Haywood Jahelpme (aka Tech Support Hell)

Netcraft: SSL's Credibility as Phishing Defense Is Tested

2004-03-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

Poke around your browser's settings and see if you can turn off SSL encoding in 'plain text' to make your surfing experience a bit safer... I don't really see any other way around this issue besides inspecting every certificate you get.... "Scammers can also configure their web server so that deceptive SSL certificates won't trigger an alert in the user's browser. 'One of the SSL encoding

Chew on this RIAA

2004-02-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a better way to resolve the copyright issue, but I am not convinced that people will be willing to pay for something that they have gotten used to getting for free. However, there has to be a way to solve this equitably for everyone.... EFF: A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing

No Pants Day 2004 is May 7th

2004-02-26T13:34:00.000-08:00

Don't forget, kids, the next No Pants Day is May 7, 2004. It's never too early to go underwear shopping. Also, if you'd like an official No Pants Day t-shirt, go to the merchandise section and order one!" No Pants Day 2004 is May 7th

SYMBOL ADDED TO MORSE CODE 02/17/04

2004-02-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

How does a 160 year old communication system deal with the Internet? By adding a key symbol "The 160-year-old communication system now has a new character to denote the '@' symbol used in e-mail addresses. In December, the International Telecommunications Union, which oversees the entire frequency spectrum, from amateur radio to satellites, voted to add the new character. The new sign, which

RIAA Public Service Announcement

2004-02-25T13:10:00.000-08:00

Watch and listen

MP3.com fire sale (AKA News Flash: Michael Robertson arrested for ARSON)

2004-02-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

I used to work there for a little while and even tho they fired me (*cough fucking-bastards cough*), I still feel some connection there. I am a bit sad to see it happen, but like all good things, even mp3.com must come to an end... From what I remember (it has been over 3 years since I was there and I only lasted a couple months) the place was brimming with technology. And those furnishings

Premature Ejaculation Pill expected to come early

2004-02-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

I saw this and since it has nothing to do with the Internet, computers or network technology, I thought I should blog it, just for the potential jokes it could spawn.... Early's (the manufacturer's CEO) drug, currently known as LI 301, is still in development, and wouldn't hit the market until 2007, assuming it receives FDA approval. A recently completed preliminary trial involving 30 couples

Don't want to open that email...

2004-02-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

From Symantec: "The W32.Mydoom.F@mm worm: Is a mass-mailing worm that opens a backdoor on TCP port 1080 Can download and execute arbitrary files Will perform a Denial of Service (DoS) against www.microsoft.com and www.riaa.com, if the computer's local system date is between 17th and 22nd of any month. Sets up a backdoor in an infected system, by opening TCP port 1080. This could allow an

Ever wonder what SPAM smells like?

2004-02-24T10:04:00.000-08:00

Apparently someone is working on attaching scents to email... If this catches on, will ISP's add a scent to email detected as SPAM? BBC NEWS | Technology | E-mail tries out a sense of smell

A new big pipe coming to a transformer near you...

2004-02-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

Broadband Internet access over power lines (BPL) is one step closer to being a reality and one major ISP, Earthlink, is offering a low priced package for home users to guinea pig it for them... The upside to this is that if you live in a remote area and cannot get DSL, this may be your ticket (the first test market is in North Carolina.) The gotcha is that data and electric signals don't

The beginning of the end to SPAM?

2004-02-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

Using a system like caller ID, Microsoft and Sendmail hope to find something to alleviate the SPAM load on "sending" servers. This might actually be a good path to go down. Verification can go a long way (till the spammers figure out a way to spoof their source...) Read more: Email Caller ID

A spike in memory??

