Do what I mean, not what I say.

On Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:55:56 +0000, Jeff Liebermann sez:
> To this person, "reset the router" means punch the reset button. He
> did, and for a long enough hold time to clear all the settings to
> defaults. To insure maximum damage, the DSL modem has also been reset
> to defaults, which required putting it back into the bridging mode.

Oh, you wanna swap stupid hardware stories? Back when I started working
for my current employer about 15 years ago, we were a small shop with
maybe a dozen 386/486 boxes hooked up on a LANtastic network. At least
once a day, the server would shut down, which, with LANtastic, meant that
any unsaved work was lost forever because the application (usually
WordPerfect) would lock up trying to access the drive on which it was
hosted.

The server was located behind the receptionist's desk under the table
where they had the fax machine. After some investigation, we discovered
the problem: One employee who didn't like to bend down when she sent a
fax would always kneel on the floor in front of the fax machine, and as
often as not her knee would bump up against the rocker switch on the
front of the server. Power off, there goes the network. She was always
good about turning it back on, but not before the damage had been done.

Then there was the time our Christmas tree lights overloaded the same
circuit our training lab was on, and I lost 15 hours of a data conversion
project that had been running overnight.

--
Peter B. Steiger
Cheyenne, WY
If you must reply by email, you can reach me by placing zeroes
where you see stars: wypbs_**2 at steigerfamily.com.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

It was a nice day in Santa Cruz until the cell phone rang announcing
that one of my coffee shop wireless customers has a malfunctional
wireless router. I asked them to "reset the router" by pulling the
plug, waiting a while, and plugging it back in. When that didn't
work, I drove over to see what was happening.

For the 2nd time in as many weeks, the router appeared to have been
reset to the default settings. I reloaded the saved settings, changed
the password in case it had been leaked, and interrogated all the
employees. Eventually, I found the culprit. To this person, "reset
the router" means punch the reset button. He did, and for a long
enough hold time to clear all the settings to defaults. To insure
maximum damage, the DSL modem has also been reset to defaults, which
required putting it back into the bridging mode.

I put some electrical tape over the reset button hole. That should
slow them down, a little, maybe.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Peter B. Steiger wrote:
> often as not her knee would bump up against the rocker switch on the
> front of the server.

Since I always nail down, err...mount outlets strips with screws, I cover
the rocker switch with a half moon 2" diameter grey PVC conduit strap.

"Peter B. Steiger" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Oh, you wanna swap stupid hardware stories?

Sure, but this is a wireless internet newsgroup. Horror stories
should be about wireless, wireless internet, or something related.
There are plenty of other places to post support horror stories.

This mornings horror story arrived a few hours ago. Customer has an
existing 2Wire all-in-one box with DSL modem, router, and wireless.
Customer wants to improve coverage in the garage and yard area. He
buys an identical 2Wire conglomeration on eBay, plugs it in, and calls
me for help setting it up. At no time does he mention that he now has
2 DSL modems on the same phone line. 30 frustrating and confusing
minutes later, I finally pry out of him what's going on. He logically
concluded that since he has several phones and dialup modems connected
to the same phone line simultaneously, he could do the same with a DSL
modem. I hate logical people.


10 things I learned this week about wireless and wireless demos:

1. Chocolate cake melts when placed on top of the router. Coffee and
keyboards are magnetically attractive.
2. Any live demonstration of Netstumbler or Kismet will always
display a obscene or inappropriate SSID to the audience.
3. When giving a live demonstration, the wireless in the laptop will
either be stuck on or refuse to turn on. It also cannot be reliably
controlled by the function key combination, hidden switch, control
panel application, BIOS, or client manager.
4. What are the odds of the system administrator changing the VPN
passwords, not testing it, and leaving for the day, just before I give
a demo of his system?
5. Many overhead projectors will do really weird things when fed with
16:9 video instead of the expected 4:3.
6. Demonstrating wireless requires far too many wires most of which I
left at the office or in the car.
7. Live WEP cracking demos fail about half the time. The larger the
audience, the greater the chances of failure.
8. With wireless, traffic is measured in acronyms per second. Every
time something new appears, it is accompanied by a deluge of acronyms.
9. A sign labeled "do not touch" is not sufficiently specific. It
should say "do not break" as someone always touches and usually breaks
things.
10. Avoid eating pickles, onions, and garlic sandwitches before
wireless demonstrations.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> 9. A sign labeled "do not touch" is not sufficiently specific. It
> should say "do not break" as someone always touches and usually breaks
> things.

