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“MediaOne RoadRunner cable modem installed” |
MediaOne RoadRunner Cable Modems I just had a MediaOne RoadRunner cable modem installed. Everything went fine, until the installation tech found that the computer system that registers and enables my hardware was down. No problem, he says, I gave them all the information, when the system comes back up, you'll be all set. He hands me a "welcome pack" and beats feet. So, I go back to work, call home an hour later & the "connect" light on the modem is still flashing (indicating that I don't yet have a data connection). I call the support line, and the guy who answers tells me I'm "provisioned" but that I need to wait up to 24 hours for the modem to "kick in". Huh? Well, he tells me that he just "sent a message" to the modem, and got no answer, but that it can take up to 24 hours on a first install, for the modem to "kick in". I tell him I'm "in the business" and NOTHING takes 24 hours. He replies that "it hardly ever takes that long, but it can take up to 24 hours for the modem to kick in". I'm unable to get a more technical explanation of the term "kick in", so I thank him and wait another hour. The light's still blinking, so I call the help line again. This time, I get a woman who seems a bit more willing to work with me. She pings my modem's control interface and gets no answer. She has me power cycle the modem, but no good. Then I ask her to check the MAC address she has in her records against the one I read off the back of the modem. She replies "I was just going to ask you to do that". Turns out that somewhere in the process of entering my information into the database, someone entered the wrong MAC address. She corrects it, and I'm online! Then I ask her to change the MAC address she has for my computer, as I'm installing a firewall. Which one, she asks. Linksys, I say. Same one I have, she says. It worked right out of the box, she says. When I can't get DNS lookups, she offers to help, even though she doesn't have to. I finally thank her, and tell her that it's my problem, and hang up. Turned out, I needed to refresh my computer's DHCP lease in order to see the DNS servers the Linksys box had acquired from the ISP. So, I guess I've seen the good and the bad sides of MediaOne's tech support. |
