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So, I'm new to the whole IT world, but I do know a good amount about networking and computers. There are many, many IT departments on our school campus. One of them is the communications department. I work in a separate part of IT that does not deal with network communications; unfortunately, I do not have the necessary tools or access to fix certain simple network problems. So, I give the communications guys a call.
We hired a third-party group to come in and set up a brand-new room for us. In their infinite genius, they left the ethernet patch panel completely exposed and unfortunately had glue dripped into it. When I came to check to make sure that they did everything right, I noticed right away that the ethernet ports were not working. A little troubleshooting and some other colleagues of mine saw that the glue dripped in there. There was not much that we could do, so they had me go ahead and give a call to the communications dudes.
Me = Me
Com = Communications chick
Com: Communications, may I help you?
Me: I have an ethernet patch panel that is not working and is gunked up full of glue.
Com: Can you get me the IP address?
Me: Um...I kind of can't since I have no link lights.
Com: Well, you're going to need to give me the MAC address and start pinging one of our servers so I can get your port set up for access.
Me: No, I'm not trying to do that. The ethernet port is full of gunk and I can't get a connection.
Com: *sigh* I can't help you if you're not going to plug in a device.
Me: It is plugged in, but I have no link lights and I need you guys to come and replace the patch panel since it is full of glue. It's not the cable, either. I've already checked.
Com: *sounds agitated* What's your name?
Me: Namey McNamington
Com: Okay. I'll put this in the queue and have a tech come on over. Thanks and bye.
Then she hung up. I had assumed that she put that in the queue to have a tech come fix it and for some reason it ended up not getting in the support queue. I had another person call them back later. A different person picked up and he sent a tech out right away.
I go to another classroom and checked the computer. I prayed that it would work, because I didn't want to call the communications lady again since she sounded mad at me. Unfortunately, it didn't.
I did have link lights, so it was just a matter of getting the computer onto the correct VLAN so it could grab an IP address. I recorded the MAC address off of the computer and had it start pinging google to make some traffic. To make it worse, none of the other connections in the room worked either. That's some quality third-party setup for you right there.
I picked up my phone and called the communications office again.
Com: Communications, may I help you?
Me: Hi, I'm Namey McNamington with (IT department) and I have a device that needs to be set up. You're probably going to be hearing from me a lot because I'm going through a lot of classroo-
Com: *sounds mad* Now wait a second. Hold on. Lemme ask you a question.
Me: ?
Com: Are you going to have a device plugged IN this time? Are you going to have the MAC address actually ready to go??
Me: *little to zero confidence in my voice* Yeah, I have it all plugged in and stu- (in my head: PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!)
Com: Now lemme ask you another question. Are you going to actually be pinging something this ti-
Me: *really fast* I've got it pinging and I have the MAC addresses recorded and each one is pinging something. I can read it to you right now. Everything is set up.
Com: *sounding surprised* Oh. *sounding nice* Well, uh, please read off the first address to me.
Me: *Starts doing my side of the tech support
Com: *Starts doing her side of the tech support*
Com: Thank you very much and have a great day!
Me: You too!
Even IT departments can't support each other very well sometimes
The next time I called them after that, I let them know that I was new to the IT job and may or may not mess up and to bear with me. They've been kind ever since, and I've gotten better about explaining the situation
We hired a third-party group to come in and set up a brand-new room for us. In their infinite genius, they left the ethernet patch panel completely exposed and unfortunately had glue dripped into it. When I came to check to make sure that they did everything right, I noticed right away that the ethernet ports were not working. A little troubleshooting and some other colleagues of mine saw that the glue dripped in there. There was not much that we could do, so they had me go ahead and give a call to the communications dudes.
Me = Me
Com = Communications chick
Com: Communications, may I help you?
Me: I have an ethernet patch panel that is not working and is gunked up full of glue.
Com: Can you get me the IP address?
Me: Um...I kind of can't since I have no link lights.
Com: Well, you're going to need to give me the MAC address and start pinging one of our servers so I can get your port set up for access.
Me: No, I'm not trying to do that. The ethernet port is full of gunk and I can't get a connection.
Com: *sigh* I can't help you if you're not going to plug in a device.
Me: It is plugged in, but I have no link lights and I need you guys to come and replace the patch panel since it is full of glue. It's not the cable, either. I've already checked.
Com: *sounds agitated* What's your name?
Me: Namey McNamington
Com: Okay. I'll put this in the queue and have a tech come on over. Thanks and bye.
Then she hung up. I had assumed that she put that in the queue to have a tech come fix it and for some reason it ended up not getting in the support queue. I had another person call them back later. A different person picked up and he sent a tech out right away.
I go to another classroom and checked the computer. I prayed that it would work, because I didn't want to call the communications lady again since she sounded mad at me. Unfortunately, it didn't.
I did have link lights, so it was just a matter of getting the computer onto the correct VLAN so it could grab an IP address. I recorded the MAC address off of the computer and had it start pinging google to make some traffic. To make it worse, none of the other connections in the room worked either. That's some quality third-party setup for you right there.I picked up my phone and called the communications office again.
Com: Communications, may I help you?
Me: Hi, I'm Namey McNamington with (IT department) and I have a device that needs to be set up. You're probably going to be hearing from me a lot because I'm going through a lot of classroo-
Com: *sounds mad* Now wait a second. Hold on. Lemme ask you a question.
Me: ?
Com: Are you going to have a device plugged IN this time? Are you going to have the MAC address actually ready to go??
Me: *little to zero confidence in my voice* Yeah, I have it all plugged in and stu- (in my head: PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!)
Com: Now lemme ask you another question. Are you going to actually be pinging something this ti-
Me: *really fast* I've got it pinging and I have the MAC addresses recorded and each one is pinging something. I can read it to you right now. Everything is set up.
Com: *sounding surprised* Oh. *sounding nice* Well, uh, please read off the first address to me.
Me: *Starts doing my side of the tech support
Com: *Starts doing her side of the tech support*
Com: Thank you very much and have a great day!
Me: You too!
Even IT departments can't support each other very well sometimes
The next time I called them after that, I let them know that I was new to the IT job and may or may not mess up and to bear with me. They've been kind ever since, and I've gotten better about explaining the situation
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