Root Cause Analysis

Today I went to the endodontist to get a root canal. As he was about to give me a numbing shot, he found out that the “internet was down”.

Dentist: “I can’t do anything until the internet is back up.”

So, I am patiently waiting for them to resolve the issue. I could hear they were trying to talk with IT support.

After some time, I told the dentist:

Me: “I am a software engineer. Perhaps I can help?”

Dentist: “Sure!”

He shows me the server where he stores patient data. He had three patient rooms with computers connecting to this server.

The internet wasn’t really down. The clients just weren’t able to connect to the server. He allowed me to touch the computers. I checked and was able to successfully ping the server from the client computers. So, what’s going on?

I watched the IT person remotely try to use the software. I notice they are trying to connect to it using a domain name. I checked, is the domain pointing to the right IP? No, it isn’t! I get the software to connect to the IP. This works!

The doctor happily thanks me and gives me the numbing shot. Then, a minute later, the software stops using the IP. Something in it remembered the old server name. They went back to their IT guy, trying to fix it.

With my numbed mouth, I went ahead and just updated the hosts file on all the computers to point the domain to the IP number. This worked. They did the root canal.

The dentist thanked me:

Dentist: “I was going to have to close for the day if not for you.”

They didn’t charge me the $250 copay for the root canal!

I left a note for the IT guy who was supposed to come the next day, about what I did, and my suggestions about what he should do next.

Wish every issue in life were this simple to resolve!