2004-02-23T12:47:00.000-08:00

$4,350??? For 512 MB of PC100 SDRAM??? I gotta clean out my old computers.... There's a gold mine in my garage! eBay item 3461554706 (Ends Feb-22-04 21:01:49 PST) - 8 - 64mb pc100 SDRAM = 512mb

Salon.com Technology | "We don't support that"

2004-02-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

On more than one occasion I can recall telling customers exactly that: "We don't support that." or "You need to fix your computer and I can't help you with that." The reasoning being, the support we provide is for their Internet connection. If the computer is broken, that is the end of the call. If we go back to the analogy of the Internet being like a highway, that call would be comparable

Hacking the Pepsi challenge

2004-02-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

As you may have heard (or seen), Pepsi is giving away a million songs through the Apple Music store (iTunes). Personally, I don't like the idea of paying for my music (legal downloads or otherwise - I usually burn duplicates or make a tape if I like it). I especially don't like the idea of paying for it online. It just doesn't feel right, maybe its just me, but I don't believe that the artist

RIAA = Mafia?

2004-02-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

I think so... It's probably not the first time that record company executives have been likened to Al Capone, but this time a judge might have to agree or disagree. A New Jersey woman, one of the hundreds of people accused of copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America, has countersued the big record labels, charging them with extortion and violations of the federal

Try again Bill

2004-02-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

European Union regulators have rejected as insufficient Microsoft's latest offer to settle long-running antitrust charges but are continuing talks, sources said Tuesday. With a verdict due this spring, the U.S. software giant has been scrambling to avert what could be a far-reaching order to change the way it packages its dominant Windows desktop operation system and reveal more of its

Well that didn't take long....

2004-02-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

SecurityTracker.com Archives: "It is reported that a remote user can create a specially crafted bitmap file that, when loaded by IE, will trigger an integer overflow and execute arbitrary code. The author states that this flaw was found by reviewing the recently leaked Microsoft Windows source code. The flaw reportedly resides in 'win2k/private/inet/mshtml/src/site/download/imgbmp.cxx'." Good

Yahoo! News - Experts Warn of Microsoft 'Monoculture'

2004-02-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

Another reason why Microsoft is bad.

'Uncanny physics of comic book superheroes'

2004-02-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

A Physics professor is making excellent use of comic book superheros to teach his students physics... Take, for example, the strength of Superman. To leap a 30-story building in a single bound, Superman's leg muscles must produce nearly 6,000 pounds of force while jumping, Kakalios calculates. The Man of Steel was that strong because he was designed to resist Krypton's powerful gravity. But for

Cake anyone?

2004-02-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

Oh, to be a teacher in that school...

Bringing the Windows experience to the Mac

2004-02-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

Microsoft truly brings the Windows experience to the Mac World: "There is an MS security bulletin that reads, in part, 'A security vulnerability exists ... because of the method by which Virtual PC for Mac creates a temporary file when you run Virtual PC for Mac. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by inserting malicious code into the file which could cause the code to be run with

Rate your teacher

2004-02-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

Seems that a fella was running a site to allow students to post reviews of their teachers. A good idea, but it has some potential flaws. He took it offline after a teacher complained. IMHO, unless they (the teachers) are allowed to refute them, then the reviews are open to abuse. And it seems that the site owner agrees.

Subscriptions

2004-02-10T16:42:00.000-08:00

Your subscription is not getting to you because for some reason Bloglet, the people who host the subscription service and Blogger, the people who hoat this blog, are not playing nicely. I get errors when I go to test the connection and everything is configured right, so I am probably going to switch to another service soon and re-subscribe you if you don't subscribe anonymously. You may have

How cool is that?

2004-02-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

I am so stoked! I get to bring in my old hard drives, which have old data on them, and have been acting up for a while, and practice my new job skills! I will be "imaging" them and taking the data off, then slicking them (reformatting/initializing/erasing/whatever you wanna call it) and starting over with all new drives (purchased at jobber rate!) I think I might install Red hat in one of my

Monitor rundown and bluetooth snarfing

2004-02-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one looking for a new monitor? Also, if you use Bluetooth, be aware of snarfing!

