• CEO Dave (unregistered)

    You idiots! Why is my commenting not working! You! First Poster, go to my house and fix it.

  • (cs)

    He was the one who installed the VPN at the CEO's home, but he had no idea the CEO might be addressing him when complaining about not having VPN access? Fire his ass for being clueless.

  • SoonerMatt (unregistered)

    Ran into something kind of similar last week.

    A family member is building a nice house (6000'). Seeing a million dollars get spent on a house I sent an email off to be forwarded to the builder or electrician. It described running cat 5 to all locations where a computer or tv would exist. Terminate them in RJ45, make them all junction in a closet with power and cable for the cable modem, etc. Described being able to install security cameras, a network printer, media server, all of the fun stuff.

    So I am ready to come "hook them up". I even have a Cisco Catalyst switch ready, server, pretty much all the goodies ready to go.

    I get to the house and find no network ports in the walls, but phone line / cable tv outlets everywhere. I find the electrician. He shows me how he ran CAT5 cabling everywhere that was asked, but he didn't know what to do with it. He decided that he would use the CAT5's for the phone lines.

    In the end I found that he had all of the CAT5 cables terminated in the attic and spliced together to distribute the phone lines. The phones were run through the cat 5 and cable outlets were placed everywhere so that a cable modem could be placed at each machine.

    Of course, the cable guy came and pointed out that his cable bill would be 5x$40 per month because each cable modem and account would be a separate charge.

    It's a week later and I don't know what they have figured out, but I wash my hands of it.

  • (cs) in reply to SoonerMatt
    SoonerMatt:
    It's a week later and I don't know what they have figured out, but I wash my hands of it.

    Hopefully they got a competent electrician who can do his job.

  • Russ (unregistered) in reply to SoonerMatt

    Our place was wired with Cat5e, but phone jacks. I had to ask the electrician to replace with RJ45 jacks. Everything terminates in the garage, so we'll have to put in a patch panel/switch or something.

  • (cs) in reply to sqlblindman
    He was the one who installed the VPN at the CEO's home, but he had no idea the CEO might be addressing him when complaining about not having VPN access? Fire his ass for being clueless.

    After the CEO quits for abuse. There's no need to start off acting like a crazy man over something relatively non-business-stopping like this. Take it easy, tap the guy on the shoulder, say "Hey, I'm having trouble with the VPN at my house. Would you mind helping me with it once you've finished your lunch?".

  • SomeCoder (unregistered) in reply to shepd
    shepd:
    He was the one who installed the VPN at the CEO's home, but he had no idea the CEO might be addressing him when complaining about not having VPN access? Fire his ass for being clueless.

    After the CEO quits for abuse. There's no need to start off acting like a crazy man over something relatively non-business-stopping like this. Take it easy, tap the guy on the shoulder, say "Hey, I'm having trouble with the VPN at my house. Would you mind helping me with it once you've finished your lunch?".

    Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. Who comes rushing in, screaming like a lunatic over something like that?

    I believe the story, I know people that would do that but that doesn't make it any less abhorrent.

  • (cs)
    "My f–cking VPN connection is broken again! Can't you stop fiddling with the god damn network‽"
    Bonus points for the interrobang.
  • KD (unregistered)

    If I ever reached the point where the boss expected me to go to his house to hook up his internet connection, I would be looking for a new job. After clearing out his liquor cabinet, of course.

  • Brains (unregistered) in reply to SoonerMatt
    SoonerMatt:
    Ran into something kind of similar last week.

    A family member is building a nice house (6000'). Seeing a million dollars get spent on a house I sent an email off to be forwarded to the builder or electrician. It described running cat 5 to all locations where a computer or tv would exist. Terminate them in RJ45, make them all junction in a closet with power and cable for the cable modem, etc. Described being able to install security cameras, a network printer, media server, all of the fun stuff.

    So I am ready to come "hook them up". I even have a Cisco Catalyst switch ready, server, pretty much all the goodies ready to go.

