- Oct 30, 1999
- 11,815
- 104
- 106
So I did this business up with a new phone system, call accounting, monitoring and reporting and everything was working fine for about 9 months. No support calls, nothing.
The other day, I got a call from the administrative assistant that the Voicemail quit working. I couldn't remote into it with Dameware, so I ask her to take a look at the PC and make sure it's powered up and logged into Windows. It is up, but there's an error message stating that the system is using the same IP address as another device on the network.
"When did the Voicemail quit working?" I asked.
"About 10 minutes ago." She replied.
They've got an outsourced IT guy that comes in does a bunch of stuff for one or two hours a week and then splits. He's a good guy, but I think he had a brain fart today.
"Let me talk to Rick if he's still there."
Rick apparently installed a managed switch and gave it a static IP address that's the same as the voicemail server.
"Dude. You told us we could have the IP range of 251 to 254. What's going on?" I ask.
"Oops! Sorry. I'll fix that right away."
Rick changed the IP of the switch and the voicemail started working again.
Two days later I get a call from some guy named Greg...
"The voicemail doesn't work, the call accounting isn't working. Nothing you installed is working."
He had a smart ass tone in his voice right from the start. He sort of sounded like Cubert Farnsworth from Futurama (Professor Farnsworth's genetically engineered spoiled brat son.)
"Funny.. It worked for nine months straight. Who are you?"
"I'm Greg, the IT guy." he answered.
"You're not the IT guy. Rick's the IT guy. Where's Rick?"
"We're not utilizing that company's services anymore. I work for this company and I'm the full-time IT guy."
"Really?" That sort of took me by surprise. Now I have to train this guy on the phone system! "Take a look at the two PC's to the left of the rack that the phone switches are mounted in. Are they on? Are they logged into Windows? Any error messages?"
"Yeah. They both say there's an IP conflict." he replied.
"Ok. Rick had this problem two days ago when he had put the new switch at the same IP address as the Voicemail server. Now there's something out on the network that's using the same IP address as the voicemail server and the database server. Rick fixed the switch's IP, so I have to ask if anything else has been added to the network in the last 24 hours."
"Yeah," he responded, "I put four new workstations out on the sales floor this morning."
"Ok. It seems that you gave them IP addresses in the range of 251 to 254. Those are my IP's. Don't touch them. I thought all of your workstations used DHCP?"
"We're out of IP addresses."
"Increase the DHCP range!"
"How do I do that?"
"Dude. I'm your phone system guy. You're the IT guy."
"Ok. I'll fix it." and he hung up.
Another two days I get another call from Greg.
"The program is reporting bogus data." he stated.
"What program Greg?" I asked.
"The one that Chris uses. All of the data is wrong."
"Which program that Chris uses?"
"The one that Chris uses to see who's doing what and stuff."
"Let me talk to chris."
Greg put me on hold and Chris picked up the phone. I've talked to Chris before and he's a really nice guy. He's the sales manager so whenever one of the sales guys have a phone issue or question or if he has issues or questions about the call reporting software, he calls me up.
Chris gets on the phone. "Hey Chris. This Greg cat is telling me about some software issue you're having."
"Yeah Jon." Chris responds, "My activity monitor isn't refreshing in real time. Can you fix it for me?"
"No problem." And I hung up.
The problem was license related. They were monitoring more people than they had licenses for. Apparently when the one server re-established communication with the phone system after it got it's IP address back, it pulled down a configuration that needed some cleaning up. I removed some of the people that didn't work there anymore or didn't need to be monitored and got the number of agents being monitored down to 24. Problem is, they only have licenses to monitor 25. It was only a matter of time before another problem cropped up, so I called Greg back.
"Ok Greg. The problem you ran into had to do with licensing. You've got a license to monitor 25, and you're already up to monitoring 24 people. I can give you a quote to monitor 5, 10 or 15 more people."
Greg responded, "We're not paying you any money until you get this phone system working correctly!"
I was a bit taken back by this comment. If there were any problems, nobody had let me know. I can't fix what I don't know is broken.
"I'm sorry Greg." I responded, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
"This call accounting hasn't worked in MONTHS! I'm not paying for more licenses for something that hasn't worked for MONTHS!"
Ok. I'll talk one on one with anyone and I'm happy to accomodate as long as things stay civil, but you start exaggerating and throwing out fiction, I'm not going to be happy.
My tone immediately changed...
"Greg, I don't know you and I know you don't know me. There's no less than ten people at that business that have my personal cell phone number and the one that would know if that program is working or not is someone that I KNOW would call me the MINUTE there was a problem (That would be Chris, by the way.) There was nothing wrong with that phone system or any of the servers involved with voicemail, call accounting or anything else until YOU GUYS started dicking around with the IP addresses. I think you need to get your facts straight and call me back."
Oddly enough, Greg called me back two hours later...
