{"id":3274,"date":"2010-05-28T10:23:45","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T09:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=3274"},"modified":"2012-04-27T15:35:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:35:36","slug":"bt-outage-01993-exchange-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=3274","title":{"rendered":"BT outage, 01993 exchange (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 25th May 2010, 7pm<\/strong>
\nFor the second time in the last couple of weeks, our BT Broadband and BT Vision services have dropped out.<\/p>\n

We are able to connect – by WiFi or cable – to our router, and when we do connect with it, the router indicates that we are ‘connected’ to the internet.<\/p>\n

But we are not connected to the internet, because we are unable to load any web-pages, can not run FTP services and can\u2019t access BT\u2019s own NNTP server.<\/p>\n

I call the BT Broadband hell-desk.<\/p>\n

After validating my security details, I am asked what the problem is; I give a detailed and thorough response and underline the message by saying I have tried a variety of browsers and tried to access a range of websites.<\/p>\n

The Broadband hell-desk operator responds by ignoring everything I\u2019ve just told them. I am asked to sit at the laptop and look at the network connection details.<\/p>\n

I can see where this is going, so I try to head off the meaningless exercise by reiterating that yes, I am connected to the router and that yes, the router is behaving normally and that no, I am unable to launch any web-page and that yes, I strongly believe there is a problem with BT\u2019s wide area network.<\/p>\n

But the call-centre operator tells me that while we have been speaking he has run a diagnostic on my telephone line and there are no BT problems, so he continues to direct me down a fruitless path.<\/p>\n

We break the connection with the WiFi router, establish a new one and that tests fine. We use the WiFi link to log on to the router and examine the router setup and that works fine.<\/p>\n

Because I am able to access the router and it tells me that I am connected to Broadband, the call-centre operator is adamant that there is no BT problem.<\/p>\n

I ask him why I am unable to load any web-pages, why does my BT Vision not work and why am I unable to use FTP and NNTP services.<\/p>\n

He puts me on hold for less than 60 seconds.<\/p>\n

When he returns, it is to contradict his earlier statement; he tells me that there is a major outage on our exchange and that\u2019s why I am having these difficulties.<\/p>\n

I summarise that he and I have spent 14 fruitless minutes wasting each other\u2019s time, performing a series of meaningless functions, all to validate my initial diagnosis, which I put to him when we began the conversation.<\/p>\n

His response is to say that the tests he ran to my telephone number didn\u2019t show the problem that he has since been made aware of.<\/p>\n

*Pauses for breath*<\/p>\n

Where, in this scenario, is anyone\u2019s definition of quality?<\/p>\n

Where is the quality in the tests that the call-centre operator ran?<\/p>\n

Where is the quality in the call-centre\u2019s ability to *listen and respond correctly to* a detailed explanation of symptoms?<\/p>\n

In fact, where is there any degree of quality to be found anywhere in this horrible scenario?<\/p>\n

A good night\u2019s sleep passes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 25th May 2010, 7pm For the second time in the last couple of weeks, our BT Broadband and BT Vision services have dropped out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}