If you don't have it backed up... Make sure you're ok with losing it all. Tech Support |
- If you don't have it backed up... Make sure you're ok with losing it all.
- "Did you hit send?"
- Tales from Aircraft Maintenance: The End of an Era
- The satellite has fallen out of orbit.
- Click on the Waffle Menu please
- I bet I've done something really stupid...
- A tale of cell signal and breaker panels
- They can't even reboot them now.
- What's the world record for losing phone chargers?
- Social engineering doesn't have to be part of the plan
- When Authentication Services Attack, or, What's My Password?
| If you don't have it backed up... Make sure you're ok with losing it all. Posted: 02 Jul 2018 08:10 PM PDT Hi my fellow TFTS'ers, This is my story of the time I saved almost 10 years of a family's life. I know there are plenty of hero data recovery stories already but this one is all mine and I'm proud of it. For some backstory, I currently work as a "Jack of all trades, Master of none" tech at a small local IT/Telco Business. We do anything and everything IT/Telco related, from pc servicing and building to Internet plans install and setup. We service many local businesses and residential clients. We are always getting new things to do and learning all the time. I love it and as a 26yr old I'm learning new stuff every day! A regular of ours came into the shop asking for one of our senior guys. She was in tears and we all came out to see what was wrong. It turns out that their families external HDD was dropped and was completely dead. Like dead-dead. It dawned on us what was coming. She explained that they had lost over 12+ years of family photos and videos… Jesus… 12+ years of baby photos all the way to tweenagers for their 2 kids, grandparents who were no longer with us, beloved family pets no longer with us… it was pretty awful. We didn't have the kit in store to attempt a recovery like that. So, we had it shipped off to a trusted dedicated recovery company to give it a shot. Unfortunately, that drive was donezo. We broken the news to the couple and they we understandably distraught. As I had taken over dealing with them I suggested a few things. $ME: Do you have any other external drives or USBs lying around that you may have saved stuff to. $Customer: *Sobs* No nothing $ME: What about CDs/DVDs? $Customer: No $ME: "aww jeeeez rick"… Hmmm how about old laptops or PCs? We built you a new machine last year, didn't we? $Customer: Oh yeah, we have 2 old laptops in the shed but they're dead too. $ME: Sweet, it's a long shot but bring them in and I'll have a look. The customer brought in the laptops the same day and I spent the afternoon taking them apart and retrieving the 2.5" drives. BOOM! Sure enough, the 2nd laptop had a working drive (barely. It was making some odd noises). I wasted no time cloning the drive to a new drive and started sifting through all the data… It's all there… well most of it. Scattered in random folders in Documents/Pictures/Desktop and a storage partition. The pictures went back to about 2008 and the latest we had was 2017. I organized it all onto 1 folder and backed it up in their client file on our server. We made the call as a group announcing the good news. It was the best feeling. They purchased 2 new external drives from us and we loaded on all their organized data free of charge. (only charged for the drives). After all that they got back about 60%-70% of the total lost data, but all the important sentimental stuff was there, and they couldn't be happier. I have more stories from my relatively short time in professional IT and Telco that I'll get around to posting as well 😊. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2018 08:46 PM PDT So this is a story from back when I was working customer support with $mobilephonecompany. I was fresh from the tech training only have been on the floor for a few weeks. It was a while back when I worked there and to date me the iphone 3G was still relevant back then. $Me-Me So I get a call from $SL about her new cell phone(flip phone) not being able to make calls. No problem. Happens all the time. So i go through the troubleshooting tree (think google but with drop down menus for options). Made sure everything was set up right with her account. Even clicked the magical button that was supposed to fix everything(they never told me what it actually does. just that they had to turn off their phone for it). It was looking like i'd have to transfer to T2. I didn't want to transfer to T2 bc they where known to be jerks and being pretty new they would usually try to rake me over the coals for the littlest things. So i decide to have her try one more time. $Me:'I want you to go ahead and try making a call." $SL:"Okay" *hearing numbers beep.* $SL:"Still not ringing out." *great. i'm going to have to transfer to T2. Thinks for a minute. Maybe* $Me:"Did you hit send?" $SL:"Whats send?" *Bingo* $Me:"Let's try this again but after you dial the number hit the little green button under the screen." *customer tries again and this time it is successful.* $SL:"i've never had to do that with my landline" *trying to word this so i didn't sound like a jerk* $Me:"yeah. sadly with cell phones you do. i still forget to hit send sometimes too" She was the sweetest during the call and patience but new technology just confused her a little bit. I did facepalm for not thinking about that earlier. [link] [comments]  |
