I think I angered the Internet Gods...

[Greatwhite]

Over the course of the last 2 weeks, I've had more than my fair share of work related internet problems.  Most of the problems were caused by bad DNS entries, which made my data disappear into a black hole, essentially.

My email was getting HUGE delivery delays because my provider set the DNS wrong, and couldn't fix it for some reason.  My connection to my customer's site was hosed because 2 invalid entries in my ISP's DNS file had me trying to connect to an invalid IP.  AND - while debugging that connection problem, I inadvertently killed my Vonage business line.

Seriously - as a home-based software developer, take away my email and VPN -- and phone, and I might as well just sell lemonade at the end of my driveway.

So last night, in an effort to add another level of redundancy for a serious internet outage, I bought a 4G wireless internet stick from Bell.  That gets me off the Rogers network, in case it's the problem.

Well, it was just my luck - I got a defective one, and spent 5hrs last night trying to get it to work.  I replaced it at lunch, and the new one tested out perfectly.

Just as I got home - dark clouds started rolling in, with constant thunder and lightning.  Boom, power went out.  HA!!! I have my cable modem and router in a UPS!! (that's my 2nd level redundancy) Next move, Internet God!  POWWW!!!!  HUGE crack of thunder, and cable went out... Doh.  Ok - no problem, pulled out the wireless stick and plugged it in while I watched out the window as my maples in the back yard bend RIGHT OVER (but didn't snap).  I think that REALLY angered the Internet Gods, because they knew that they wouldn't be able to shut me down.  Then came the hail - but I outsmarted them there by being indoors.  Eventually, everything cleared up, power came on and cable came back.

I call that a successful test of my connectivity failure recovery system.  Not sure i could have simulated it any better!

[Greatwhite]

Oh, it seems the internet gods had another trick up their sleeves the next day... My cable went out, taking the internet with it for about an hour.  Looking outside, there was either a cable repair dude who dug a 5 foot hole to get to the cable, or a zombie digging his way out.  I didn't really get a close enough look.  Regardless - the gods had to physically cut the cable to get me one last time.

[washefuzzy]

If it wasn't such a sad story it would be funny. LOL!

[Greatwhite]

Seriously though... I just need a car chase, and Michael Bay would be fighting me for movie rights....

[magnosis]

aha

I think you're lying *poke* *poke*. I saw the Rogers' Stick ad on TV - with this you get internet *everywhere* even in the middle of nowhere on a lake.

I mean... it was on TV, it's gotta be true !

[Greatwhite]

It took 3 days of troubleshooting on my end (2 of those days were weekend, so there was not much troubleshooting done), and then 3hrs of "explaining" my situation repeatedly to the first-line support guy and getting NOWHERE except "I see  you have 4 devices on your network" to being transferred to second line support before I could talk about DNS with someone.  Seems there were invalid entries in their DNS file for my customer's domain that were sending my data off into lala land.

Then it took about 8hrs for the change to get through the system.

The internet was out to get me - but I defeated it.  I am the master of the internet!  And now, I SHOULD be able to get internet anywhere - even in a lake, as long as there's a cell phone tower around.

[magnosis]

Perseverance Win !

I feel the pain.  It takes a lot of patience when you understand a problem, know the solution, but have to go through layers and layers of customer & tech support before reaching someone who's at least half your IQ.

During the first half of university I still lived at my parents' and the *only* ISP that covered their area was Telebec - aka Bell for Farmers.  Oh man did I spend hours and hours on the phone with their tech supports... and this was over dialup, resulting in endless cycles of try something, fail, call, explains, hang up, try something else, call again, explain some more, get new instructions, hang up, try and fail, call once more... aaaaaaarrgh !

I admire your perseverance, Sir.

[bt]

I feel the pain.  It takes a lot of patience when you understand a problem, know the solution, but have to go through layers and layers of customer & tech support before reaching someone who's at least half your IQ.

Oh man, I remember having to do that.... I developed a set of phrases and questions that would let me know if the person on the other end of the line actually knew their stuff.

I found (10 years ago), it was about 1 in 10 for Rogers actually knew their stuff.

[Greatwhite]

It took 4 levels of support to get some someone at Network Solutions (my web host) who knew anything about priority on MX records in a DNS file.  I felt a little bad about how after the 5th time talking to first line support, I blasted the poor girl at the other end of the line for making me go though my Outlook settings.  The mail wasn't getting into my mailbox on the server side - it had NOTHING to do with my Outlook.

If I heard "I understand, and I apologize" one more time.....  Clearly she DIDN'T understand, or she'd have fixed my problem.

Well, they fixed it - finally... 2 days after I transferred from them to Coolcom (Canadian company).  Good timing.   Now my email is so fast that I think I get it before the sender actually hits send.