OK, Vincent Ferrari I’m not, but this was still a pretty frustrating call. I’ve actually been pretty happy with RCN service overall, but it appears their network diagnostics leave something to be desired.
| Me: | My Internet service is down again. It’s been going down once or twice a day for the last month. I think there’s something wrong with the modem. |
| RCN Tech: | Did you try power-cycling the modem and all your computers? |
| Me: | That’s not the issue. Power-cycling always fixes the problem for a few hours but then the service goes down again. I shouldn’t have to power-cycle everything twice a day. |
| RCN Tech: | Are there any lights on the modem? |
| Me: | There are three: two steady and one flashing. These are the same three lights that glow whenever the service goes down. |
| RCN Tech: | Well, I’m looking at your modem right now and it says everything’s fine. |
| Me: | Well, it clearly isn’t fine because I have a laptop sitting here directly connected to the modem and I can’t get an IP address. |
| RCN Tech: | Did you power-cycle your laptop before connecting it? |
| Me: | No! The point is not to have to power-cycle equipment every time I want to connect! |
| RCN Tech: | Well, everything looks fine from here. |
| Me: | But it’s clearly not fine from here. Look, I’ll reboot the laptop, just like you said. [three minutes later] OK, I rebooted everything and there’s still no IP address. |
| RCN Tech: | Did you reset the modem? |
| Me: | THAT’S NOT THE POINT! |
| RCN Tech: | I don’t know what to tell you, sir, because I’m able to ping the modem just fine. |
| Me: | But clearly the problem is between the modem and the devices connected to the modem. Can you ping any of those? |
| RCN Tech: | I’m unable to ping any devices connected to the modem unless they have an IP address. |
| Me: | But the problem is that nothing connected to the modem can get an IP address because the modem isn’t working right! Are you saying your diagnostics have no way of identifying a problem between the modem and the devices connected to it? |
| RCN Tech: | You do have the option of buying your own modem. |
| Me: | Don’t I pay RCN a lease fee every month for this modem? |
| RCN Tech: | Yes, three dollars. |
| Me: | So doesn’t that entitle me to swap the modem for a new one? |
| RCN Tech: | I guess it does. Do you know the address of your local service office? |
| Me: | Yeah, never mind… |