| Tales from Aircraft Maintenance: The End of an Era Posted: 02 Jul 2018 07:42 AM PDT Many years ago, I was an Air Force avionics technician. I had some very interesting experiences while in uniform, some of them I can even share with all of you. This story is of the day that was the beginning of the end of my Air Force career. As mentioned in this story, I was injured on the job which resulted in my permanent transition into civilian life and a much better life (it took a while to get here too) as an IT guy. It was an oppressively hot day (triple digits hot) on the flight line of $deployedlocation, otherwise known as a normal day at $deployedlocation. I had returned to working on jets just days before and was longing for my semi-comfortable previous job running comms at our command post. The days were shorter and didn't require me to bake in the direct sun or worse in the large and even hotter aluminum cylinders known as C-17's. I was "lucky" this day, I was working night shift. I am always happier at night. It's not so bright out, nor does everything metal require thick leather gloves to be touched. Shift begins and I grab my tool kit and other equipment and head out to the ramp for the first of three landers I will be working that night. I perform all my checks on the generator and AC unit for the jet and do my FOD walk. Once the prep is done, I sit on the Hobart and definitely did not take a nap for about 30 minutes while waiting for my jet. My radio goes off, announcing "my jet" is on approach as is another jet that is declaring some kind of issue, effectively this call amounts to one step shy of an inflight emergency (IFE). With this call, the fire department and medical are soon standing by just in case. The pilot was vague in his call out. Fast forward about 15 minutes, my jet is on the ground, parked in its spot and ready to be serviced. I get to work. The first task is to make sure nothing fell off in flight or looks like it will next time it flies. As I am performing my task, I notice the "follow me" car leading the IFE jet into a spot next to mine. I also notice that there is a generator sitting there right about where the inboard engine (#3) would hit it. The driver of the follow me does not see me waving like a crazy person or the generators. Bad things are about to happen. I turn on my marshalling wands and signal the pilot to spot, the jet continues to taxi towards the Hobart. About 100 yards to go. After I realize that the jet isn't going to stop, I run as fast as I could to move the power cart. Of course this is one of the Hobarts with stuck brakes (about half were stuck). I put my back into it (literally) and push this thing out of the way. Completely out of breath from pushing the cart, I collapse on the ground in time to watch the nonresponsive jet taxi past. Moments later, my adrenaline wears off and I feel immense pain in my abdomen. I proceed to collapse on the ground and curl into a ball hoping for a quick death, just to make this pain stop. I was found a few hours later next to that power cart when shift change occurred. After my coworkers were done giving me sh- a hard time for laying around all shift, I am loaded on to that very same jet that had just taxi'd in. It was a medevac mission on its way back to the states and I was on it. Within 8 weeks, I had my hernia surgery and was back to work. Day 3 back at work, I push another power cart and get another hernia in the same spot, nearly the exact same way. I found out later that the doc who did my first surgery was lazy and went in the easy way. Surgery two, the doc did it right, but it was too late. Permanent nerve damage. I haven't worked on a jet since that day. Note: This is not the last of the Tales From Aircraft Maintenance story. I had eluded to this event in my last story and got a few requests for this in comments and DM. [link] [comments]  |