    I get to the house and find no network ports in the walls, but phone line / cable tv outlets everywhere. I find the electrician. He shows me how he ran CAT5 cabling everywhere that was asked, but he didn't know what to do with it. He decided that he would use the CAT5's for the phone lines.

    In the end I found that he had all of the CAT5 cables terminated in the attic and spliced together to distribute the phone lines. The phones were run through the cat 5 and cable outlets were placed everywhere so that a cable modem could be placed at each machine.

    Of course, the cable guy came and pointed out that his cable bill would be 5x$40 per month because each cable modem and account would be a separate charge.

    It's a week later and I don't know what they have figured out, but I wash my hands of it.

    Why would you even bother having the cable guy come over once the electrician pointed out how the cabling was setup?

    I hope you had the moron electrician correct everything free of charge...

    And for a $1M+ house, you should've gone with CAT6, the added cost is next to nothing.

  • spectro (unregistered)

    I don't understand how people stand being yelled at.

    I was yelled once in my job, as soon as the berating ended and the boss walked away I packed my stuff and left that place for good.

  • (cs) in reply to SoonerMatt

    Repeat after me: "If I want something done right, I will do it myself."

    In all seriousness, it sounds like you know what you're doing. If your email was worded correctly and was incorporated into the contract, you should be able to get the electrician to come out and fix it for free, since he didn't follow any of your specs (save that there is possibly CAT 5 run to most of the rooms).

  • Erik (unregistered)

    So is the cell phone problem in this story just an odd coincidence?

  • (cs)

    Had something similar happen to me about a year ago...

    I had gotten a pair of Netgear powerline adaptors, and was messing around with my home network trying to get them to work right. When I hooked one of them up directly to one of my computers (instead of through the router, so I could use netgears configuration utility) I noticed that I was getting a very strong signal from one, and a very weak signal from a second one. I assumed that the strong signal was the one I was connected directly to, and the weak signal the other one.

    I wasn't to happy with the signal strength, so I started messing around, moving them to different outlets, trading around routers, and just generally messing around with the network. At some point, I do a Google search to try and find some information, and suddenly realize that my dsl modem is unplugged from everything and sitting next to me doing absolutely nothing.

    Silly me, turns out the strong signal was the second one, and the week signal was my neighbor's powerline adaptor. Go figure.

  • MindChild (unregistered)

    Sorry, I wouldn't be letting anyone into my house after screaming at them for being incompetent. It is like bitching at a waiter before you get your food. Best case, your food comes back clean. Worst case, your food is a family member cooked up, buttered in dog poop. You are going to end up somewhere between the two.

  • dfhaerhae (unregistered) in reply to SoonerMatt

    So you gave the electrician the job requirements; all the locations, cabling, termination. He doesn't understand and does the job completely wrong. So you just walk away from the whole deal!? You got tasked or took it upon yourself to see that the house was wired for network. Complete your responsibility and see that it's fixed and done right!

  • dfhaerhae (unregistered) in reply to SoonerMatt
    SoonerMatt:
    Ran into something kind of similar last week.

    A family member is building a nice house (6000'). Seeing a million dollars get spent on a house I sent an email off to be forwarded to the builder or electrician. It described running cat 5 to all locations where a computer or tv would exist. Terminate them in RJ45, make them all junction in a closet with power and cable for the cable modem, etc. Described being able to install security cameras, a network printer, media server, all of the fun stuff.

    So I am ready to come "hook them up". I even have a Cisco Catalyst switch ready, server, pretty much all the goodies ready to go.

    I get to the house and find no network ports in the walls, but phone line / cable tv outlets everywhere. I find the electrician. He shows me how he ran CAT5 cabling everywhere that was asked, but he didn't know what to do with it. He decided that he would use the CAT5's for the phone lines.

    In the end I found that he had all of the CAT5 cables terminated in the attic and spliced together to distribute the phone lines. The phones were run through the cat 5 and cable outlets were placed everywhere so that a cable modem could be placed at each machine.

    Of course, the cable guy came and pointed out that his cable bill would be 5x$40 per month because each cable modem and account would be a separate charge.

