Helpdesk dos ISP's (versão ISP espanhol).

Retirado daqui: DSL problems

The last 3 weekends, on Saturday, my Internet connection has been down, for hours (usually until Monday morning) and yesterday, it happened again. At around 4 PM, all connections started to drop, and after checking what the problem was, I called the support service at Telefónica. Usually, the people answering the phone, even though asking the same questions over and over, are nice enough to not get you upset, but yesterday, things were different:

* Me: so, the line is having problems again

* Support girl: ok, just reboot the computer and try again

* Me: reboot the computer, what for?

* SG: to reconfigure the router

* Me: But the router is not connected to the computer, it is connected to a hub, as is the computer. Rebooting it won't touch anything at all in the router. And the router is correctly configured

* SG: what windows are you using?

* Me: no windows here, just linux

* SG: linux is not supported I'm afraid

* Me: ok, right, but this has nothing to do with linux/windows. I tell you the router is configured correctly but gets no outside traffic

* SG: no, your router has lost the configuration

* Me: I am seeing, via telnet, the router configuration, and nothing has changed, it's configured correctly, the problem is in the line, as it was the last 3 weekends. Also, pinging from the router to an external IP gives 'unreachable' errors.

* SG: ok, run an ipconfig on the computer

* Me: the computer has a local address (192.168.x.x)

* SG: the router has lost its configuration then

* Me: what?

* SG: look, you're gonna need to create a partition for windows so that we can send someone to reconfigure the router

* Me: but I can configure the router myself via telnet/HTTP, no need for windows

* SG: I SAY YOU NEED A WINDOWS PARTITION, OR PAY SOMEONE TO CONFIGURE IT ON LINUX

* Me: but the router is configured (sigh)

* SG: no, it's not

* Me: look, I work on computers, I know what I'm talking about, and the problem is on the line

* SG: heh, if you knew computers, you'd know you need windows to configure the router

* Me: Ok, thanks for not helping me, bye

The conversation was much longer than what I wrote here, and the girl was much more unpolite than what you can see from this. So, just went out for a walk, came back, and called again, this time to talk with a much more polite person, who gave me a support incidence number. As I was telling the first girl, the problem was on the line, and this morning my DSL line was back, without the need for a fucking Windows partition.

So, lesson learned. When you call and they tell you to reboot the computer, just say "ok", wait a couple of minutes without doing and saying anything, and then say "ok, computer rebooted, what's next?". Also, when they ask about which windows version you use, just answer with "98", "XP" or whatever (supported) version you prefer. And when they tell you to run Windows programs, just try to find the Linux equivalent, if there is. That way, they'll treat you much better than if you try to be clever.

Isto faz-me lembrar a minha odisseia nos primeiros tempos da Clix (via linha PT), a situação foi quase igual, desde os reboot's ao Windows, passando por o problema estar no Linux tive que ouvir todas as babuseiras.
Actualmente pelo menos na Clix de vez em quando já sabem o que é um linux e até perguntam qual a versão que estou a usar, mas claro o suporte continua a ser nulo, e a culpa a maior parte das vezes é do linux ... enfim.