Published at LXer:

Back when I worked in the Network Operations department at one of my previous jobs, we used to chuckle when a customer would call us reporting that “the Internet is down.” Now, I realize that there are otherwise intelligent computer users out there who don't understand why that might cause a technician to chuckle, and I'm not trying to make fun of them. But you've got to know that help desks get this type of trouble report more frequently than they should. I've known quite a few hardware technicians or software developers who were very good at what they did, but who didn't have the first clue as to how to diagnose a network problem. To them, the Internet, and networking in general, was just “Pure Freaking Magic”. Actually, it is magic, but it's not a magic that we can't learn to troubleshoot. So, let's begin.

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