Within the next 15 minutes I arrive at the customer’s site, power had come on about 10 minutes before I had arrived. I fired up the SBS server and found and installed the ESET removal tool. Unfortunately that still did not allow the computers to connect to the server.

By this time another tech showed up to lend a hand, praise the Lord! Since the customer had the new router I quickly swapped to it and made sure the router settings allowed DHCP. This prevented me from trying to change the Cisco ASA 5500 settings and it also allowed the customers computers to get on the internet for their cloud based program.

This however did not allow access to email, which was setup to go through Exchange on the SBS machine, they also could not access to their local programs. It turns out that the inexpensive Cisco / Linksys had installed Pure Networks, Network Magic, a program I used to see with AOL (AO Hell for most of us). This program of course would not uninstall in normal or safe mode, possibly because it is junk or maybe due to the canceled install by the previous technician. Revo uninstaller saved the day!

BUT… (Don’t you just hate that word) the network became really instable, machines dropping off the network, locking up all kinds of mischief. Fortunately I just happened to look at the gigabit switch and boy-oh-boy were the lights blinking in a frenzy. One by one I unplugged LAN cables at the switch until the lights went back to the normal blinking pattern. Ok, it was LAN plug 38, now to trace that throughout the building. As luck would have it in the next room was a Ricoh copier / printer / FAX and it was connected to port 38. The yellow NIC light was blinking at a billion and one miles per second and the green NIC light was off. Hmmm, ok, the NIC is upset with all that has been going on. Turn off the copier, wait 3 minutes, turn it back on, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). No luck, the NIC immediately went back into its conniption fit. Fine, be that way, I just won’t connect it to the network.

Well, the network was stable again, that was good news. The SBS server was still not allowing access, that was the bad news. After delving into the settings John found that the NIC and some network settings were screwy and that was the ugly. After some research it was concluded that the ESET security software had “manipulated” some settings and not released them. Then apparently Network Magic had “manipulated” some other settings and “adjusted” the NIC. He had to manually delete both sets of those settings, remove the NIC from the hardware list, reboot the server and then reconfigure the NIC and some network settings, reboot the server again and presto, it was back on the network and internet.

So we are back to where the customer was 30 hours ago, no anti-virus security on the server but the network was up and running, programs and email could be accessed and work could be performed.

Since the customer had been using POP email, the inability to use Exchange was a problem but not critical.
After 2 months of ESET not being able to solve the issue we ramped up our complaints asking for higher level techs, our (my business) was never responded to and the customer rarely heard from ESET. The growing problem was instability on the network. Finally ESET plainly stated “not our problem”. This was exceptionally frustrating for us, a company that is an authorized dealer, and that ESET had been so good for so long in the past with service…

We luckily found an ESET removal tool (yes, like the Norton removal tool) on their site, yet their tech support apparently did not know about it. Once we used it the server and network became stable and Exchange started working (with some configuration changes). Our concern was that this was an active Exchange server, and that viruses Trojans et al could, and would, infect the system.

Since the customer had bought a 2 year license for ESET and with security a concern the customer wanted to reinstall ESET. The problem was now ESET tech support was responding with junk answers and questions and only responding once a week. Another 2 plus months later, with everything stable and much fussing at ESET the customer’s in house computer person convinced ESET to help out. ESET employees remoted in to the SBS 2008 server and installed their software.

While on the phone with the customer, the ESET technician claimed that they had not been quick to respond because they knew of a SBS 2008 issue, yet they never told us or our customer, who had been constantly attempting to contact them, about a known issue. Why not? More crappy service from ESET tech support?

That evening, after ESET installed their “new” version of the software, the customer installed the two latest Microsoft updates and rebooted the server. This was done remotely since it was late at night and some people actually want to go home.

The next morning all heck broke loose, no computers could get to the internet or the server. Since ESET was installed the customer called ESET and they recommended removing it again. The customer’s in house person did uninstall ESET but it did not solve the issue. Once again, ESET tech support did not tell the customer that they needed to run a removal tool. With the network down ESET had only one recommendation, “it must be your router”, a call to our tech support and the customer’s failure to tell of the ESET reinstall let to the same conclusion. This is why complete information is so necessary. The customer went off to Staples to buy a $70 Linksys router, can you say “oh crud!” After returning, the customer installs the new routers included disk into the server (double- oh crud!!).

