So Yeah, Internet Outage and Verizon Nonsense
The internet went out suddenly today, in the middle of my doing billable work that I have yet to get back to after being derailed. Based on the position of the D-Link router, I think Sadie touched it directly or by tugging a cable, or maye one of us tripped over a cable and yanked it. This is obviously going to be An Issue.
I did all the normal troubleshooting, including turning the router off and on and checking/unplugging/replugging the cables. I am concerned because the WAN port seems to wiggle a bit and feel like the cable to the internet isn’t snug when it is. I even went to the cellar and outside box to make sure nothing was unplugged or visibly amiss.
I finally gave up and called support. Bear in mind I had unplugged the power and rebooted the router three times, and checked the cables repeatedly.
Their test showed all was fine but the router was invisible to them. Reset it again.
I unplugged the WAN cable, unplugged the power, put the WAN cable back better than it had seemed, plugged in the power, instead of no WAN indicator light or one that blinked a lot, it came on solid. Of course it was working fine then! Duh, if I’d only thought of doing that myself, I could have saved a call to support! Oh wait, I did try that myself…
While I was on, I mentioned to the guy that I noticed the OPSU had been plugged into a power outlet that was clearly labeled 3rd floor, the installer never consulted me about where to plug in, and when someone rents that apartment and installed their washer and dryer, there is nothing to stop them from unplugging us from their outlet.
The Verizon guy initially said, “well, as long as it has power...”
Basically I was outside any scope he could have imagined. Hello! If you are going to install these in apartments, and you need power to support them, you are going to have to start coping with and working within the scope of where power that is available of and for that apartment.
Bottom line, unless I really want to make a stink, I may as well run an extension cord across the ceiling because “that’s probably all the installation guy would do if we sent him out.”
Maybe. More likely, he would undo a bunch of staples holding up the tan cable (which goes the whole length of the cellar back to what is apparently the battery backup), snip the electrical ties neatly holding the AC cord to the electical pipe that terminates at the 3rd Floor outlets where the AC code plugs in, unscrew the OPSU, carefully move it across the cellar to somwhere near out outlet, attach the OPSU to the ceiling somewhere, attach the tan cable back to points on the ceiling to the point of departure from its original path, and plug the power into our outlet (or into the power strip I need to hang up there so our outlet can be used for more than one thing). Probably not much more trouble than hanging up an extenstion cord. Heck; I am tempted to move the OPSU myself, now that I’ve thought about it. Long as there is enough tan cable, which I am sure of, given the available length of AC cord. Worst case, I’d have to put a board between a couple of the beams to screw the OPSU to.
Still, extension cord or wholesale move, this should not be my job. The guy had to be able to read “3rd Floor” on that outlet. But it was such an easy spot to install the thing. I was tempted to go down and look over his shoulder while he was installing it, but I thought it would be nice to leave him alone.
Oh well.
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