Oh the good ole days. Back in the 90's I was working for a capital equipment manufacturer in the semiconductor business. We were networking SUN386i computers using 10Base5(thick net). One morning I receive a frantic call from a customer in Colorado, a very big Semiconductor company. They were going crazy, the system is no longer connected to the network and they had to halt IC chip inspection. I told him the system had been running fine for months did they do anything or move the system. They said no. I asked if they checked to make sure the ethernet cable was plugged in. They said yes, with an I can't believe you even asked me that question, attitude. They demanded I get on a plan and fix the issue. Since they were a very big customer and had a few more machines on order I flew out that evening from New York to Colorado. I showed up to the site bright and early the next morning. They took me to the machine on the production floor. I verified the system wasn't connected to the network. I went right to the back of the system, noticed the network cable we half out. In those days the network cable was held in by a clip. I plugged in the network cable and everything came back up in seconds. I was there for a total of 10 minutes. I turned to the guy who ripped me a new one on the phone and said "All fixed, the network cable was unplugged". He was so embarrassed and just walked off. I worked with the network consultant for a few hours since my flight wasn't until that evening and then took a drive around Colorado.
... View more