying a new socket and getting lucky. It appeared to be a bad/bizarre config on that port alone, or dodgy wiring on the TX side of the socket.

The context related purely to the actions of the in-house tech, NOT the problem leading to the question which had now been diagnosed and fixed.

Jumping to conclusions doesn't always give the intended result.

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network-nerd.livejournal.com

> Sysadmin was mildly silly. Techie was a fuckin' moron.

Agreed!

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kayfox.livejournal.com

My head hurts.

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when moving into serviced offices, you generally expect the network to actually work. If it doesn't, it's their problem, and their responsibility to fix it.

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The "local techie" wasn't actually tecnical at all, just the person presented when the office admin was told that the network was broken.

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Out of curiosity, if you moved in to a new serviced office, and the network connection you've been given doesn't work, what would you do?

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slamlander.livejournal.com

> Sysadmin was mildly silly. Techie was a fuckin' moron.

Disagree! The SA wasn't much better than the Techie (who should be fired).

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slamlander.livejournal.com

As the newly hired SA, this is an IQ test. The real question is, 'are you smart enough to fix it?'

This indicates a huge problem in the network. Give that the link lights glow and there still isn't a connection. I wuldn't even have tried tcpdump, which is mostly as useful as old dishwater.

The first thing is to find out why DHCP is borked.

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Given that my job as a systems admin would be to fix just such a problem for others, I would find out why and fix it. But I guess that's just too much to ask out of new hires anymore?

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Doesn't matter. If your job is really "sysadmin", YOU are the person who should be presented when there's a problem with the network. Unless you're really just a wannabe data entry clerk/level 1 script reader who thinks working on a computer and knowing what tcpdump is makes you a "sysadmin".

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You're making assumptions. No, the first thing is to find out how other (if any) machines are connected. Learn the network. Assuming your job has anything to do with that network, that is. In this case I strongly suspect otherwise.

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slamlander.livejournal.com

That's the prequel to finding out why DHCP is borked ;)

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I'm not a newly hired SA. I don't work for the company whose office space this is. I work for a different company who lease office space from this company.

I have no link lights. I have no access to the switch, router, or anything beyond the cable connected to my machine.

tcpdump showed me that the switch was at least partially working, as I could see things going to/from the router. Hence I knew that whatever the problem was, it lay beyond my machine and cable, and that I could legitimately take this to the company whose office this is, as it's their equipment and their problem.

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My job has nothing to do with this network, no.

My speaking to this person was an attempt to find out how the other machines in this office are connected.

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My job as sysadmin is indeed to fix problems for others. But that's on a different network, with different machines.

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When there's a problem with my network, I fix it. This is not my network.

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So why aren't you working on "your" network?

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Because "my" network is in a room in a data centre. I suppose I could stick a desk in between the racks and work there, but the noise of all the fans, and the air conditioning gets annoying very quickly. Given that I can do most of my job remotely, I would rather work in a nice quiet office.

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