    It's a week later and I don't know what they have figured out, but I wash my hands of it.

    So you spend money on expensive Cisco gear for the switch but decide to go with dirt cheap cat5? Do cat6, it isn't that much more expensive.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Veinor
    Veinor:
    "My f–cking VPN connection is broken again! Can't you stop fiddling with the god damn network‽"
    Bonus points for the interrobang.
    Made up symbols are not coolʢ

    [FYI, ʢ is supposed to be a poor effort at an <a rel="nofollow" href=""http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark" target="_blank" title=""http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark">irony mark. See, I'm being ironic - how very droll!]

  • Marc B (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous

    Damn, you're clever ¤ <-- That's my new sarcasm mark.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Marc B
    Marc B:
    Damn, you're clever ¤ <-- That's my new sarcasm mark.
    Ah, but given that sarcasm is a subset of irony, you should probably have been using 'ʢ'!
  • InsanityCubed (unregistered)

    Wow, so many things wrong here.

    a. How is setting this up part of Sebastian's job? b. If he set it up, why did he not assume the CEO was talking to him? c. Why was the CEO yelling, and why did Sebastian put up with it? d. If he's doing work for the CEO, those 45 minutes of driving should come out of his work day, not lunch. e. If he's getting a DHCP address rather than static, why isn't he using some web service to track his IP in case it changes (CEO probably couldn't handle this).

  • xzzy (unregistered)

    Technically, the DHCP servers are doing exactly what they're supposed to do. It was really just luck that his laptop was picking the DHCP server that actually had a functioning internet connection.

    The basic sequence for a DHCP exchange is:

    Client sends out broadcast asking for a DHCP server to lease it an address.

    All DHCP servers that receive the broadcast pick an IP from their database and allocate it for the client, and send a response to the client.

    Client processes all responses and picks one to use. It sends an acknowledgment to the issuing DHCP server that it has been chosen.

    Chosen DHCP server sends a final acknowledgment, providing lease duration and any optional settings.

    Still technically a race condition from the perspective of getting a functioning internet connection, but the DHCP spec does allow for multiple active servers. All kinds of cleverness can be accomplished by exploiting this. ;)

  • (cs) in reply to SomeCoder
    SomeCoder:
    Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. Who comes rushing in, screaming like a lunatic over something like that?

    Most CEOs, who think the world revolves around them because "I OWN MY OWN BUSINESS. I AM THE BOSS!"

  • (cs)
    Silence.

    "How soon can you fix it?" the CEO cried.

    No answer. No nervous stammering, no "er, um..."

    TRWTF is that by this point he hadn't at least turned around to see who he was talking to.

  • ThePhil (unregistered)

    This class of problem, if not this very thing, happens fairly regularly in a world where every third person has an unsecured wifi connection going. People plug into a network that isn't working, but assume it is, because their laptop has automatically provided them with a wireless internet connection. All goes well until Johnny User tries to print something or connect to some other part of the corpnet that isn't externally accessible.

  • Definer (unregistered) in reply to dfhaerhae

    The problem is Cat5. He most likely meant Cat5e which is rated to 1Gbps.

    His problem is that he had the electrician do it and only specified the type of cable and port.

    He should have hired a network cabling company and requested that it be certified.

  • sebastian (unregistered) in reply to Erik

    nope, not a coincidence. Signal was there (Cell Tower still working) but since the actual link to the system was cut ... well, signal but no call could be routed.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to InsanityCubed
    InsanityCubed:
    Wow, so many things wrong here.

    a. How is setting this up part of Sebastian's job? b. If he set it up, why did he not assume the CEO was talking to him? c. Why was the CEO yelling, and why did Sebastian put up with it? d. If he's doing work for the CEO, those 45 minutes of driving should come out of his work day, not lunch. e. If he's getting a DHCP address rather than static, why isn't he using some web service to track his IP in case it changes (CEO probably couldn't handle this).

    f. Why, after determining the problem, didn't he call the boss, tell him it's going to take a while, and spend the next couple of hours relaxing in the boss' recliner watching pay-per-view movies on cable? g. Why didn't he run out to the drug store, buy some cheap perfume and a cheap pair of earrings. Then go back to the bosses house, spray the perfume on the boss' wives pillow and hide one of the earrings in the bed somewhere?

