ISP Rant

[mmerry]

Just need to get this off my chest. Been fighting a clients network that was constantly dropping packets to the ISP so my UDM SE kept reporting ISP offline. Sent the support files to Ubiquiti and they noticed a possible loop. Turned off that port and still dropping ISP. The ISP, will not name them unless asked, pulled the usual we see no problems on our end, even though when you call their support line, it picks up and automatically says we see an outage in your area. After a week and a half, they finally roll a truck to the site. The ONT is replaced and magically, I am not seeing dropped packets or disconnects.

This last week has had me questioning both my ability and also my desire to even stay working in IT, even though it has all I have been doing for nearly 30 years. Just glad I have not gone completely insane.

On a side note, Ubiquiti is going to RMA a access point they think was causing the loop even though that AP is so old, I really so have replaced it a couple of years ago.

 

[timeshifter]

The ISP, will not name them unless asked

I'd like to know. Not for piling on and complaining, but I think it would be helpful to know.

Since you said ONT that might narrow the choices, but a lot depends on business size and budget (i.e. is it shared fiber or dedicated, probably not coax of course).

 

[mmerry]

ISP is Metronet

 

[Markverhyden]

Don't mistake my comments to be in complete support of ISP's. But this finger pointing has been going on for decades. Back to when we had AOL, Compuserv, and local dialups it was between the LEC and the ISP. In reality neither really had much granularity. Apparently it still hasn't. Years ago I made several trips to a camp ground to troubleshoot wireless performance problems. After hours and hours I finally narrowed it down to Comcast. The modem itself would never loose sync but outgoing traffic would stop for a while. Sometimes for several minutes. When I finally busted through and got to L3 support the tech told me that the tools they have will only report an outage after 15 to 20 minutes of failed traffic. And not all onsite techs know how to use something like a T-Berd to look at it locally. Told the customer they needed to call their rep and demand a truck to look at things on the pole.

 

[mmerry]

Don't mistake my comments to be in complete support of ISP's. But this finger pointing has been going on for decades. Back to when we had AOL, Compuserv, and local dialups it was between the LEC and the ISP. In reality neither really had much granularity. Apparently it still hasn't. Years ago I made several trips to a camp ground to troubleshoot wireless performance problems. After hours and hours I finally narrowed it down to Comcast. The modem itself would never loose sync but outgoing traffic would stop for a while. Sometimes for several minutes. When I finally busted through and got to L3 support the tech told me that the tools they have will only report an outage after 15 to 20 minutes of failed traffic. And not all onsite techs know how to use something like a T-Berd to look at it locally. Told the customer they needed to call their rep and demand a truck to look at things on the pole.

No issue taken. Just more of a rant on my part. Was totally second guessing my knowledge and a little frustrated that a tuck roll didn't happen sooner. Now that the issue has been resolved, I feel better that I in fact knew it was the ISP issue.