* * * * *
Murphy was laughing at me all along
We've been battling with client networks [1] for the past week or so, and I
think the problems have finally abated. The last spot of trouble was the new
Metro-Ethernet circuit. The Monopolistic Phone Company kept insisting it was
10Mbps (Megabits per second) clean both ways. At best we could get 3Mbps one
way, and maybe 300Kbps (Kilobits per second) the otherway (and no, this is a
different client [2]).
Smirk was insistant upon a test using a different router, but I was hesitant.
I was fed up (so was Smirk) and I felt that doing a test with a different
router would be a waste of time. Well, that, and it would be a bitch to
configure the equipment to use VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network)s (long story
short: it takes some coaxing to get Cisco equipment to support VLAN IDs above
1024, yet our Metro-Ethernet connection requires a VLAN ID above 1024).
Since Smirk signs the checks, he won.
We called G, our Cisco consultant for help. “Well Sean me boy,” he said,
“let's work through the theory of what we're trying—”
“Sorry G but I don't want the theory. I just want the configuration to test
this thing and be done with it.” Had I not said that, it would have taken us
another three hours. Don't get me wrong, I like G—it's just that he tends to
be loquacious.
“Oh,” said G. “In that case, type … ” and inside of ten minutes we were
running a test.
9.7Mbps down.
9.8Mbps up.
Oh.
Color me surprised.
The Cisco router we were using was defective.
Oh my.
Heh.
Once that was settled, things wrapped up rather quickly.
[1]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/05/18.1
[2]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/05/22.1
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