  • SomeCoder (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    SomeCoder:
    Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. Who comes rushing in, screaming like a lunatic over something like that?

    Most CEOs, who think the world revolves around them because "I OWN MY OWN BUSINESS. I AM THE BOSS!"

    Oh yes, I know and believe it. As I said in the second line of my post that you didn't quote :) I still think the CEO is an asshole.

  • (cs) in reply to heltoupee
    heltoupee:
    Repeat after me: "If I want something done right, I will do it myself."

    In all seriousness, it sounds like you know what you're doing. If your email was worded correctly and was incorporated into the contract, you should be able to get the electrician to come out and fix it for free, since he didn't follow any of your specs (save that there is possibly CAT 5 run to most of the rooms).

    Too true! My neighbor is a competent electrician -- put a new 200A service in my house, nice neat work, etc. But he is the first to admit that he knows nothing about networking. He wouldn't know what to with Cat 6.

    His WiFi is secured; I suspect it was his daughter who did that.

  • Crabs (unregistered)

    Reminds me exactly of the IT guy at my last job. Wouldn't suprise me if he wrote it.

  • SoonerMatt (unregistered) in reply to dfhaerhae
    dfhaerhae:
    SoonerMatt:
    Ran into something kind of similar last week.

    A family member is building a nice house (6000'). Seeing a million dollars get spent on a house I sent an email off to be forwarded to the builder or electrician. It described running cat 5 to all locations where a computer or tv would exist. Terminate them in RJ45, make them all junction in a closet with power and cable for the cable modem, etc. Described being able to install security cameras, a network printer, media server, all of the fun stuff.

    So I am ready to come "hook them up". I even have a Cisco Catalyst switch ready, server, pretty much all the goodies ready to go.

    I get to the house and find no network ports in the walls, but phone line / cable tv outlets everywhere. I find the electrician. He shows me how he ran CAT5 cabling everywhere that was asked, but he didn't know what to do with it. He decided that he would use the CAT5's for the phone lines.

    In the end I found that he had all of the CAT5 cables terminated in the attic and spliced together to distribute the phone lines. The phones were run through the cat 5 and cable outlets were placed everywhere so that a cable modem could be placed at each machine.

    Of course, the cable guy came and pointed out that his cable bill would be 5x$40 per month because each cable modem and account would be a separate charge.

    It's a week later and I don't know what they have figured out, but I wash my hands of it.

    So you spend money on expensive Cisco gear for the switch but decide to go with dirt cheap cat5? Do cat6, it isn't that much more expensive.

    You all were correct on the CAT6 opposed. I just had an extra commercial grade switch laying around. Otherwise I had planned on getting a cheap Linksys 8 port and running dd-wrt

  • skin256 (unregistered) in reply to spectro

    Yep, been there, done that, and walked out.

  • Page (unregistered) in reply to Russ
    Russ:
    Our place was wired with Cat5e, but phone jacks. I had to ask the electrician to replace with RJ45 jacks. Everything terminates in the garage, so we'll have to put in a patch panel/switch or something.

    I can do better than that.

    I was initially overjoyed to find out that my new house had Cat5 wired along with standard phone cable but when I went to see where all the Cat5 cables terminated, I was extremely dismayed to see that they were hanging out of the brick wall of my house in the great outdoors with nothing near them. I would have had to run power out there somehow and build an ugly-as-sin lean-to shanty against the wall of my house to shelter the router and other equipment once I got everything hooked up. Needless to say, I'm currently stuck on wireless.

  • David Emery (unregistered)

    Here's my 'similar story'. I gave my brother a wireless router to put on his new DSL network. He couldn't get it to work, so over Thanksgiving I took a crack at it.