MyDoom.C

2004-02-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

In order to stay on top of things in the ever changing tech world, I have started reading Slashdot for tech news. I previously shied away thinking it was too "Linuxy" for me. Now that I work on Mac drives, Unix is becoming less and less scary to me as the days go by.... Anyway, the reason I mention that is you may start seeing more and more stuff from Slashdot being recycled here. Here is an

Starting week 2

2004-02-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

So far I have become entrenched in disk drive technology and the most technical stuff they have thrown at me so far has been completely comprehended by me! With the sole exception being acronyms... I am working, for those of you who missed it earlier, as a data recovery engineer for a fabulous company. And I am not just saying that either. Everyone who works here seems to love it

Too much of that will make you go blind...

2004-02-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

I remember hearing a few years ago that excessive Internet usage can cause hairy palms.... Oh wait. That was something else (please see previous post re this). It turns out that you can excessively use the Internet and face no serious repercussions, other than a slightly distorted view of reality (but then again, whose reality isn't whacked?) Heavy Internet use may be therapeutic for those

Well, someone finally did it!

2004-02-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Found on Slashdot California Man Sues Penis-Enlargment Firms Ronin writes "The DenverPost reports that 'A California man on Thursday sued a slew of international companies, including a Greeley distributor, alleging the penis-enlargement products they market and distribute do not work.' One of the highlights of the article is when the man says "I was wondering for a long time why no one has

Modem Uncappers?

2004-02-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

When I was still working at < ISP.net > we knew there were people who uncapped their modems. Of course, the network engineers and technicians can look at the log files and figure out who is stealing the bandwidth, but it seems that there are some hackers out there who are uncapping modems and even releasing the software they wrote to do it as well. Seems that they are also releasing the "how-to

Apologies

2004-01-28T00:10:00.000-08:00

It seems that there are quite a few broken links around here after I moved and let my old logins go for a while. I decided that I was getting too much spam at my old email addresses so I am letting them idle for a month or so. If you come across any dead links, please let me know...

RSS Feed

2004-01-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

In case any of you geeks out there are interested, we now have an RSS feed thanks to my friends at Google! I love it!!

Almost there

2004-01-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I start the new job on Monday so I thought I would pop in here and say hello to everyone. Thanks for all your positive vibrations and kindness. It really means alot. On a consumer note, my new job has allowed me the luxury to invest in some home audio equipment. YEAH!!!! The bonus check from my previous employer still has not come, but it really doesn't matter at this point. I could

The endless loop from hell

2004-01-12T08:39:00.000-08:00

The loop Cust call in very angry insisting that we (her ISP) has given her computer at work a virus and now she is in a lot of trouble with her IT ppl at work. I asked her what her work computer was doing that made he think that and she told me it keeps sending a rejected e-mail notification to her .net mail account. As it turned out she hade her work PC set to forward any e-mails it received to

Nando's Goodbye

2004-01-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

In honor of my official last day working for < ISP . net > I am posting this bit of hilarity... I got this email about a year and a half ago, and have saved it since it was sooooooo poignent (sp?). Note that this was sent to the entire company from this fella's corporate email account. I am only posting this since I no longer work for < ISP.net > and they can't really do anything to me now...

Non supported issues

2004-01-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

Me: tech support this is the big pickle, I can help you!! Clueless Cust: I can't get online. Me: How many lights do we have on the modem right now? Clueless: All of them. Me: And how many would "all" be? Clueless: Uh 3.... Me: I see that you have a router there mam, can you please reset the modem and the router for me? Clueless: I don't have a router. Me: Yes you do, I can see it right now!

What's a tech to do??

2004-01-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a recent suggestion from one tech to another....... Here check this out, if you get a customer that is being a d--k and here's what you should do, put them on hold and if they have another phone number on their acct its probably their cell number or another number in the house, just transfer to that number, can you imagine... f---in funny!!! :) Opps.......

