4 ms·
This seems to be a good rule for calling any cable/phone ISP. The last time I mentioned using a Mac the support person ignored that I had already tried pinging
by mscarborough 15y ago
This seems to be a good rule for calling any cable/phone ISP.
The last time I mentioned using a Mac the support person ignored that I had already tried pinging certain gateways to check connectivity, and proceeded to condescendingly walk me through going to Applications->Utilities->Network Utility so that I could run ping from a tab there.
Of course I quit after 15 min of this, tried to access again in a couple hours, and it was just a network failure in my area, anyway. Geez.
- joezydeco 15y agoI'll add Rule 1A: Never talk net-speak with tier-1 support. "I've run some traceroutes and packets are getting lost at your router in Elmhurst. When I do get through, ping times are over 700 millseconds" "Okay, sir, what I'm going to need you do to is close your browser and restart it"
- Luyt 15y agoOr the ultimate helpdesk answer: "Please reinstall Windows and try again."
- Anechoic 15y agoI'll add Rule 1A: Never talk net-speak with tier-1 support. If only "shibboleet" worked in real life...
- Osiris 15y agoIs there no "I'm an IT professional. Please transfer me to someone that knows that I'm talking about" option for support?
- bturner 15y agoI had to setup AT&T DSL last week. The modem itself didn't have a connection (blinking DSL LED, no Internet LED), and I made the mistake of mentioning to the tech that I was using an Apple router instead of the Cisco router they sent me. He stopped investigating the problem right there and the only thing he would do for me was transfer me to Cisco support for the router even though I expressly stated that there was no problem with the router.
- joezydeco 15y agoCould be worse. AT&T let my mother-in-law sign up for service. She gets the modem, we set it up, blinking DSL light for days. We call, after two hours on the phone they agree to send a tech out. Tech takes one look at the pole and says "you're too far from the office. They never should have let you sign up"
- ars 15y agoThe last time I called comcast (in the middle of the night) I actually spoke to someone who used linux at home. Quite surprising, and she was quite knowledgeable and helpful too. Comcast also has some complex IE only registration, but if you call them and say you use linux they'll say no problem ask for the MAC of the modem and activate you on the phone.