"Hey Jon. I just wanted to let you know that everything is working great and when you get a chance to fax over a quote for additional agent licenses I'm ready to take a look at it."
Sigh.
The other day, I got a call from the administrative assistant that the Voicemail quit working. I couldn't remote into it with Dameware, so I ask her to take a look at the PC and make sure it's powered up and logged into Windows. It is up, but there's an error message stating that the system is using the same IP address as another device on the network.
"When did the Voicemail quit working?" I asked.
"About 10 minutes ago." She replied.
They've got an outsourced IT guy that comes in does a bunch of stuff for one or two hours a week and then splits. He's a good guy, but I think he had a brain fart today.
"Let me talk to Rick if he's still there."
Rick apparently installed a managed switch and gave it a static IP address that's the same as the voicemail server.
"Dude. You told us we could have the IP range of 251 to 254. What's going on?" I ask.
"Oops! Sorry. I'll fix that right away."
Rick changed the IP of the switch and the voicemail started working again.
Two days later I get a call from some guy named Greg...
"The voicemail doesn't work, the call accounting isn't working. Nothing you installed is working."
He had a smart ass tone in his voice right from the start. He sort of sounded like Cubert Farnsworth from Futurama (Professor Farnsworth's genetically engineered spoiled brat son.)
"Funny.. It worked for nine months straight. Who are you?"
"I'm Greg, the IT guy." he answered.
"You're not the IT guy. Rick's the IT guy. Where's Rick?"
"We're not utilizing that company's services anymore. I work for this company and I'm the full-time IT guy."
"Really?" That sort of took me by surprise. Now I have to train this guy on the phone system! "Take a look at the two PC's to the left of the rack that the phone switches are mounted in. Are they on? Are they logged into Windows? Any error messages?"
"Yeah. They both say there's an IP conflict." he replied.
"Ok. Rick had this problem two days ago when he had put the new switch at the same IP address as the Voicemail server. Now there's something out on the network that's using the same IP address as the voicemail server and the database server. Rick fixed the switch's IP, so I have to ask if anything else has been added to the network in the last 24 hours."
"Yeah," he responded, "I put four new workstations out on the sales floor this morning."
"Ok. It seems that you gave them IP addresses in the range of 251 to 254. Those are my IP's. Don't touch them. I thought all of your workstations used DHCP?"
"We're out of IP addresses."
"Increase the DHCP range!"
"How do I do that?"
"Dude. I'm your phone system guy. You're the IT guy."
"Ok. I'll fix it." and he hung up.
Another two days I get another call from Greg.
"The program is reporting bogus data." he stated.
"What program Greg?" I asked.
"The one that Chris uses. All of the data is wrong."
"Which program that Chris uses?"
"The one that Chris uses to see who's doing what and stuff."
"Let me talk to chris."
Greg put me on hold and Chris picked up the phone. I've talked to Chris before and he's a really nice guy. He's the sales manager so whenever one of the sales guys have a phone issue or question or if he has issues or questions about the call reporting software, he calls me up.
Chris gets on the phone. "Hey Chris. This Greg cat is telling me about some software issue you're having."
"Yeah Jon." Chris responds, "My activity monitor isn't refreshing in real time. Can you fix it for me?"
"No problem." And I hung up.
The problem was license related. They were monitoring more people than they had licenses for. Apparently when the one server re-established communication with the phone system after it got it's IP address back, it pulled down a configuration that needed some cleaning up. I removed some of the people that didn't work there anymore or didn't need to be monitored and got the number of agents being monitored down to 24. Problem is, they only have licenses to monitor 25. It was only a matter of time before another problem cropped up, so I called Greg back.
"Ok Greg. The problem you ran into had to do with licensing. You've got a license to monitor 25, and you're already up to monitoring 24 people. I can give you a quote to monitor 5, 10 or 15 more people."
Greg responded, "We're not paying you any money until you get this phone system working correctly!"
I was a bit taken back by this comment. If there were any problems, nobody had let me know. I can't fix what I don't know is broken.
"I'm sorry Greg." I responded, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
"This call accounting hasn't worked in MONTHS! I'm not paying for more licenses for something that hasn't worked for MONTHS!"
Ok. I'll talk one on one with anyone and I'm happy to accomodate as long as things stay civil, but you start exaggerating and throwing out fiction, I'm not going to be happy.
My tone immediately changed...
"Greg, I don't know you and I know you don't know me. There's no less than ten people at that business that have my personal cell phone number and the one that would know if that program is working or not is someone that I KNOW would call me the MINUTE there was a problem (That would be Chris, by the way.) There was nothing wrong with that phone system or any of the servers involved with voicemail, call accounting or anything else until YOU GUYS started dicking around with the IP addresses. I think you need to get your facts straight and call me back."
Oddly enough, Greg called me back two hours later...
"Hey Jon. I just wanted to let you know that everything is working great and when you get a chance to fax over a quote for additional agent licenses I'm ready to take a look at it."
Sigh.
.
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