Talk about an idiot

2004-01-06T05:08:00.000-08:00

This guy was lucky he didn't get fired... Last nite as our nite shift Team Manager (she is a rather large woman) was walking thru the floor, she was a bit chilly so she had her arms tucked into her shirt and one of the Tier 2 reps says (he has a rather loud voice, so we could all hear him): Clueless Rep: "Wow, what happened to J******'s arms?" To which I figured, without even looking, he is

The Big Pickle

2004-01-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our newest blogger: {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{The Big Pickle}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} The Big Pickle has been reading this blog for almost as long as I have been writing it. As it turns out, The Pickle is also in Tech Support Hell and would like to "carry on the humor and have a place for tech support people to vent, after you exit. I have been a fan of the site for a while." Wow, a fan! How about

What floor are you on?

2004-01-05T22:53:00.000-08:00

Somehow, customers get the idea that Tier2 is on the second floor of some magical mysterious tech support building. Customer: I was just talking to Michael downstairs I stopped commenting back a long time ago: Me: Downstairs? You mean Level one?

A visionary customer

2004-01-05T02:15:00.000-08:00

Me: Go ahead and click on start. Me: We already did that. Me: How do you know what I am going to do next? Clueless Customer: I don't. Me: OK, Click start then search .... And you know what? It WAS something he had not done with the last rep! Pfffft!

HUH?

2004-01-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

I was googling Outlook Express error number 0x800ccc0d and I found this page...

And your problem is??

2004-01-05T00:57:00.000-08:00

Crazy Customer: I have been on the phone for an hour now and you are the third person I have talked to. And I need to go to sleep! Me: Hmmm. Crazy Customer: I can't get on the internet! Me: So you want to call us back in the morning when you are < MORE PLEASANT > awake. Crazy Customer: Well, I need to get this working now. Me: Did they give you a ticket at level one, by any chance? Crazy

I'm sorry, but that is not anything that we support...

2004-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Being tech support for a corporate bohemoth kinda limits ones ability to "fix" your customers' computers. I provide tech support only for the Internet connection, not the computer itself. This actually gets me out of a lot of jams, since most problems are on the customers' equipment, not on the ISP's side. I started a thread in the forums about this. Tell me what you would recommend if you

Jaco Strauss' Tech Support Excuse Generator

2004-01-03T05:52:00.000-08:00

WOW!!! I wish I had seen this site 3 years ago when I first started here at < ISP.net >!!! Jaco Strauss' Tech Support Excuse Generator

And what do you think???

2004-01-02T05:39:00.000-08:00

Me: So from the notes it sounds like you cant get an ip address? Mr. Customer: Well that is not what I think is happening. Me: Why don't you tell me what you think is happening... Mr. Customer: I can't get on the Internet! I keep clicking on Internet Explorer and nothing comes up! So how is that any different from what I said? I describe the source of the problem and the customer is telling me

PEBKAC

2003-12-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here at the tech support help desk, we have all sorts of names for the types of problems that we see. For instance there are special ID-10-T forms that we have to fill out for extreme cases and then there are those customers who have all sorts of PEBKAC issues? What is a PEBKAC issues, you ask? That is where the Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair!

Google Doodles

2003-12-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

I have been collecting google doodles for a while now and finally found the motherload... In fact, I started watching for these doodles after seeing this one: Here are all the ones I downloaded and have now linked for you to see... NOTE TO GOOGLE: I am not saying that I own these in any way and will never use them illegally...... Just put them there for reference...

How to lose your job

2003-12-23T01:49:00.000-08:00

Blogging on the Internet is serious business. It seems that the NYPD has a rogue blogger amongst its troops... Brooklynbacon has written some things that may in the end cost him his j-o-b. I mean if Newsdayis onto him, the boss can't be much farther behind...

Asked and Answered.... NOT!

2003-12-22T22:56:00.000-08:00

Me: What kind of hub is that? Customer: I don't know. It's been working fine the whole time That wasn't the question....

Your number please...

