Submission + - ISP Tech Support - why reset the modem? 3
egburr writes: Suffering through yet another series of calls to "Customer Service" at my ISP, I have to wonder why the initial reaction is always to assume the problem is at my house. In the nine years I have had broadband service (originally DSL, now cable), the problem I have called in about has never been solved by unplugging the modem to 60 seconds and plugging it back in. All but one time has ended up being a problem on the ISP's side (DHCP server failure, DNS failure, hardware failure). Once I was losing connectivity for about four hours every evening; a technician came and replaced the modem (in the morning, while it was working), and the problem did not happen again. I still don't know what happened then, but I'm willing to count it as a problem on my side.
So, with only one time out of about 20 (rough guess, I haven't kept track) being a problem on my side, why do they always insist on wasting the first five minutes of *every* call with resetting the modem twice? Has that *ever* solved the problem for anyone?
Even with my doubts, I have bought into the idea so well that I do it a couple times before picking up the phone to call (my neighbor first, to verify that his is down too, then my ISP), a couple times while on hold, and still the one or two times they insist on before they will consider any other cause or even check to see that the rest of my neighborhood is also down.
So, with only one time out of about 20 (rough guess, I haven't kept track) being a problem on my side, why do they always insist on wasting the first five minutes of *every* call with resetting the modem twice? Has that *ever* solved the problem for anyone?
Even with my doubts, I have bought into the idea so well that I do it a couple times before picking up the phone to call (my neighbor first, to verify that his is down too, then my ISP), a couple times while on hold, and still the one or two times they insist on before they will consider any other cause or even check to see that the rest of my neighborhood is also down.