By then one of our techs gets there and cancels the Cisco/Linksys software installation. Again, without knowing ESET had been reinstalled and removed, the tech spends about an hour trying to configure the SBS server to connect via Microsoft’s tools when “bam” there is a loud “pop” and all power goes out. After about 10 minutes of no power the tech updates the customer and leaves. Once out the front door, he connects with me where we spend about 45 minutes going over the status of the job. As I query him about ESET he lets me know he was not informed about the install and or uninstall.

Earlier this month I was touring the desert of SlowServia searching out the ancient city of Mydatastewslow. While digging at the temple of Bloatedfiles I found that a tomb raider had already been there.  While sifting through the sand, the ancient one showed up full of arrogance, praising himself to the local tribe. That was until the ancient one realized he was looking at Adonis himself. As a hush fell across the desert valley, the ancient one looked down at the sand in humble submission and quickly scurried away to perform some menial task at hand.

Calling all Computer Professionals, DO YOUR JOB!

For those who don’t fully understand the story, I was called into a job where a slow server was taking to long to feed information to the client computers and the hard drive was reporting full. The main database for the customer would not run and thus the entire business was literally shut down. The original technology company was not available for one reason or another. While I was at the client’s office a representative of the original company showed up and was a little put out that another technician (me) was there. When I began to question the previous tech about why the server had a single core, non hyper thread 2.4GHz CPU and only 512MB of RAM (this was Windows Server 2003 for you techies out there) with a shared database he proudly stated “We upgraded that about a year ago.” Hello, that motherboard was outdated more than a year ago (Intel 845G), it could support up to a 3.06GHz 533 FSB CPU and 2 gigs of RAM, not much by today’s standards but a lot more than was in the system.

Now let me state that the server and technician were not wrong, just different. Whoever designed the server was spending as little money as possible but the customer / end user is not “budget” type of customer so proper hardware should have been used up front. The database software on the server also needed more horsepower.

The reason I call my self Adonis here is because only arrogance would have a technician think he or she was a know it all do it all (a “Jehovah” of technology). My specialties are my specialties, I am not great at every aspect of technology thus I rely on others who are “gods” in their areas to assist me and in turn I assist others.

Technicians, you do not work for your boss or yourself, you work for the customer. By working for the customer you will get a repeat HAPPY customer (and most likely several referrals) which will keep the money flowing which in turn keeps your boss satisfied. So do the job right the first time and be humble to the customer. I am so tired of your self appointed arrogance. Just because you eat too much and know how to make Windows Server NT dance the jig does not mean you know anything about web hosting or programming in LISP. In my real world example above, the technician was not even a good technician, not only did he not know the real world required hardware but had set up the clients program to incorrectly store data. He was using more space for each file than necessary. Each file should have been between 100 and 150k, the small files were just over 300k and the out of control ones were over 3 Meg. No wonder the hard drive was full.

I could go on about the known dead backup system (the tech knew but the customer thought it was working) and the dead, in warranty, parts that were left on a shelf (apparently waiting for the warranty to expire). I could also talk about the dual hard drives in the server not configured or the software RAID set up for the operating system only, but once again I digress, his methodology was different not wrong. Yeah, right!

For those of you who are not technicians or newbies getting into the technology field, I apologize for this rant. For those of you who are not new to the field (beginning technology experts), you now have been officially told that character, honesty and humility do count. Finally, for those experienced technicians who actually read this through, let it serve as a reminder of our place in the “service” oriented field.

Oh, yeah, I’m not perfect, just ask my ex-wife (or even my current wife for that matter). I am willing to admit that I must give my best to the customer and where I fall short, I need to call in the troops not skimp, “tech-talk” over my clients head or think I walk on water.

Well enough for now, until we meet again, have a virus free week!

If you would like to argue about the exact specifications of this weeks topics please join the U.N., W.T.O. or some other useless group of arguers.

Cordless phones are a blessing. I can check out e-mail, go to the kitchen, walk next door to get one of the kids and even sit on my backyard swing and enjoy the freedom of America, all while still talking or listening on the phone. Cordless phones use radio frequency just like the radio you use to listen to music or your favorite local talk show. Instead of being in a low range and with high output, phones use a higher range and lower output. This prevents you from going to the store using your home phone.

