Christmas in Vienna
As the very first year of our company drew to a close, we were all looking forward to the company Christmas party we were organising for ourselves.
Christmas Eve was just three days away and we were happily lugging around various tables, decorations, etc. And then Natascha dropped a bombshell: EMERGENCY!
Golden Telecom had sold Lukoil a connection to Vienna and despite all the efforts expended, it didn’t seem possible to connect it to the Cisco router. A disaster for the Lukoil executives who wanted to celebrate Christmas with their families in Russia by video.
Matthias and Christoph took one look at each other and exclaimed: Well then, it’s off to Vienna! We packed our Citröen station wagon (which we facetiously refer to as our “sedan”) to the brim with tools, cables and testing equipment and drove through the night to Vienna until we arrived – rather wearied – at a building of opulent marble splendour.
We checked in with the receptionist and asked where the line was (terminated by Colt).
And got quite a surly response in return: “That’s obviously our problem.” But if we wanted some coffee, we could help ourselves in the kitchen. She then turned on her heels and disappeared.
Coffee, good idea! We went into the kitchen, feeling a little helpless as we looked around for cups. And then we opened up a cupboard to find a telephone system. And would you look over there – the termination of the Colt line. Perfect!
The “server room” was also just as “easy” to find. Although it was about 50 meters from the kitchen (and the termination) and separated by a massive amount of the finest marble and parquet flooring.
How to make the connection? We began to get the feeling that this was probably the reason why the local technicians simply gave up. Oh, dear… well, let’s down some coffee first. And take a closer look at the cupboard housing the telecommunication system. There has to be some cables in there, right?
Okay, there are some but, of course, not labelled. So, let’s test them! To get a proper loop, we run our Cat 5 cable out through the hallways and offices to the server room.
Now “Madam Receptionist” appears again out of the blue: “I trust that’s not going to stay that way with the cables on the floor, is it?!”
I briefly debated whether I could jokingly answer “Yes, it is” – but then decide to put her mind at rest that the cables were only temporary.
After we finally found the connection came the “marriage of the systems”. Matthias got to work on the configuration and with assistance from Russia, the Cisco finally went live.
Apart from a Sacher torte or two to take back with us, we now wanted nothing more than to get back home. Which meant driving through the night again so as to be right on time for NewTelco’s very first Christmas party.
Finally – Merry Christmas!