2003-12-22T22:39:00.000-08:00

Me: Did level one give you a ticket number? Clueless Customer: No Me:Well, I can pull up the account anyway. Clueless Customer:OK Me:and what is the phone number? Clueless Customer:Mine? Me:Uhm, Yes Whose phone number did she think I wanted? Level one's?

Notice

2003-12-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally did it. I gave my manager notice that I plan to move on, "to explore other opportunities" and he reacted better than I thought he would.... He didn't get on the floor and beg me to stay, like I had secretly hoped he would, but he did say I only need to give one week's notice! Here is the dilemma.... < ISP.net > gives out a yearly bonus when the call center keeps certain

Court: RIAA lawsuit strategy illegal

2003-12-20T04:01:00.000-08:00

Update: A federal appeals court on Friday handed a major setback to the record industry's legal tactics for tracking down and suing alleged file swappers "It is a pretty big setback," said Evan Cox, a copyright attorney with law firm Covington & Burling. "At the end of the day, it's a practical issue. It's mostly going to mean considerable extra expense and a fair amount of additional paperwork

DWD blocked by Websense!

2003-12-20T02:50:00.000-08:00

It's sad, but it looks like my work is blocking the Dirty Whore Diary... This is a new development since up till recently I have been able to get there, but just the other day I got blocked by Websense (those damn bastards...) It's not like there are pics there or anything, just stories... And I am probably to blame for getting that site blocked since I link to it from here.... Oh well, guess

What is a laptop if not another computer???

2003-12-20T02:05:00.000-08:00

Me: Do you have any other computers? Clueless Customer: No I don't. 20 minutes later after we come to a point where it is time to roll a truck, I go over his options (customers like to have options): Me:You can try installing a new Network Card (NIC) in the computer or if you had another computer we could hook that up to test if the problem is with the modem or computer. You said you don't have

I should update the blogroll....

2003-12-20T01:43:00.000-08:00

I should probably have a link to this blog in there... Call Centre Confidential, is the story of my life as a Team Manager in a Call Centre. Next Stop Bombay. Highly Commended in The Guardian Unlimited, "Best British Blog about life in a Call Centre" category, 2003 - the backlash starts on Monday. I will have to contact these fine folks... Good writing there too...

Cleaning out the drafts...

2003-12-19T04:34:00.000-08:00

I am just going thru the blog and undrafting all the posts I started but didn't have the time or energy to finish... I will also be posting here with the notes I have jotted down on all those slips of paper I have been accumulating over the years.... I started this back in October (that should give you an idea of how far behind I am....) and it is still relevant: It's hard to believe it's been

Now for some catching up....

2003-12-19T04:17:00.000-08:00

I found some blurbs I have been meaning to add to the blog regarding my new challenges and the exciting things that will be happening in my life in the next couple months and I want to share them with you. They may be a little out of place chronologically, but if you will just play along with me I think we will all be happy. Written sometime in the middle of October 2003 (I will update when I

Calling all bloggers

2003-12-19T02:13:00.000-08:00

Being that I will be moving on from all the glitz and glamour that is tech support, I would like to keep this journal alive and semi current. If there are any tech support people out there who would like to join in this project, please email me and we'll go from there.

Quick! Here comes the boss....

2003-12-19T02:05:00.000-08:00

I have added an escape button for you, in case you are reading my blog at work or in front of a customer and you need to look like you are on a real website doing real work....

Ouch! That hurts when I bite there....

2003-12-19T02:01:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many times I have had to bite my tongue when I hear the following line: Clueless Customer: Basically we have tried everything. Me, biting my tongue: Well, you haven't tried everything because it's not fixed yet, is it?

