Technical & Technical Support issues

I'm the network admin for a small business. Our uplink to the internet is a DSL line. I was called into the office around 9:00 pm. yesterday evening because the internet link was not working. After going over our net and equipment, and finding no problems. I established a dial up link to our ISP and tried to traceroute back to our DSL link. The problem appeared to be a router on their net. It is now 11:00 pm. as I dial our ISP's tech support #. After jumping through the automated menu's, waiting on hold, then giving our account info to the support guy, I finally explain to him that we have a connectivity issue, that I have spent the last 2 hours checking our net, and that the problem appears to be on their net. Then the fun begins, first "reboot your router", a linux box with 162+ days of uptime. Doesn't fix the problem. Then, "plug a winbox directly into the DSL modem", did I mention the DSL modem is in the back of a locked comms cabinet, that a monkey would have a hard time maneuvering in. Next comes the part were the tech tries to figure out why the winbox has an ip address which was assigned by our dhcp server before it was disconnected from our net and hooked up to the modem. Followed by a check of network properties to make sure it is really getting its ip from dhcp. In the process I have learned that he can't remember "off the top of my head" whether you type cmd or command into the run box to get a DOS prompt, even though I told him the OS version the winbox is running. Next his prowess shines as he suggests the ultimate fix "reboot the winbox". H'mm he likes that procedure. I mentioned he has our account info, right? I am pretty sure it would include the fact that we have a fixed ip address. The winbox, still connected to the DSL modem, has now rebooted, surprise, it can't find a dhcp server and continues using its old dhcp assigned address. Tech boy now suggests that we can try all of this on another box, or he can escalate this to the network support group. Wait a second here. I have just spent 45 minutes on the phone with our ISP's tech support and they don't do network support. Today the internet is working and we recieved a message from tech support which is the funniest thing I have heard in a long time. After work today, I head to the local coffee shop. A lady walks in, orders, and sits at a terminal to use the net for a while. Suddenly, she exclaimes to the barista "How the blank am I supposed to run a business when the internet goes down every time the wind blows over there. Appearantly I am not the only one having technical difficulties with the local ISP.

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