Today I was at the home of colleague to make it possible for him to connect from home with his laptop to the company network. At first all went smoothly. The wireless network-adapter was installed within a few minutes. It got a strong and clear signal. And of course the connection was secured.
But strangely enough I could not connect to the company network. Quickly I found out that for some reason the laptop didn’t get an IP-address reached out. So I checked all on the laptop and my conclusion had to be that it was not cause of this. The problem had to be at the router/network side. The router did came along with the Internet account. So I called the helpdesk of the ISP for suggestions…. a foolish thing to do, I know…
Him: “Goodday, you speak with the helpdesk of <bliep>. How can I help you?”
Me: “Hello, you speak with Rob. I am helping a colleague to set up his laptop for usage with Internet. His other laptop works without any problems, but for some reason this laptop doesn’t get IP-address.”
Him: “I see, Sir. I think the router has lost its connection to the Internet. Could you please reset the router?”
Me: “Ermmm… sure, but I just told that the other laptop is working great over here. But if you want us to reset the router… we will!”
(Of course did resetting the router not help)
Him: ” Strange! Mostly this solves most problems. Then you should turn off the firewall. Firewalls are known to stop many things…”
(Ermm… Firewalls are MEANT to stop things. But most common services are allowed to go through….)
Me: “So you want to turn off the firewall? I mean… sure, the Windows Firewall is not the best one, but still…. Anyway, if you want to have it shutdown…”
(He starts to explain me to click op “start”-button and before he can tell to go to the configuration panel, the Firewall is down…. and of course, this didn’t help at all)
Him: “Do you use any other security software?”
Me: “Of course there is anti-virus software installed. McAfee Virusscan Enterprise 8 in this case…”
Him: “Ahh there we have it. McAfee is crap and it stops the IP requests. Norton does the same. You have to uninstall it… and I will warn you, unstalling might be a problem….”
Me: “You really want me to uninstall the virus-protection???”
Him: “Yes???”
Me: “I won’t. And please don’t tell me that anti-virus software stops the network side to supply a IP address…”
(I feel how my blood starts to flow faster… my lips start to tremble… a bad sign)….
Him: “Ohh… hmmm… I see. Maybe I should check the DHCP over here to see if it works well…”
Me: ” Yes…. maybe you check your DHCP…… Do you know what DHCP stands for?” (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocal)
(Some stumbling that show he doesn’t)
Me: “And while you are at it… check you DNS… you know what that means?” (Domain Name Servers…. well, I have to admit that he know that one…. )
(The conversation goes on and slowly I feel myself switch to BOFH mode….)
He: ” We should test if there is any connection to the Internet.”
Me: “Sure. How we do that?”
He: “Do you know how to ping?”
Me: “Funny enough I do. Which IP address?”
He: “Any.”
Me: “Any? Will 127.0.0.1 do?”
He: “Yes… of course…”
(And he made just a fool of himself… The mentioned IP address is the so called “loopback address”, it refers to the own computer… so if IP is active, a ping to that address will always be successful”.
Me: “Ohhh… it works. And such a fast high response times…”
(Gave him here a change to correct himself….)
He: “Yes, Sir. And as it shows you have a connection to the Internet, so it must be a problem with the laptop itself!”
Sure!!!! I will write tomorrow a mail to the helpdesk manager there….. and I just remembered why I left that bunch 3 years ago….
I know how frustrating this can be. I have this conversation at least once every week.
Allmost any first line ISP helpdesk in the netherlands has the same problem.
Thank g*d i have a lot of direct phone numbers for second and third line. That often helps……. Espescially with your favorite isp 😀 (Gnarl gnarl gnarl… xs4 no-one……)
Strange enough my “favorite” ISP gave me almost never such problems… Most problems I solve through their newsgroups, IF I have problems….
*Pets his superfast, not heavy overbooked 20Mb connection* (And yes, I know I pay for that 🙂 )
Anyway, above story was with not@home :P. But I admit, “Het Net” and “Planet” are even worse….
I used to have an account with Planet, but I had often problems there.
On Rob’s suggestion I moved to Xs4all and I am happy now. No real problems anymore. I even recently upgraded to a faster account.
But then I have never to deal with a helpdesk. I have my private helpdesk! Rob… 🙂
Het net, planet, WXS, KPN Office DSL, Deamon, Telfort, speedlinq (and i probably forget a lot more little ISP) are all KPN affiliated/owned and are supported bij the XS4All supportdesk. My problem with the provider world is that it conglomerates. If everthing goes to plan, there will be only 2 providers, The company who owns the Copperlines (and glas) aka KPN/XS4ALL and the Cable company (the conglomerate of Essent, UPC, and the other little cable guys)
And that really sucks.
And the 1st line helpdesk of @home is even worse than xs4all………
Well, basically I agree with you, Patrick. But what happens in the provider-world was something that is already predicted long time ago. Even those with their “own” copper/fiber/cable… there are some big ones that really own the infratructure.
And oh, Marion? I am your private helpdesk? Oh, poor me… I think 😉
Rob, I think my rewards are pretty good 🙂
Oh yes, they are…. *blushes*
(just teasing :P)
And that is how gossip and rumours find their way into the world…. 🙂
Stop it, you two!!!! Rumours are my department!!!!
Anyway, talking about Xs4all. Is it correct that we get an advanced website to our accounts? At least that is what I understand from their website.
Yes, that is correct. Xs4all is upgrading the connection-speed of the other ADSL-accounts. But we are with our ADSL Fast accounts already to the top speed that is currently available (with major investments on both sides).
But they want to give the owners of ADSL Fast accounts also something extra. So they will add an Advanced website for free to those accounts. That includes 1Gb storage, 100gb data-traffic (on the site, not your browsing or downloading), 50 mailboxes of 500mb (unlimited e-mail addresses), 1 domain name and some things more.
And oh… http://www.marion.nl is not available anymore, but http://www.marion.biz is! 😉