Confusion Reigns

2003-12-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

Customers hear things and they think that they know what they mean but are often misinformed. If a customer tells me that he is not getting his "ISP" address, the first thing out of my mouth is "What IP Address are you getting?" I guess the question is too confusing because 9 times out of 10 they respond by informing me that the web page they are trying to view says, "Page cannot be displayed

OK, so I lied

2003-12-17T02:00:00.000-08:00

I know, I lied, I said I would have something to post on Dec 3rd, but I really enjoyed the time away soooooooooooo much I was not motivated to post... Well, the big news is that I accepted a job in Northern California as a Data Recovery Engineer with an awesome company called Drive Savers. So my family and I will be moving from San Diego to Sonoma County. More to follow...

2003-12-01T20:11:00.003-08:00

McAfee Security - Computer Virus Software and Internet Security For Your PC

Argggggg

2003-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

I apologize if you have tried to send me email in the last couple weeks... It may not have reached me due to an entry in the email forwarding I set up (which I cannot seem to find right now - away from home, on a slow-ass dialup...). Email contact has been updated on this page... Sorry about that... I'll be back home on the 3rd of Dec. with an announcement for you.... ;) UPDATE: This is now

Games added to the forums

2003-11-17T03:57:00.000-08:00

I added a couple games you can play if you log into the forums.... There is also a new (and better) chatroom up for you to use... Enjoy!

On the Road Again

2003-11-17T03:45:00.000-08:00

Just to let you, my dear reader, know, I will be away on vacation, and not blogging for the next couple weeks. We (my family and I) are going on a trip to explore areas that we may move to in the next few months. I am officially on a Leave of Absence from my work, and according to the HR department, my job may not be here for me when I get back. For that reason I am taking all my notes and

We are NOT DSL!

2003-11-15T02:30:00.000-08:00

Where did the broadband community go wrong with the branding of high speed Internet? It would seem that at least half the calls to this (CABLE ISP's) helpdesk from those who are clueless about what they use to connect to the Internet, think that this is some service called DSL. The problem is that the term "Cable Internet" doesn't just roll off the tongue. Broadband is just too broad a term

Oops...

2003-11-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

I got a "ding" on my report card at work today... Seems that IT went thru everyone's H: drive and found quite a few with Remote Administrator programs. Myself included... Well we all got written up and will be forever marked as an offender. I guess that's better than the alternative of losing the job... Which was the desire of IT, actually... I guess our lil old call center would have been

Google to the rescue

2003-11-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

Customer with Windows XP is getting error 0x800CCC15 when checking her email. Per this link, we went a step further and created new identity and that fixed it. Once again, "Thank you" Google!

Heads up!

2003-11-10T03:33:00.000-08:00

Just to let y'all know, I may be on an extended vacation soon, checking out areas to live with the family... I will try and let you know exactly when we will be gone as the time approaches, but cannot say much more right now...

Huh?

2003-11-09T22:52:00.000-08:00

Got another incomprehensible dude from the great state of Oklahoma. (Oklahoma is OK!) He is having a problem with his Network Adapter and Tier one correctly identified the problem - Adapter missing from dropdown menu in winipcfg. This usually means that it's Windows 98 and that the drivers got "borked". Typically something NOT supported unless we installed his NIC, so the call should have

I used the big slash

2003-11-09T03:07:00.000-08:00

Me: Go ahead and type in "ipconfig slash renew" Clueless Customer: Oh, hang on, I just typed in ipconfig Clueless Customer: It says file not found Me: Go ahead and read to me what you have there Clueless Customer: i-p-c-o-n-f-i-g space slash r-e-n-e-w Me: Are you using the slash on the question mark key? Clueless Customer: Oh, no, I was using the big slash. Puzzled, but willing to move forward.

2003-11-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

OK, I am back to work now. I was actually on vacation at my brother's wedding for a little less than a week, and immediately before that San Diego was on fire, so I was told not to come into work!!! Imagine my excitement when I found that out for both days before our trip!! Anyway, we flew out to Atlanta on Tuesday and came back on Sunday, and since I was "on vacation" still on Monday, and my

2003-11-09T00:40:00.000-08:00

Boy am I glad I am not Viv's husband...