Common frequencies for cordless phones are 900MHz, 2.4 GHz (2400MHz), and 5GHz. These are simply the “radio stations” being used. Inside of each frequency are several channels. Think of them like 900, 905, 910 MHz. This helps keep you neighbor’s phone from picking up your conversations.

Microwaves have gone from devices to warm up leftovers to providing complete meals in an instance. The 1 minute hot dog has turned into the 20 second hot dog. All the warming and cooking is done not by direct heat but by very intense radio frequencies. By using the 2.4GHz bandwidth, locking into a small box (the inside of the microwave) and pushing it quickly and repeatedly food is heated “evenly” because the radio wave goes all the way through the food.

Wireless networks are also a blessing. You can check e-mail from the couch without your daughter tripping over a network cable. You can be surfing for articles on the famous purple hippos of Indonesia from the comfort of your bed or listening to streaming downloads of your favorite music while sunning by the pool. While the speed of the wireless connections and distance between your access point and your wireless device (laptop, Pocket PC) has grown dramatically over the last two years the frequencies have changed little. Wireless “B”, “G and now Pre “N” standards use the 2.4GHz frequency and the “A” standard used 5GHz.

Without going into the blah blah blah of wireless you will notice something in common, cordless phones, microwaves and wireless networks all use the same frequency. This can and does result in strange issues when using any combination of these. Let me give you a few examples. At Diversified Plastics we had a rather large warehouse (larger than a two football fields side by side) with several access points in the ceiling (over 25 foot high if I remember correctly). When items were being inventoried or picked out for shipping a wireless scanner was used to scan the barcodes. The forklift driver carried a cordless phone on his hip and the scanner on the other side. After a while the phone died. When we replaced it we purchased a 2.4GHz phone. If the scanner was on (not necessarily scanning) and the phone would ring it would break the connection and require the scanner to be rebooted. If the phone rang while an item was being scanned the scanner and server that the files went to would have to be rebooted. This even occurred if the phone was on the desk and the shipper was on the far side of the building. The answer of course was to go back to a 900MHz phone.

Though that may not seem to affect you, let’s move to Mr. Self Employed. Mr. Employed works from home as an architect. He just had to have a wireless network, even though there was no need to share information between his home computers he just wanted the kids to be able to access the internet from upstairs and some sales slime at Best Buy told him that wireless was the “only way to go”. The problem is that upstairs is the kid’s game room with a small refrigerator and a microwave and of course a phone with their own private line. To make matters worse, between his office where the internet connection and thus his wireless access point was and the upstairs game room was the kitchen. In his office was his business line on a cordless phone and in the kitchen was the home phone number, once again on a cordless phone. When I received the call as a recommendation from a mutual friend Mr. Employed was fit to be tied. He had exchanged multiple pieces of equipment (Access point, wireless cards) and spent countless hours on the phone with the manufacturers of the products, Best Buy, his internet cable provider and on his own trying to figure why over the last month his internet kept dropping out and having “short term outages”. I tried to explaining the issues of the microwaves and phones and their connections and being a part time teacher to computer newbies, I feel that I can do a pretty good job of explaining such things.

Well Mr. Employed just didn’t get it. I tried a few tricks such as permanently setting the channels on the access point but cordless phones float between channels. After an hour Mr. Employed refused to pay me because I did not “fix” the problem. Gritting my teeth I stated again that the only way to solve this issue was to buy either new networking equipment that operated in the 5GHz band and replace his new phone that operated n the 5Ghz band with one that operated in the 2.4GHz or 900MHz spectrum or to change all phones to 900MHz or 5GHz and remove the microwave from the game room and then “hope” the kitchen microwave wouldn’t interfere with the upstairs computers internet connection. I also reminded him of another option that was to simply run a wired cable from the access point up the stairs to the room. This could be run hidden through the walls and ceiling.

I have not heard back from Mr. Employed and I am quite sure that he is still fighting his network or has thrown it all in the face of the people he bought the equipment from. The moral of our lessons, there is more to technology than meets the eye. If you have or want a wireless network, a little planning and information seeking will go a long way.

Well thats all for now, stay tuned to this same bat channel and this same bat time when next week we will see how well the Astros are doing at bat.

Well, maybe not but I hope you have a virus free week.