Who, Me? Welcome as soon as once more to Monday morning on the coalface, which as Reg readers know is after we publish reader-submitted tales of tech help gone awry beneath the banner of Who, Me?

This week our hero, if that’s the applicable time period, is a reader we’ll Regomize as “Erik” who works as a community engineer and was as soon as requested to put in a set of recent switches for a consumer that was rebuilding its community topology.

The consumer had a number of rooms wherein important networking gear was situated and had put in applicable safety for the aim – together with each bodily and digital keys. In a number of the rooms, Erik discovered a set of shiny new uninterruptible energy provides into which the brand new gear was to be plugged. In a single room he discovered a sole, lonely, router whose goal was unclear besides that it was not a part of this undertaking explicit improve.

To put in the brand new stuff Erik was clearly going to need to unplug issues, so an after-hours upkeep window was locked in. Erik was supplied with the suitable keys that may let him into all the best rooms to get the job.

The job went properly and by round 1:00AM Erik had performed all the mandatory unplugging, reconnecting, and software program updates.

All gave the impression to be working brilliantly, so he returned to the principle lab, which had been his base of operations, to start packing up.

Simply then the cellphone rang. The consumer employed monitoring companies to control its community remotely from one other constructing throughout city (for safety causes). And based on that distant monitor, nothing was working. In any respect.

Erik instantly understood what that lonely router sitting by itself in a room should be for. He reasoned that if he rebooted it, all could be properly.

He due to this fact sprang up, left the principle lab, and made his means by way of the empty corridors to the room the place the router may very well be discovered.

And because the door closed behind him, he made a horrible realization: he had left the keys behind in the principle networking lab with the remainder of his gear.

He was due to this fact locked within the consumer’s premises, and couldn’t escape.

He figured he had two selections:

  • Complete humiliation, within the type of ready till morning when the consumer would arrive and free him;
  • Partial humiliation, within the type of calling his boss in the course of the evening to hopefully ask if the consumer had provided an additional set of keys.

Erik selected partial humiliation, and by chance his hunch was proper. Further keys had been supplied, the boss rode to the rescue, and the consumer was none the wiser.

By the way, Erik’s different hunch – that restarting the monitoring firm’s router would repair every little thing – additionally proved properly based. The job was performed, and Erik was liberated by 2:00AM and even managed a half-decent evening’s sleep.

Have you ever ever give you a quick-thinking resolution after which realized, like Erik, that maybe considering a bit extra slowly may need been higher? That is simply the type of story we like to learn. Tell us all about it in an email to Who, Me? and we might characteristic your exploits on some future Monday. ®


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