A broken link fixed

2003-11-09T00:35:00.000-08:00

A while back I posted a link to the most awesome Rube Goldberg device I have ever seen and in looking thru my logs, I notice that it is broken. Here is the new link, hosted on the forum, so you can comment easier if you like.....

The Death Clock

2003-10-24T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Death Clock For those of you clock watchers out there....

A discount for you from a friend of mine...

2003-10-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

My co-worker has just informed me that he is having a sale for the readers of my blog! If you buy anything from his site with PayPal, he will give you a 5% discount! So people, go buy stuff!!

What's a firewall?

2003-10-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

Haywood: Is there a firewall on the computer? Mrs. Customer: No Haywood: OK, (taking the customer at her word) what IP address are you showing? Mrs. Customer: How do I know that? Haywood: Go to start>run and type in w-i-n-i-p-c-f-g Mrs. Customer: OK Haywood: Switch to your Ethernet adapter and tell me what it says for your IP address Mrs. Customer: A.B.C.D Haywood: OK, press release - not

2003-10-14T01:59:00.000-07:00

Popups Galore, who to blame? Clueless customer: OK, whenever I am on with < ISP.net > I get, well, here is a perfect example, I get a box that says 'mumble, mumble, and if you are using mumble, mumble, your internet is not secure, mumble, mumble' Haywood: Do you get lotsa pop-ups? Clueless customer: Yeah, that's what I am trying to tell you. Haywood: Do you get them when you are not even on the

2003-10-11T01:30:00.000-07:00

Speedy again, eh? I think I figured out why this page was loading sooooooooo slowly... That satire search news ticker was the fault (it's down right now...). I have commented it out and the page loads like it should. Finally! Let me know if it still loads slowly for you... While a very funny addition to the website, it is not worth that long a wait... Sheesh!

2003-10-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

8-6-7-5-3-0-9 Hotline to me! Clueless Customer: They connect me to your Hotline. I'm thinking "My hotline? When did I open a hotline?" So, I ask for his phone number and he gives me one that isn't pulling anything up in any of my tools. Now, he has already talked to Tier 1 before me so the theory goes that they would have looked up his info. I ask if he has another phone number that might be

2003-10-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

Why do customers think that the louder they complain, the more willing i am gonna be to help them? It doesn't work that way. You just end up pissing me off more, and forcing me to put you in a Penalty Hold. Once you have cooled off a bit, I will talk with you but you better stop yelling. It is not helping!!!!

2003-10-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

This cust has the idea that there is some setting in Windows that is holding him back: Clueless Customer: Where can I set it so that I am getting all the speed I can? I am paying for 3 Mega-bytes (sic) and am only getting 1. I would at least like to get 2. Haywood: You mean Megabits, right? And there is no "guranteed speed" you will recieve. Those numbers are the highest speed you could see.

2003-10-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Not work safe It's time for the Blogger Boobie-a-thon again... I just love this time of the year. :) And then there is the Nude Bloggies. Also another favorite... What does this have to do with tech support? Well, I gotta do something with my time off...

2003-10-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Whose fault is it anyways? Clueless Customer: After I reinstalled Windows, I cannot get onto the Internet. Haywood: This sounds like a Windows problem... Clueless Customer: OK. As if to say "That doesn't matter, I still expect you help me". I mean, there could not be a clearer cut case of where to turn for support than in this one. Customer could get online before making changes to the

2003-10-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

The great Carnac Haywood: Thank you for calling < ISP.net >, this is Haywood. I can help you. Clueless Customer: OK, do you know what the problem is? Clueless Haywood: Nope. Let me put on my Carnac hat and see if I can guess what the problem is. Clueless Customer: OK Clueless Haywood: I'm gonna guess that you cannot connect to the Internet Clueless Customer: Yup. Clueless Haywood: OK, did

