Opening a fract T1 for modem access in Linux

[Duane Attaway]

On Fri, 13 Sep 2002, Gerald Combs wrote:

> I've found that SBC more often than not impedes troubleshooting instead of
> facilitating it.  Knowing how the gear and plumbing works lets you cut
> through the line of bull they often feed you.

I work in maintenance, so I may be able to relate to the telephone
company's culture. ALL telephone companies do this.  My experience was 
with BellSouth.
 
They have comfortable secure union jobs (CWA) and may not hackers by
nature.  It would not be in their best interests to stick their necks out
to the customer anytime there is a problem, unless they want to have an
impossible workload or trust you.  The telephone company is carefully
managed to minimize costs.  When they get a call and encounter a smart
customer that may know more than them, experience has shown it might be a
good idea to claim ignorance than fight their own system.  Everyone just
wants to avoid creating new problem tickets and finishing existing work
orders.

Through my problems, I have found many bright folks in the telephone
system, but they will protect themselves from assuming all responsibility.  
The telephone company appears to make maximum profit and the customer
service people will do their best to pass the blame or overload the
technicians.  Once I became familiar with how the system worked, the 
technicians became friends and told me how to work with the system.