NikPreviousAcct
No Lifer
Yes, I know. If I actually had to call Linksys, I must be an idiot. Save the insults.
My WRT54G sometimes decides not to transfer ANYTHING. If I connect directly to the cable modem, I'm fine. If I connect to the router then to the modem, all hell breaks loose. I've tried updating the firmware, power cycling everything, power cycling the router for HOURS (read: 15). I thought it might be my NIC because even the router's configuration page wouldn't load at times. So I reinstalled my NIC and the rest of the network stack. I even tried changing the NIC to opperate at everything between 100MBps full duplex to 10Mbps half duplex. Nothing.
The lady had me checking MAC addresses for the MAC cloning, etc. She wouldn't listen at all. I told her that I was using MAC cloning. She then asked if I had mac cloning turned on. Yes. She asked me to pull up the router's configuration page and make sure MAC cloning was turned on. I told her I was already there and that it is turned on. She had me read the MAC to her. Fine. She then asked me to "click on the start button, at the bottom left of the screen. Then click the run program. Now type in... wait, what version of windows is this?" To which I replied that I already had the ipconfiguration open and that the MAC addresses match. To which she replied "oh that's right, XP. Okay, type in 'c-m-d' and press enter or click okay." To which I replied that I already have the ipconfiguration open and that the MAC addresses match. She then asked me to type in "i-p-c-o-n-f-i-g /-a-l-l" and press the enter key." To which I replied that I already had the ipconfiguration open and the MAC addresses match. To which she replied "okay, read me what the MAC address says" -- :|:|:|:|:|
NOT A RESPECTFUL USE OF THE CUSTOMER'S TIME!
She would ask a question, I would answer it and continue to explain the other details that she'd need to know --then she'd acknowledge what I told her, and start asking me questions one-by-one --questions that I JUST ANSWERED by what I JUST TOLD HER. I thought I'd humor her and answer the question. When I answered it, she'd ask me, AGAIN, another pointed question that I just gave her the answer to, not 1.5 minutes earlier!!! That and that thick accent - I could hardly understand a word she was saying and had to repeatedly ask her to speak SLOWLY and to ENUNCIATE --I made sure to do the same thing for her so that she'd understand me, but she didn't seem to catch on to that either.
She wanted me to connect the computer directly to the cable modem, but I told her that I've already done that for hours on end and the connection is fine as long as I leave it that way. She insisted.
But before I was even done swapping cables, she asked me to pull up the router's config page and go to the firewall section. 😕
WTF ever. I told her that I would be able to do that, IF I WASN'T CONNECTING THE COMPUTER TO THE MODEM RIGHT NOW. Reconnected the router, and brought that page up. "Can you hold?" ... "What?? Fine, I guess." ...... tick tick tick... a whopping 6 minutes later she came back to me.
Finally she told me to disable the firewall on the router. Uh... okay... Done. Voila... connection is back. Great an f'ed up firewall. So she starts her whole "is there anything else I can do today" speach and I was like "uh, yeah, there IS. You can help me troubleshoot the router's firewall so you don't leave me open to HACKERS!" (really playing it up like I'm some n00b since she's ignored the fact that I have anticipated her questions and had the answers ready for her because I actually know what I'm doing, somewhat). She told me that "in order to have the Linksys router's firewall working, you have to check the checkbox that enables the firewall on the computer." To which I replied that the "computer's firewall" is a software firewall that is built into XP and that it can become unstable and unreliable compared to the firewall that's built into the router. She insisted that I had to have BOTH enabled in order for the router to work. I told her that if she's reading from a script, her management needs to be fired. I asked if there was a 2nd level of support, one that I could actually talk shop with, and she said no. Fine. I asked again how we're going to troubleshoot the firewall that's built into the router and she came back at me with that bullsh|t about having to enable "the computer's firewall first" to which I replied that she's full of sh|t and I hung up.
I almost feel like calling back and apologizing for saying that she's full of sh|t, but jesus... that phone call was incredible! :|
My WRT54G sometimes decides not to transfer ANYTHING. If I connect directly to the cable modem, I'm fine. If I connect to the router then to the modem, all hell breaks loose. I've tried updating the firmware, power cycling everything, power cycling the router for HOURS (read: 15). I thought it might be my NIC because even the router's configuration page wouldn't load at times. So I reinstalled my NIC and the rest of the network stack. I even tried changing the NIC to opperate at everything between 100MBps full duplex to 10Mbps half duplex. Nothing.
The lady had me checking MAC addresses for the MAC cloning, etc. She wouldn't listen at all. I told her that I was using MAC cloning. She then asked if I had mac cloning turned on. Yes. She asked me to pull up the router's configuration page and make sure MAC cloning was turned on. I told her I was already there and that it is turned on. She had me read the MAC to her. Fine. She then asked me to "click on the start button, at the bottom left of the screen. Then click the run program. Now type in... wait, what version of windows is this?" To which I replied that I already had the ipconfiguration open and that the MAC addresses match. To which she replied "oh that's right, XP. Okay, type in 'c-m-d' and press enter or click okay." To which I replied that I already have the ipconfiguration open and that the MAC addresses match. She then asked me to type in "i-p-c-o-n-f-i-g /-a-l-l" and press the enter key." To which I replied that I already had the ipconfiguration open and the MAC addresses match. To which she replied "okay, read me what the MAC address says" -- :|:|:|:|:|
NOT A RESPECTFUL USE OF THE CUSTOMER'S TIME!
She would ask a question, I would answer it and continue to explain the other details that she'd need to know --then she'd acknowledge what I told her, and start asking me questions one-by-one --questions that I JUST ANSWERED by what I JUST TOLD HER. I thought I'd humor her and answer the question. When I answered it, she'd ask me, AGAIN, another pointed question that I just gave her the answer to, not 1.5 minutes earlier!!! That and that thick accent - I could hardly understand a word she was saying and had to repeatedly ask her to speak SLOWLY and to ENUNCIATE --I made sure to do the same thing for her so that she'd understand me, but she didn't seem to catch on to that either.
She wanted me to connect the computer directly to the cable modem, but I told her that I've already done that for hours on end and the connection is fine as long as I leave it that way. She insisted.
Finally she told me to disable the firewall on the router. Uh... okay... Done. Voila... connection is back. Great an f'ed up firewall. So she starts her whole "is there anything else I can do today" speach and I was like "uh, yeah, there IS. You can help me troubleshoot the router's firewall so you don't leave me open to HACKERS!" (really playing it up like I'm some n00b since she's ignored the fact that I have anticipated her questions and had the answers ready for her because I actually know what I'm doing, somewhat). She told me that "in order to have the Linksys router's firewall working, you have to check the checkbox that enables the firewall on the computer." To which I replied that the "computer's firewall" is a software firewall that is built into XP and that it can become unstable and unreliable compared to the firewall that's built into the router. She insisted that I had to have BOTH enabled in order for the router to work. I told her that if she's reading from a script, her management needs to be fired. I asked if there was a 2nd level of support, one that I could actually talk shop with, and she said no. Fine. I asked again how we're going to troubleshoot the firewall that's built into the router and she came back at me with that bullsh|t about having to enable "the computer's firewall first" to which I replied that she's full of sh|t and I hung up.
I almost feel like calling back and apologizing for saying that she's full of sh|t, but jesus... that phone call was incredible! :|