    It turns out that the DSL router provided by Earthlink and the WiFI router from DLINK both decided that they wanted to be 192.168.1.1...

    The computer plugged into the DSL router worked fine. The computer plugged into the DLINK worked just fine. Plug the DLINK into the DSL router, and all-of-a-sudden you can't talk to the DLINK device, nor can you get on the 'net.

    Fortunately, I noticed a piece of Earthlink documentation that said their DSL router was by default on 192.16.1.1. So I unplugged it, was able to connect to the DLINK router and set its subnet to 192.168.2 and that device's address to 192.168.2.1. Then I plugged in the DSL router, and everything was copacetic.

    Certainly that is -not- something I'd expect my (Carpenter) brother to be able to detect, let alone resolve. I wonder how many hours of Tech Support is wasted because these two devices both claimed the same IP address?

    dave

  • Paula (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that he ate a hot dog. That shit's nasty!

  • Marc B (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Marc B:
    Damn, you're clever ¤ <-- That's my new sarcasm mark.
    Ah, but given that sarcasm is a subset of irony, you should probably have been using 'ʢ'!

    Hah! So it would seem. But I've actually symbolized all categories of irony: Δ is for situational irony, ב for dramatic irony, etc. All under the irony umbrella of ʢ. So ¤ is actually a more accurate symbol. ∏ and ⌡.

  • Capt. Obvious (unregistered) in reply to spectro
    spectro:
    don't understand how people stand being yelled at.
    I can stand being yelled at because I understand that stress sometimes makes other people crazy. Sometimes it makes me crazy. If it's a rare one-off type of thing, followed by an apology, then I can typically deal with it.

    If they think they have a right to yell at me, that's a different story. But everyone loses their cool. I don't expect other people to conform to what I am unable to do.

  • (cs) in reply to SoonerMatt
    SoonerMatt:
    He shows me how he ran CAT5 cabling everywhere that was asked, but he didn't know what to do with it.

    At which point a professional would ask to clarify the design. Make the contractor rip it out, tear out wall if need be, and do it right. For a house that size and expense, they have to do it right.

  • (cs) in reply to Capt. Obvious
    Capt. Obvious:
    spectro:
    don't understand how people stand being yelled at.
    I can stand being yelled at because I understand that stress sometimes makes other people crazy. Sometimes it makes me crazy. If it's a rare one-off type of thing, followed by an apology, then I can typically deal with it.

    If they think they have a right to yell at me, that's a different story. But everyone loses their cool. I don't expect other people to conform to what I am unable to do.

    Yeah, but there are people that are habitual yellers. These are the people who can be charming as hell one moment, and vicious, swearing pit bulls the next. I worked for one, and it was the worst six months of my professional experience. This guy actually took pride in making people cry. When I finally had enough, I quit, and had to take a temp job at $10 an hour until I found a real job.

    Fortunately, I didn't have any mouths to feed, but I can understand why some people will put up with it. Especially in this economy.

  • Max (unregistered) in reply to Erik
    Erik:
    So is the cell phone problem in this story just an odd coincidence?

    Cell Phones only are wireless to the cell towers. Then they share the same lines as everything else. If a tower goes down, so does the cell service surrounding it. So if major lines are cut, yes cell phone service is dead.

    I had a funnier one - the local cell tower took outgoing calls, but no incoming calls. It took a while for everyone to figure out the problem. And the tech who showed up and figured it out called the main company, said, "Call me if you need any more info.", hung up, then realized exactly what he had just done.

    On a totally different note, the company in question on this post is clearly small. A large company's CEO would not need VPN access ... most CEOs have assistants for that. Likewise, a large company would have a support process, not yelling in the halls. And a CEO like this would never still be CEO at a large place. My guess is this story came from an office with less than 10 people in it, and the "CEO" is probably called by his first name not his title. But then the story isn't as good.

