A "Evening" of an IT guy...

[Netman0217]

So you saw my shoutout ....I thought I would vent some frustration and share with you all a piece of my life.

I am a Sr. Network Engineer by trade (Cisco guy) so I babysit networks so people can enjoy the connectivity of the WWW, without beech'n about it being to slow. I apply my craft for a fortune 500 company, so if there is a network issue in Timbuktu at 2am, I get the call.

So, I get called at 7pm that I need to work at 8pm because some idiot at the power company (the people that own the majority of fiber ran in the city) decided that they are going to do some "maintenance" tomorow, so they are moving our circuits to another fiber plant and it should only take "a few minutes". So I said cool, I can go in babysit them, then get on to WoW and do raid BT.

The only issue is that the one of my Internet circuits goes down, but it doesn't come back up ("It's dead, Jim."). So I call into support and say "Hey, my circuit hasn't come back yet. What's going on?"

This leads to FOUR HOURS of "Sir, can you shut down the interface and reset it to see if comes back up?" and me saying "Nope, still not working" before they finally decided to escalate this to other engineers.

This leads to FOUR MORE HOURS of "Sir, can you shut down the interface and reset it to see if comes back up?" and me saying "Nope, still not working" but I at least get a new repsonse from the new engineers "Gee, everything looks fine for both sides, we are testing cleaning maybe its a problem with your equipment." But after the four hours, they agree to send someone out to the site to troubleshoot the problem further.

This leads to FOUR MORE HOURS of "Sir, can you shut down the interface and reset it to see if comes back up?" and me saying "Nope, still not working" and the new engineers saying "Gee, everything looks fine for both sides, we are testing cleaning maybe its a problem with your equipment." But at the end of the TWELVE hours, one of them say "Hey, look! Are we looking at the right circuit?" And sure enough, they weren't (this was discussed by the way in hour 1). And ONE MORE HOUR later, "Hey, looks like we have a hardware issue. We need another SIX hours to fix the problem. We will call you back."

Well, at least I had enough time to do my dailies..

[Quinnie]

Wow..... sounds like our T1/T3 providers here. ugh

[Netman0217]

Telco is Telco, no matter where you are. They all suck to a certain degree.

It messed up my schedule, because my wife has poached Thursdays for scrapbooking but I will be on this Sunday and Monday for progression this week.

[WedgeAnt]

Yeah I deal with the same thing here at the house.

Wife: "Honey the internet isn't working I need to get on myspace." *clicking furiously*
Husband: "did you pay the bill?"
Wife: ".. i think so.." *banging mouse on desk*
Husband: "is it plugged in?"
Wife: "Yes" *clicking furiously and banging mouse on desk*
Husband: "Are you sure?" *plugs in modem*
Wife: (looking in other direction and not paying attention to Husband) "Yes im sure what do you think im stupid?"
Husband: "no of course not honey, try it again *exasperated sigh and eye roll*
Wife: " oh its working now I must have fixed it"

I'm pretty sure the experience is in essence the same.. only you are getting paid.

[Quinnie]

WedgeAnt wrote:

Yeah I deal with the same thing here at the house. Wife: "Honey the internet isn't working I need to get on myspace." *clicking furiously* Husband: "did you pay the bill?" Wife: ".. i think so.." *banging mouse on desk* Husband: "is it plugged in?" Wife: "Yes" *clicking furiously and banging mouse on desk* Husband: "Are you sure?" *plugs in modem* Wife: (looking in other direction and not paying attention to Husband) "Yes im sure what do you think im stupid?" Husband: "no of course not honey, try it again *exasperated sigh and eye roll* Wife: " oh its working now I must have fixed it" I'm pretty sure the experience is in essence the same.. only you are getting paid.

THAT... may just be worse than what I deal with LOL