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Home  All Categories What Is That? And now for some funny stories...
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Knowledge Base - Are you interested in starting a wireless ISP but don't know where to start? Do you need help writing your business plan and could use some samples?
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And now for some funny stories... |
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Written by Kory Mohr
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Wednesday, 06 December 2006 |
We compiled a list of some funny stories including installs, customer support, etc. we hope you'll enjoy. Kind of reminds me of some of the stories from the BOFH archives. Have any of your own? Feel free to share in our forum!
Enjoy!
Oh, by the way, we were so inspired by these stories (and many more that seem to be popping up!) that we started a website called Funny Tech Stories at http://www.funnytechstories.com/ Feel free to submit your stories there and enjoy!
Beebe:
I was doing an install today, not for a wireless subscriber per say, but I'm building a wireless network for a company. Anyway, I had installed a 900mhz rootenna on a satelite mount for them (I'm shooting through some trees). It had a WAR board in it with an SR9 card. Anyway, for some reason I wasn't getting enough signal for decent throughput, so I decided I would raise it up by putting it on a tripod with 10' pole. But that's not quite so straight forward because it was a slightly sloping metal roof.
So I got there and my telescoping ladder was 12.5' tall. The roof was about 15' tall to the first level, and then another 6' to the second level. But there was a tree right there. So I could climb my ladder, and then climb a few very bendy tree limbs and get on the 1st roof. Then I could climb a couple of even more flexible limbs and get on the 2nd roof where my gear was mounted.
So my idea was to place 3 4x16x16 concrete pads on the roof and screw the tripod to the concrete so that I didn't have to penetrate the roof.
So now I have to transport a drill, tripod, pole, concrete anchors, screwdriver, crimping tool, wrench and 3 solid concrete blocks up a tree.
Fortunately I had some rope with me. Unfortunately it was rather small diameter. Plenty strong enough to hold the weight of a concrete pad, but very difficult to get a good grip on. So I tied it around the first block and took the loose end and started climbing the ladder and the tree. I got onto the roof. There was a ledge where I could stand with one foot, stand on the edge of the roof with the other foot, and put my back against a tree limb. So I was standing directly above where my ladder was. Then I could pull the concrete pad up with the rope. I tried lifting the pad with one hand and I couldn't get enough of a grip on the rope to hold it's weight. With both hands I could. So I had to lift with enough momentum so that I could let go with one hand and re-grab the rope lower down before having to take the whole weight of it again. I heaved it up to the first roof, climbed the tree a bit more and got ready to pull some more. The second time I stood on a really bendy branch with one foot and the second roof with the other. Heave, heave heave, and we're up...
Anyway, I managed to get them all up there and it's mounted and I did improve the signal quite a bit. I'm getting around 76db now and about 10Mbps throughput in 802.11b mode with atheros extensions. And it's only mounted half way up the 10' pole. Maybe if I raise it more I could get enough signal for a decent 802.11g mode. I'd like to get 30mbps.
When I was working on the roof, someone on the ground started shouting up at me asking what I was doing. I came down and explained to him. Apparently the man I was doing the link for did not own the building. This guy did.
Anyway, turned out not to be a problem.
Will try some more tomorrow.
Thanks,
Roger
superdog:
I receive a phone call from one of our customers who says, "I can't get on the internet?". I go into SNMP and the NMS we use, and I can see that the radio(wireless to ethernet converter) does not respond to a ping etc. I fire up the service truck and drive to the customers house, and when I get there, the customer and all of his neighbors are outside with brooms. I ask them what they are doing, and they reply"Chasing squirrels". I pay no mind and climb up on the roof to see what the deal is. I see that the shielded CAT5 cable was chewed thru completely, obviously by a small critter. As it turns out, there is a freakin' gaggle of squirrels living in the customers attic. The customer then decides that it is my responsibility to repair the cable AND remove the squirrels so that it doesn't happen again. As I am replacing the CAT5, one of the squirrels becomes aggressive, and decides that I am a little to close to it's home and starts to chatter and hiss at me while running back and forth on the ridge of the roof. At this point, one of the neighbors must have felt that this "killer squirrel" was going to do some serious harm to me, and he starts shooting at it with a pellet gun!, well needless to say, I got off the roof and in my truck and left, while I was still alive to do so!. I came back on Monday morning only to find that the squirrels chewed through the new cable too. I got really PO'ed and got some rat poison and mixed it with peanut butter. It did the job, and all of the critters were now in squirrel heaven. I repaired the CAT5 and all was good, until about a week later my truck started to stink with this un-godly smell?. As it turned out, while I was on the roof, the customer took all the dead squirrels and threw them on my truck "under" the big toolbox. When I called him up, his comment was, "Well what did You expect me to do with them?, they were Your problem, NOT MINE!"
ais:
I had to share this with you all. I have not been doing the WISP thing very long but came across the funniest support call to date. I received a call the other day from customer and this is what happened
Caller: Bryan, I need you to come over right away. I think there may be a short in the wire you made that plugs into the back of my computer.
Me: May I ask why you believe there is a short in the cord?
Caller: b/c sparks are shooting out of the back of my computer.
ME: Are you sure you are not looking at the yellow light above this cable plug
Caller: No, I can see the sparks from the back of the computer.
Me: Are you sure it is sparks you seen? (Now that she had me nervous. Still wondering how my cat5 jumper could be flowing current unless she reversed the POE. She has been in service for almost a year and never received a support call from her before. I was pretty sure she must be right about the sparks)
Caller: YES
Me: Unplug everything. I will be right over.
Caller: OK
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I arrived at her home check the POE and tested the CAT5. Everything was fine. I brought her around the back of the computer and ask where she seen the sparks?
She pointed to the connectivity light flickering. GEEZ get some glasses. Where do some of these people come from?
inova:
I had one yesterday that made me chuckle also. This was a recent install and was troublesome because of low signal strength and dropped connections. I realized my own blunder of assembleing the grid with the wrong polarity so I drove out and switched it and asked the lady if her internet was working after the change. She went to check and came back and reported that it was "shakier" than it was before. WTF??? I went to her computer to check myself and after a couple of questions realized that they do nothing but browse with IE and the program never gets closed. Instead they just leave IE open and let the energy saving feature of the pc turn off the screen. When she moved the mouse to turn the screen back on it "shook" (de-gauss??). She didn't understand but felt she could live with it if it meant fewer dropped connections.
Compiled from:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17400634
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17405633 |
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