You Who?

Don't push this button

True story: This afternoon I am paged over the company PA system (yes, we have a building-wide PA system; yes, anyone can use it) by the manager of the Operations department. I know right away this probably means that our network is misbehaving -- both our ERP and CRM systems fail miserably and messily at the slightest little network hiccup.

All our network problems tend to come from the same source... so I head into the Engineering lab. "Anyone doing anything weird?" Blank stares all around -- pretty much the standard reaction the first time I ask this question. I start going cube to cube in Engineering, starting with the Tech Support guy. "Are you doing anything on the netw--" "Yeah sorry I'll unplug it right now. I was testing a third-party modem for a customer." Hmm. That usually shouldn't be a problem. I follow him into the lab and watch as he unplugs the modem (not one of our products). He holds it up and points out a yellow sticky which says: MODEM THAT TOOK WHOLE NETWORK DOWN WHEN IT WAS PLUGGED IN AT [CERTAIN CUSTOMER]. I look up at him, hopefully with a look that says what I am thinking: Why the *hell* would you choose to plug this into our network! "Sorry, I plugged it in earlier and nothing happened so I just left it in a while to see what would happen." Imagine his surprise when it TOOK THE WHOLE NETWORK DOWN. Yippee-ki-yay-m*therf*cker!