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Around 2000 I worked for an ISP. We had some customers reporting that they couldn't get to some websites. Narrowed it down customers who were: * Running Mac

by slyall 2y ago

Around 2000 I worked for an ISP. We had some customers reporting that they couldn't get to some websites. Narrowed it down customers who were: * Running Mac OS 9 (not Mac OS X) * dialed into an Ascend NAS (Not other vendors) * Assigned a Dynamic IP * Accessing ASP-based websites they would get a blank page on the website. We actually had a computer in the office we could replicate it on but gave up at that point since we didn't have something to debug the network traffic. For the single-digit number of customers we gave them static IPs or something.

martinbaun 2y ago
I have been in IT for like 30 years, I have no idea what you just wrote here :D Though, I never worked for an ISP. How was it working for an ISP? I could imagine crazy weird edge cases like this one
- slyall 2y ago
  It was an interesting job. Things were evolving fast and the Internet had only really just gone mainstream. Also lots of small companies rather just just Telcos. Some wild West stuff like the time our CEO came in and demanded we block another company because the other companies CEO had pissed him off. Back then we were still running things ourselves like Email, Usenet, customer Homepages, FTP servers, Software mirrors. The technologies were also a bit weird, we had Satellite Internet and sold customers a cards and a dish to use it. We also used the same tech from broadcast towers in cities. We even used Satellite to move our own data (one way) because it was cheaper than undersea cables for a while.
  - martinbaun 2y ago
    the start of all new tech is always super exciting. I have considered moving to more exciting tech like Bitcoin or AI. But at some point you also become too old :))
p1esk 2y ago
we didn't have something to debug the network traffic What do you mean? You couldn't mirror traffic to a linux box and use tcpdump there?
- slyall 2y ago
  I can't remember if the computer had an internal modem or it was connected by a serial port. Either way it would have been harder to just mirror the traffic. We looked into some tracing tool but it cost hundreds of dollars. Decided the workaround was easier, especially since the Mac OS 9 was a few years old at that point and the users would eventually upgrade.

by slyall 2y ago

martinbaun 2y ago

I have been in IT for like 30 years, I have no idea what you just wrote here :D Though, I never worked for an ISP. How was it working for an ISP? I could imagine crazy weird edge cases like this one

slyall 2y ago
It was an interesting job. Things were evolving fast and the Internet had only really just gone mainstream. Also lots of small companies rather just just Telcos. Some wild West stuff like the time our CEO came in and demanded we block another company because the other companies CEO had pissed him off. Back then we were still running things ourselves like Email, Usenet, customer Homepages, FTP servers, Software mirrors. The technologies were also a bit weird, we had Satellite Internet and sold customers a cards and a dish to use it. We also used the same tech from broadcast towers in cities. We even used Satellite to move our own data (one way) because it was cheaper than undersea cables for a while.
- martinbaun 2y ago
  the start of all new tech is always super exciting. I have considered moving to more exciting tech like Bitcoin or AI. But at some point you also become too old :))

p1esk 2y ago

we didn't have something to debug the network traffic What do you mean? You couldn't mirror traffic to a linux box and use tcpdump there?

slyall 2y ago
I can't remember if the computer had an internal modem or it was connected by a serial port. Either way it would have been harder to just mirror the traffic. We looked into some tracing tool but it cost hundreds of dollars. Decided the workaround was easier, especially since the Mac OS 9 was a few years old at that point and the users would eventually upgrade.