  • (cs) in reply to SomeCoder

    You seem to be assuming that the CEO is a rational person. That assumption is the real WTF. :)

  • (cs) in reply to David Emery
    David Emery:
    It turns out that the DSL router provided by Earthlink and the WiFI router from DLINK both decided that they wanted to be 192.168.1.1...

    dave

    SAME EXACT thing happened to me, but it was Verizon DSL... Why in the world would they make the default IP the same as the IP used by almost all consumer routers?? I don't know how I figured it out so quickly, but I noticed the problem as soon as I tried to hook it up... Definitely a WTF, and I'm sure tech support gets calls every hour about it...

  • (cs) in reply to dfhaerhae
    dfhaerhae:
    So you gave the electrician the job requirements; all the locations, cabling, termination. He doesn't understand and does the job completely wrong. So you just walk away from the whole deal!? You got tasked or took it upon yourself to see that the house was wired for network. Complete your responsibility and see that it's fixed and done right!

    Because the deal is "set up things like A and I'll do B."

    He didn't take responsibility for A.

  • (cs) in reply to InsanityCubed
    InsanityCubed:
    Wow, so many things wrong here.

    a. How is setting this up part of Sebastian's job?

    Because you don't expect the CEO to set up his home VPN connection.
  • GrandmasterB (unregistered)

    And then Sebastian quit his job, after suddenly coming into a lot of expensive jewelery he forgot he had.

    Seriously, though, CEO or not, if someone screams profanities at me at work, their face will get stuffed into the microwave.

  • Machtyn (unregistered) in reply to SomeCoder
    SomeCoder:
    Who comes rushing in, screaming like a lunatic over something like that?

    I believe the story, I know people that would do that but that doesn't make it any less abhorrent.

    Type A personalities with high blood pressure. Some people, like in this situation, will let something boil for awhile before they explode. Four weeks can do it.

  • (cs) in reply to Page
    Page:
    Russ:
    Our place was wired with Cat5e, but phone jacks. I had to ask the electrician to replace with RJ45 jacks. Everything terminates in the garage, so we'll have to put in a patch panel/switch or something.

    I can do better than that.

    I was initially overjoyed to find out that my new house had Cat5 wired along with standard phone cable but when I went to see where all the Cat5 cables terminated, I was extremely dismayed to see that they were hanging out of the brick wall of my house in the great outdoors with nothing near them. I would have had to run power out there somehow and build an ugly-as-sin lean-to shanty against the wall of my house to shelter the router and other equipment once I got everything hooked up. Needless to say, I'm currently stuck on wireless.

    Just pull them back into the attic or punch a hole on the other side of the brick where they're going out. You can then terminate them however you please.

  • Grig Larson (unregistered) in reply to spectro
    spectro:
    I don't understand how people stand being yelled at.

    I was yelled once in my job, as soon as the berating ended and the boss walked away I packed my stuff and left that place for good.

    I actually did this.

    I quit a former company when a boss:

    • Showed up to my house on a Sunday
    • Walked right past my roommates
    • Opened my bedroom door
    • And berated me about a mess I had left for 20 minutes
    • While I was in bed, reading, too stunned to respond
    • Then left to tell me to be at work early the next morning to help him fix it.

    Funny thing, it turns out I didn't create the mess, a customer did. But having your boss barge into your bedroom on a weekend and scream at you is pretty traumatic. The very next day, when I showed up to work and saw him waiting for me, I handed him my office keys, a letter of resignation, and told him no hard feelings. I shook his hand, and stayed in another state for a few weeks (LDR girlfriend) in case he came to my house again and kicked my ass or something.

    I was also pretty pissed at my roommates they had let him in and showed him where my bedroom was.

    Months after I had my new job, we met up and he apologized for his actions, and was pretty bummed I had quit. But there was no way in hell I would work with someone with that kind of temper.

  • (cs) in reply to Paula
    Paula:
    TRWTF is that he ate a hot dog. That shit's nasty!
    To that end, my niece asked where hot dogs come from. I explained that to make apple juice, you put apples in heavy cloth, and squish it in a press. To get hot dogs, you wrap a pig in heavy cloth and squish it in a press, and put the "output" into the skin. They did not want to hear about where hamburgers come from...

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