Welcome to my blog, Grant! MAC address virtualization is something I might have to check out one day. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t available in the range of routers I buy for home office use, at least as of a couple of years ago.

Regarding your comments about Telus, I’ve often felt the same way when dealing with various technical support services. Actually, what gets me is when I know exactly what I want/need them to do, and yet they still proceed through their “script” of useless questions and ignorant “fixes”.

I can’t really blame the tech support people, though: they are almost exclusively rated on how many calls per hour they close, not on technical depth/expertise. They are generally actively discouraged from getting into more complicated issues. Their TTC (time to close) measures are usually set at under 2 minutes, with 60 calls per hour being a fairly standard target.

Unfortunately, when I call with a problem it is usually something that goes beyond what a normal help desk person can deal with. I know their script well enough that generally I can get them to check off their list without wasting too much time by eliminating all the “complexities” of my more-advanced-than-usual home network. I.e.: disconnect my load balancing dual WAN firewall and connect a PC directly to their modem.

And every once in a while the person on the other end of the line surprises me by solving a problem for me.