Frustrations

The routers are racked.The switches are racked.

The configurations are ready.

The Class C is routed. I think.

I'm sure you're familiar with CPE that is managed solely by the provider. It's a commonplace requirement for many broadband offerings. The ISP that supplies our 1.5Mbps SDSL does not allow us to managethe router that sits in our lab. Now, that wouldn't be so bad if we weren't trying to figure out why our Class C's stop at their router. I'm guessing that there is no route to our router, but I can't verify that because I'm not allowed to touch the thing. Can't get in, can't even view the configuration in a read only mode. So we wait. And wait. And wait, until someone has time to check it out.

Of course life would be much easier if we just used the measly /29 that we got with our service, but we want our IPs. And we want them now. For two days I've sat trying to figure out what's going on, without being able to do much about it.

It's frustrating, to say the least. What really bothers me is that my business class DSL @ home, from the local Baby Bell, is mine. I can manage it, change it, screw it up - whatever I want. And that's at home - the place where the provider probably should be exercising a bit more control over their equipment and the connection, if for no other reason than to reduce the technical support costs. But because it's business class it's assumed that I can manage it myself. Thanks for that trust - it's a warm fuzzy that I don't get from the ISP that supplies our lab. Unfortunately, we're stuck until dudes figure it out. Which I hope will be soon.