UCI Housing Network and Cable TV Issues

Earlier today, I received an email from a fellow graduate student who has suffered through being disconnected from the network for days only because he followed Resnet's instructions.
It also shows the dismal and absolutely unacceptable level of customer service that Resnet displays. It can only be called disservice... It is always the user's fault, never Resnet's. Up to this day, Resnet has not even found it necessary to acknowledge that their braindead instructions are the only thing to blame. Instead, they whine about not having enough funding"... If they hadn't gone on the idiotic path of buying CCA, a completely broken product from Cisco, they would have had more than enough money to provide a decent networking environment.
Some highlights from the email, with some comments interspersed:

In the midst of preparing lectures and completing vital work over the weekend, I was shut down without being informed and spent many hours trying to figure out why before finally realizing it was done from your end.
...
The fact is, I called resnet myself immediately on Saturday night when Cisco Clean Access was first installed because I knew there were configuration problems that were not being addressed in the limited directions from the Cisco Clean Access web site. How come I was not helped first? I feel like I am paying a huge price and being swept under the rug just so resnet doesn't have to deal with more calls for the next five days.

I was told by the student that "routers aren't allowed on the network and haven't been for several years." This is absurd for a number of reasons, most notably the fact that he had just shown me resnet's web instructions for how to configure routers. Why would you have a website giving us directions on how to configure routers if they are not allowed? When prompted, the student did not appear to understand this question.

Obviously, Resnet knows that wireless routers are a fact of modern life. Plain wireless access points can't even be found anymore in local computer stores. The only reason to keep this "policy" of not allowing routers is that if somebody complains, they can deflect blame and avoid dealing with it by pointing to the "policy." In fact, when complaining to Manuel Gomez, Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs, about how badly Resnet is run, and in particular about the braindead router instructions, he explicitly pointed to the policy to avoid having to deal with the issue.

I do not appreciate being told that it is "my fault" that I have been kicked off the network because my router was configured "wrong." It seems to me that it is resnet's fault for not providing enough instruction and not preparing for this issue before the massive installation of Cisco Clean Access.

In fact, immediately after activating CCA, Kevin Ansel, the IT director, went on vacation...
So, their modus vivendi is: force some flawed product on the students, and then vanish for some time, hoping that the fire is out upon return...
Kevin Ansel pulled the same stunt after wrestling cable TV from the professionals (Cox Communications) who were running it without problems, and these amateurs then ran it completely to the ground.

At this point, Resnet told me to disable DHCP, unplug from the WAN port and make my router "just an access point." A few weeks later, I was once again shut down without notice. (I believe now that a power outage, a frequent occurrence in Verano, perhaps reset the router?)

That's a very good point, that we "in the know" didn't even consider, since we didn't follow the Resnet router "instructions" in the first place. The settings are supposed to be stored in flash memory, but that may not have worked properly, or spikes on the power line may have reset the router into the default state. And with Resnet's flawed "instructions," this would of course mean that all of a sudden, the router's internal DHCP server would be on the network.

He then mentioned that he "was not supposed to tell me this," but the policy had changed and now I should be able to use the router normally by plugging into the WAN port and enabling DHCP.

This tops it all. They change the policy, but the people working for Resnet are not supposed to inform people???
In fact, up to this day, Resnet has not officially informed people that the router policy has changed.
When they introduced CCA, they sent out an email pushing their braindead instructions, but when they changed their router policy, they preferred to not tell anybody. Yet another example of their complete disregard for their customers!

I explained my frustration at the "three strikes" rule and how I believed it was not fair considering resnet was changing policies on the fly, and none of the first two blockages were my fault. I then told him that I could run back to Verano place in 15 minutes, plug the router in as he advised and be ready for the service to be turned back on. He agreed, and I turned back from my appointments on campus and rushed home. 1.5 hours later my port was still shut off. Of course, not being able to call Resnet without getting a machine I stormed back to their office where I found the student gone and two completely new individuals on duty. I told them the story and they asked who it was who told me to hurry home. When I described the student they laughed to each other and told me I would be activated within a few hours. They then had the audacity to once again warn me that I was using the router "at my own risk," and that a third violation would result in me being permanently shut off the network.
Outrage ensued.

In 2004, I and several other people had multiple heated exchanges with the student workers at Resnet. They were completely unhelpful and arrogant. After complaining to Ted Roberge, we were told that they had hired new people and had given them training in customer relations. Apparently, these guys have fallen back to the old ways, misleading and insulting their customers. With such behavior, a commercial ISP would long have gone bankrupt.

The email I got ends with the only response the person ever got from Resnet, presumably from Ted Roberge, the manager, which shows nicely the hypocrisy of Resnet: First telling people to misconfigure routers, and then complaining about the "high number of misconfigured routers," which is a direct result of their braindead instructions, and further, denying any responsibility by pointing to a policy that for ages has been ignored by Resnet and even implicitly invalidated by them having router installation instructions, as flawed as they were. Given that, this "policy" isn't worth the paper it is printed on, except to deflect blame.

Due the appallingly high number of misconfigured routers creating disruptions, we can no longer even endorse Routers. Our policy specifically states that Routers are not allowed on this network. Any Rogue Router disconnected for a second time will result in a permanent ban on the port, please take note of this. Please be advised the use of Routers are at the resident's own risk.

I once again want to thank the resident for sharing this experience. I personally get somewhat "special" service with Resnet, since my name is known there, and I have enough expertise to call their BS.
And a general suggestion: Always ask to talk to Ted Roberge, the Resnet manager. The students working at Resnet are for the most part clueless, in particular regarding the needs of graduate students (no wonder, they are undergrads who don't know anything about graduate students.) They apparently can't fathom that we need the network for our work, and not for playing games or downloading music.
On a technical level, the student workers of course get indoctrinated to push the Resnet policy of the day, no matter how braindead that policy is. If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny to see them defend a policy that anybody with a computer science education can rip apart in a minute...