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The original was posted on /r/talesfromtechsupport by /u/timurleng on 2025-06-16 16:14:28+00:00.
Back in my MSP days, I supported a client that was in the building next to our office. They had outgrown their original office space, and were unable to get any more space in the building they were in, so they had rented some space in the building across the street.
Rather than pay for another internet connection and router + VPN to join the networks, we had set them up with a point-to-point wireless bridge to provide connectivity between the offices. It wasn’t great, but it was serviceable enough for their needs, and more importantly, fit into their limited (nonprofit) budget.
One day, we got a call from them saying that the network was down at the secondary office. They still had WiFi, but no connection to the internet or network drives at the main office. I went over and did some initial troubleshooting at both locations, and all the network gear seemed fine and was responding to ping except for the wireless antenna at the main office. I hadn’t been the one to install this, and wasn’t actually sure where it was, so I went and talked to the network engineer who had set it up.
He took me outside and we looked up at the roof of the client’s main office. He pointed at an antenna up there and said,
“That’s not our antenna. Let’s go see what’s happening.”
We go into the client’s building, and ask the building’s receptionist if they know about anyone having any network maintenance done. We get told that one of the local wireless ISPs is up on the roof doing some work. We get roof access, and sure enough, find an ISP tech hooking up a new antenna onto the bracket we had used to install our client’s wireless bridge, with our antenna laying sadly on the ground.
After a brief conversation, he apologized and said he had asked the building manager if our client’s antenna was being used for anything, or if he could take it down and reuse the mounting hardware. Apparently, the building manager didn’t know what it was, but told him that no, it wasn’t in use, but sure, go right ahead and take it down!
We nicely asked him to put our shit back, and install his own damn bracket, which he kindly did.