DocAndersen
The network is down.
I remember the day well, and you see I was working onside in Columbus Ohio. It was a roughly 2-hour drive from our house in Cincinnati and the project I was working on was in Columbus. A straight shot up I-71. Depending on what was happening at home I sometimes drove home, sometimes I stayed a hotel. I was the acting email administrator for the company, as their actual administrator had quit. They couldn’t find anyone with the skills they needed, so they asked me to step in. I said sure! It meant I had to spend many more nights in Columbus and was able to drive homeless often. Now you have the scenario. I was the customers’ email administrator.
But still working for the company I worked for.
We were sitting in the old IBM mainframe room. We sat in the tape library room.
The facilities and planning teams of the customer sat right outside that room, and they knew who I was and what I did.
I was working on an upgrade for the servers, the planning part when my phone started to ring.
I picked up the phone.
“Hello,” I said.
“Outlook is down.” The voice said and then hung up.
I got 25 or more calls like that.
All the while making sure my server was still working.
I logged into Outlook and sent a message via the internet to my work account.
The email arrived.
I logged my box out and back in and sent another outlook test message.
It worked, I got the email.
I finally got a call from one of the people in the room next to us. I said I would walk over.
I walked to his desk. Then I realized why they couldn’t log into outlook.
They were in the process of changing over its network, and someone had unplugged the Bay Network hub that connected the location network with the data center network.
The network was down.
The outlook was fine!
From then on I started all the calls I worked starting with outlook is done, by saying “check your network first!”
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It is ok to ask someone to wiggle the power plug, right?
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Yes
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No
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Q: It is ok to ask someone to wiggle the power plug, right?
Yes (10 votes) – 100%
I think it is okay regarding power plug , not a big deal
People get really offended when you tell them check the power plug 🙂
if someone asks you for your help, they can hardly dictate how you help them
oh but so many do, as you know!
Albert and I once discussed this over the course of 50 comments and three posts. The reality is that people need help, but acknowledging you needed help takes more fortitude than asking for help.
the word for someone who wants your advice but never heeds it is an askhole
what about those who ask for help, but then deny that you helped? What would they be called?
Mister President? He’s got the best ideas, they’re all his…
I call them IH.
Or IC
Ignored Human
Ignored Comment
they slide away from what I am doing quickly!
or you could just call them liars
you sir are a literalist 🙂
I love it!!!!!
taking things literally can yield some excellent results…
I know these words well. These are the first words when calling my operator for any problems.
That is so very true. I answered many of those calls. Not your calls, but calls from frustrated users!
This is funny. I always heard that it’s good to check the power plug before anything else, or check if the power is turned on.
I always think it’s not easy to be the support team. 🙂
You are right, it is hard to be the person supporting the problem!
I hope you don’t mind me, my friend … this is very complicated for me … I don’t even understand what it is
basically, I was running outlook, people kept telling me outlook was down. But instead it was really the companies internet that was down!
Now I understand better … by home … brief and concise …. thanks for the kind explanation, dear friend
I am so glad 🙂 It is a funny story but it is a bit odd for most people!
And sometimes the translator translates to me so strangely
yeah, they are better (Translators) but not perfect yet.
This brought back Dad memories for me. The IBM mainframe room, and calling customers to wiggle the power plug.
I’ve used that one and many others!