2003-10-02T23:49:00.000-07:00

Allright Professor Customer goes on and on about his problem in all this "high class techno-speak" phrasing. Clueless Customer: I wanted to make sure my modem's not 'losing the channels it is being assigned.' Especially with all this blaster stuff going on... Clueless Customer: So if you're tying to query any additional information from it Clueless Customer: Let's see if i can get the same

2003-09-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Hijacked? Looks like someone is playing tricks on people. If you are not able to search like you normally do, check out this interesting tidbit I just got in email: TweakXP.com victim of Search Redirect Program Author: Steve Sinchak | 9/25/2003 10:47:27 AM Starting mid-day September 24, we noticed a increasing spike in our traffic. By the end of the day our server was at

2003-09-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

Install vs. Run We answer calls for customers who were shut off for having trojans, worms and viruses on their computers. Often they are sending SPAM unwittingly. Norton, McAfee and others are supposed to pick these bugs up and remove them. But you have to actually run the program first.... Clueless Customer: OK, can you turn my service back on now? Haywood: Have you found the worm on the

2003-09-28T03:39:00.000-07:00

Huh? Customer gets transfered to tier 2 with no warning apparently because the first thing out of this one's mouth: Clueless Customer: OK I found "Run" Haywood: Congratulations. Why were you looking for it? Clueless Customer: That is what he wanted me to find? Haywood: Who? Clueless Customer: The last guy I spoke with. Haywood: OK, I am new to this conversation. What were you guys trying to

2003-09-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

Internet Cleaning On another note, it appears that the last Internet Cleaning went off without a hitch...

2003-09-25T23:43:00.000-07:00

If only... Me: Let's go ahead and unplug your cable modem Clueless Customer: You want me to do that? Me: I can't reach thru the phone and do it....

2003-09-24T00:39:00.000-07:00

I was just browsing thru the Tracker logs for this little site of mine, and looking thru the referers, it seems I showed up in the Error page of this Blog Indexing site. Guess the blog was down for a bit at that time... Hmmmm, I'll have to see about getting some credit for that downtime.... :P I searched thru the list of rankings to find myself (I know, I shoulda just gone for a long

2003-09-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Clueless Customer: I cant get on the Internet because I have no address line Me: Well, you can do File>Open and then type in the address there. But some how I knew there was more to the problem than this... Me: OK, I can help you with that After verifying his information he goes more into what the problem really is Clueless Customer: My IP address isn't showing up Me (somewhat confused): HUH

2003-09-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

My goodness! Customer was rude to me because we are having an outage on the east coast right now... Due to a HURRICANE! Hmm.... Mr. Agro Customer: This is not acceptable! I am running a business here! Me: And your point is? We run a RESIDENTIAL service. If you need that level of support, we have a service for you. And this ain't it! It is called < ISP .net > Business Services. So we went

2003-09-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Microsoft never sends you updates!!!! If you opened an email and ran the update purpotedly from Microsoft, then you just infected yourself with the Swen.A virus. ;) Read more here

2003-09-14T22:17:00.000-07:00

Another router that is NOT the problem Clueless customer: Everything has been working fine for the last year. Now none of my computers can get online, so I don't think there is a problem with the router. We had 2 computers getting on wirelessly, and it worked fine until we hooked this computer up with the wire tonite. How can they not see that there is a commonality there??? I just don't

2003-09-14T00:38:00.000-07:00

ZZZzzzzz.... I am going on 28 32 hours straight with no sleep... This schedule (working nites) has gotten me all messed up. I came home from work last nite (this morning) and stayed up on the computer working on some websites. So today, around hour 23 or so, I was reading a book to my 3 year old Bella and 1 year old and I feel myself drifting off to sleep, tho the words are still dripping out

2003-09-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

What space? Haywood: Go ahead and type ping then Space Clueless customer: Wait, where is the space? Haywood: It's the big one across the bottom of the keyboard. The space bar. Clueless customer: Wait, I put in a dash, is that what you wanted? Haywood: No, we need a space, in between the words. Clueless customer: oh, that. At the bottom of the keyboard. I am sorry, I am not thinking right