"Danger - Electrical Shock" seems to keep the curious from touching the
forward mounted optics on the static display attack helicopters at airshows.

But in the litigious world of the public...it can open a whole can of worms.

DTC wrote:
> Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> 9. A sign labeled "do not touch" is not sufficiently specific. It
>> should say "do not break" as someone always touches and usually
>> breaks things.
>
> "Danger - Electrical Shock" seems to keep the curious from touching
> the forward mounted optics on the static display attack helicopters
> at airshows.
> But in the litigious world of the public...it can open a whole can of
> worms.

I use the radiation warning sign.... Interestingly enuf, I had it painted on
the side of my van, and when I park in a lot, I usually come back and find a
whole lot of empty parking spaces around it...

"Peter Pan" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:
>I use the radiation warning sign.... Interestingly enuf, I had it painted on
>the side of my van, and when I park in a lot, I usually come back and find a
>whole lot of empty parking spaces around it...

Doesn't work. The problem is that anyone younger than 50 years old
doesn't have a clue what radiation is all about. It's just not taught
in the skools these daze.

I had a "Thallium Stress Test" some years ago. Basically, I walk like
hell on a treadmill. Just before I fall over from exhaustion, they
inject some radioactive goo. After about an hour, I get to play dead
for 20 mins on a giant scintillation counter, which produces
incredibly fuzzy and expensive pictures of my insides. I also get to
walk around belching sub-atomic particles for several hours. So,
after the test, I drag out my Korean War era Geiger counter (complete
with civil defense sticker) and try to impress my friends. I show up
at a nearby business, fire up the Geiger counter, and pass the
earphone around. The meter goes full scale and the earphone belches
continuous rattling noises. Anyone over about 50 immediately jumps
back when they hear all those clicks. Most people under 50 would just
ask "what's that noise". So much for nuclear physics education in the
skools.

I also was asked "why do you have a Geiger counter" by several people.
I couldn't figure out why they would ask, until I realized that they
suspected I was conducting experiments with radioactivity at home in
my spare time.

If I put a "danger radioactivity" sign on my truck and nothing would
happen. If I put it on my props, someone would probably lean over it,
fondle the device, drop it clumsily, and then ask if it's safe.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Peter Pan wrote:
> DTC wrote:
>> Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>>> 9. A sign labeled "do not touch" is not sufficiently specific. It
>>> should say "do not break" as someone always touches and usually
>>> breaks things.
>> "Danger - Electrical Shock" seems to keep the curious from touching
>> the forward mounted optics on the static display attack helicopters
>> at airshows.
>> But in the litigious world of the public...it can open a whole can of
>> worms.
>
> I use the radiation warning sign.... Interestingly enuf, I had it painted on
> the side of my van, and when I park in a lot, I usually come back and find a
> whole lot of empty parking spaces around it...
>
>
Leaving a dead camera on the roof of my van and a video surveillance
sign on the side keeps things clear , seem like people have things to hide ?

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> Anyone over about 50 immediately jumps
> back when they hear all those clicks. Most people under 50 would just
> ask "what's that noise". So much for nuclear physics education in the
> skools.

And for anyone that has used a Geiger counter, the clicks are very
recognizable as to the pattern, etc.

DTC wrote:
> Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> Anyone over about 50 immediately jumps
>> back when they hear all those clicks. Most people under 50 would just
>> ask "what's that noise". So much for nuclear physics education in the
>> skools.
>
> And for anyone that has used a Geiger counter, the clicks are very
> recognizable as to the pattern, etc.

ANyone who has watched bad scifi movies from the 60's would know .)