Current Events > Damn it... Another voice outage at work

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hopefully this doesn't turn into another all-nighter.
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our internet is slow at work too. what did you do!

ItsYourFault posted...

our internet is slow at work too. what did you do!

Had to take some of your bandwidth for our phones, bro
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CableZL posted...

ItsYourFault posted...

our internet is slow at work too. what did you do!

Had to take some of your bandwidth for our phones, bro

sappin mah tubez!

Lets save money by have phones and network run over the same switch. What's the worst that could happen? VLANs? What are those?
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BlazinBlue88 posted...

Lets save money by have phones and network run over the same switch. What's the worst that could happen? VLANs? What are those?

Eh, the problem in this case is on the provider's end (and it was last time, too).

Godnorgosh posted...

Do you feel under a lot of pressure or super stressed out when you have to troubleshoot something like that? Or are you experienced enough by now that it's not that big a deal, just time-consuming?

Eh, it's a mix of both. It's a lot of pressure because I want the network running smoothly and the entire organization depends on this network that I designed. There's definitely some stress involved, especially while the phone are completely down. The trick is to stay level-headed as much as possible. Just gotta keep in mind that no matter what the situation, there is a path to resolution. Yelling at folks really only makes things worse. It stresses you out. It makes people not want to help you. Makes you lose your voice if you do it too much. Stuff like that.

Now... If our VoIP provider screws around and I'm up until 6:30am again because they aren't giving me any info, I may not be able to stay level-headed, but... I'll cross that bridge when I get there, lol.
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If it's on the provider's end then there's nothing for you to do but call their support right? You have to pretend like you're working to fix it when really you're twiddling your thumbs waiting for them to fix it.
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BlazinBlue88 posted...

If it's on the provider's end then there's nothing for you to do but call their support right? You have to pretend like you're working to fix it when really you're twiddling your thumbs waiting for them to fix it.

Right, but sometimes providers don't do the needful in getting it resolved as soon as possible. The last voice outage we had, for example, they didn't actually get any updates from the carrier until 7am the following day.

So essentially, for about 14 hours, we had no idea if it was a single circuit outage or a widespread outage because our provider wasn't telling us anything.
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This is true. I hated working with our ISP during outages at my first job. It was legitimately my most hated part of that job. Lucky to get out of the auto attendant circling machine to a human, each department had their own ticket system so unless you got to the right department they didn't recognize your ticket number, and all the on site techs did sloppy work and just came and went without notifying me.
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Just remembered that our VoIP provider inadvertently sent us the circuit information. I just called CenturyLink direclty and got all the info I needed.

Now I don't have to stay up all night.
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CableZL posted...

Just remembered that our VoIP provider inadvertently sent us the circuit information. I just called CenturyLink direclty and got all the info I needed.

Now I don't have to stay up all night.

Century Link is a shit hole of a company.
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Johnny_Nutcase posted...

Century Link is a s*** hole of a company.

Agreed. I have so many memories of horrible handling of outages from them. Like... There was a customer who was down and they needed to dispatch. They scheduled the dispatch for October of 2017 instead of October of 2016. I called repeatedly to verify that someone was going to be coming out on time the next day and was told everything was fine. It wasn't until the time they were supposed to be there that someone at CenturyLink realized the dispatch was scheduled for a year out.
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CableZL posted...

Johnny_Nutcase posted...

Century Link is a s*** hole of a company.

Agreed. I have so many memories of horrible handling of outages from them. Like... There was a customer who was down and they needed to dispatch. They scheduled the dispatch for October of 2017 instead of October of 2016. I called repeatedly to verify that someone was going to be coming out on time the next day and was told everything was fine. It wasn't until the time they were supposed to be there that someone at CenturyLink realized the dispatch was scheduled for a year out.

Yeah i've never once had an intelligent conversation with anyone at Century Link. I've had to call in A LOT too for work, and when it was the only thing I could get at home.

I think their training consists of "this is a mouse, and this is a keyboard... WELL good luck!".
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Johnny_Nutcase posted...

CableZL posted...

Just remembered that our VoIP provider inadvertently sent us the circuit information. I just called CenturyLink direclty and got all the info I needed.

Now I don't have to stay up all night.

Century Link is a shit hole of a company.

Lmao post 10 was me describing them.
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