Ramblings and Musings and Wibblings

Quick explanation how we treat authentication issues where I work. There's two flavours: 721 are the ones where the handshake fails to complete. It will show no logs on the BRAS or show rejected attempts. 691 are the ones where the handshake completes, but is not recognised, so it encompasses bad password, getting continuously redirected etc. It doesn't correspond to the actual original error codes, but that's the way they're logged. Possibly because our resellers are deficient in the brain department and we've found it best not to confuse them too much.

So, on to the story:

Working a 721 error earlier today. It's been handled before and passed back stating no fault found and everything should be working, please retest. Fault gets reraised. By this time, the customer is pissed off and has turned off their computer. In this day and age not a problem, right? Right. Except that the nice reseller hadn't told us the customer had a USB modem. So this gets picked up by one of my coworkers, who runs a couple of tests and find equipment connected and a disconnection in the network. And hey, the customer hasn't been in sync for two days. This gets logged to OpenReach (for non-UKians: phone/frames engineers. They maintain the copper network and such)

The engineer runs a few tests and finds that the customer is getting dial tone so he says there is no fault. Fair enough. He should still repair it. And this is where the fun really starts: he states in his job notes: 'exchange equipment stolen from the exchange which is why the customer cannot authenticate he says he is getting 721 error on connecting computer so this is a broadband fault.'

I read that and couldn't help but laugh. Seriously, we'd notice if someone went in and nicked our stuff. Honestly. ^*

And then I continue checking: customer has had multiple connection logs. Customer has multiple successful authentications an hour. So it is not a 721 or a 691 error. It looks like intermittent sync. Check some more things. Find out the customer is using a USB modem. Doublecheck something with people slightly geekier than I. Guess what? Handshake being interrupted by dropping sync will almost definitely cause Windows to display a 721 error when using a USB modem. Yay.

So tomorrow I get to call OpenReach again and ask if their frames engineer was on fucking crack today, run some tests and call the customer who will almost certainly not have been asked to test with alternate equipment and I will have to log the fault out again to have the dis repaired, this time by someone who has a clue and doesn't listen to the customer.

Oh joy.

^*I have been valiantly trying to get rid of the image of someone dressed like the HamBurglar sneaking into one of our exchanges and making off with a couple of MSAN cards or a BRAS. Entirely too amusing an image.

Went to Amsterdam yesterday with Tam and Snow and had lots of fun. We went to Wagamama for lunch (green tea bavarois is absolutely gorgeous), and then wandered over to Lush to buy goodies. I may have gone slightly overboard on the glittery shiny products, but they were glittery and shiny! How could I resist? (Yes, I'm fairly certain I was a magpie in a previous life.)

After Lush, we made our way to the American Bookstore and later a second hand bookstore. I behaved myself and in the end have only bought about a dozen books in total. One of them's a Chinese cookery encyclopedia from the 70s. It's marvelous. It's got a recipe in it called 'Pork of Original Preciousness'. I'm almost tempted to make it. And I also have a recipe for 1000 year old eggs. It's scary. The recipe calls for water, pine ash, salt and lime. I'm not sure whether that's quicklime or slaked lime. I'm guessing the former, because the idea is that the eggs are cooked slowly over 45 days. I should make these things, if only to satisfy my geek side, which just loves playing with potentially dangerous substances...

We spent the rest of the afternoon in a good pub called 'De Bekeerde Suster', which I highly recommend. They have nice beer, a good atmosphere and it's within walking distance of the station. We spent some time browsing through our purchases (my Meow Te Ching written by Meow Tsu was popular :) ) and had good beer to keep us company.

Eventually we made our way to the station (passing through the red light district where we window-shopped :)) and went our separate ways from there. I got home around 10 to find a nice surprise waiting for me. Thanks to st_lemur, I am now the proud owner of an Optimus Prime figure (with an apron). I spent the next two hours trying to get it back to being a truck. and then I turned it back into Optimus Prime. And then back into a truck again. It makes me very happy. In fact, I think I'll go play with it some more.

"So...You meant to get run over by that tank?"

"I believe I can fly!"

"Run, Forrest, run!"

"This is not the vehicle you are looking for." *handwave*

"To your left! Your other left!"

"All your base are belong to us!" (okay, he didn't get that one, but come on, would you pass up the opportunity?)

"Make your time!" (see above)

"Ducking would have been a good idea."