| The satellite has fallen out of orbit. Posted: 03 Jul 2018 02:32 AM PDT Just browsing this sub. It reminded of something that occurred when I was about a month into my first ever IT job (or any serious job for that matter) at the turn of the millennium on my placement year at university. I was the sole member of the IT department. The internet went off. In a casual conversation with a user (who I got on with), they asked me what happened. I said the satellite fell out of orbit and its real trouble. I did not expect anyone to take this seriously. A few hours later (or however, long it was), when checking my email, I had an email from the CEO (it wasn't a huge company) with all senior managers copied in saying they had heard about the satellite and were very concerned what this meant for our external data and wanted to know what I was doing about it. I had absolutely no idea how to respond, I was fresh as a puppy. I went to his office and explained it was just a passing joke and the problem wasn't really that big of a deal. Fortunately, he saw the funny side and that was the end of it (at least that was the guise he portrayed anyways). I don't think I have made a joke about a problem since. [link] [comments]  |
| Click on the Waffle Menu please Posted: 02 Jul 2018 06:49 PM PDT While troubleshooting, I told a user on the phone just now to click on the "Waffle Menu" at the top of the screen and said "It's the square of 9 smaller squares" because most laypeople don't know what a "Waffle Menu" is. Then I heard her count, out loud, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ok I found it!" Beaming proudly through the phone. After listing her symptoms for the second time, I told her exactly what her issue was and that I was going to create a ticket to have our next level support fix the issue on the back end of things. She said "OK" and then told me what her issue was again. Rinse and repeat 2 more times. Every time she would always end her phrases like she was rehearsing to play the part of a entitled middle aged mom at a retail store: "Yeah so this is something that really needs to be fixed...I don't know what's causing it but I really just want to be able to see my email again and yeahh I really need this to be fixed..." [link] [comments]  |
| I bet I've done something really stupid... Posted: 02 Jul 2018 01:27 PM PDT My work has just gone through a hardware refresh. The higher up people got laptops that connected to a docking station, which had two screens. We've never supplied laptops to anyone, so it's a big learning curve for the end user. A week in, my phone rings early into my shift. I was half way through an existing ticket so I couldn't answer it . My existing ticket was moving people between desks, and this involved me going out into userland. As I went up the stairs, the user caught me on the stairs (our marketing manager, henceforth she will be called $MM $MM: Hey, I'm having problems with my laptop. I've turned it on, plugged it in and nothing comes up $me: Hey! I'm halfway though a job so I'll be ten minutes? $mm: ok, see you then I finished my job quickly to be able to see MM, and I walk into her office. $MM: hi! I'm not used to these laptops but I think I did it right! It's in but it's not working! I bet I've done something stupid! -at this point she continues talking about the issue in detail. While she is talking I pick up the laptop, open it and press the power button. It whirs and starts up. I connect it to the docking station. The monitors then show the login screen. She stops talking and looks at me in wonderment- $MM: how did you do that! $me: I turned it on.... $mm: see, I told you i did something stupid! One of the more wholesome problems I fixed [link] [comments]  |
| A tale of cell signal and breaker panels Posted: 02 Jul 2018 03:30 PM PDT Long time lurker, not quite first time poster (I have like two or three stories here, but they're very old). This is a short one that goes back around a year or two and of which I was reminded of by a friend's misadventure. It is not technically tech support, although I ended up solving a weird problem that affected quite a few users, none the least myself. I'm a CompSci student, hoping to someday become a sysadmin or DevOps dude. I'm also in dire need of a job, since literally everything available in my region is outside of my skillset (I'm not good at front-end development). Basically, my whole building knows that if a computer needs to be fixed, my door is one to be knocked on, mostly because I don't leave that often. One day, I am interrupted from A few hours later, a different person knocks on my door. This one I know, though, but he has the same issue, no cell reception. I give him the same answer and send him on his way. Half an hour later, another tenant. Then another one. Then someone from the building across the street from mine. All receive the same answer from me. At this point, I (FINALLY) check my phone; no signal either. I figure that it can't be tower related, as we have coverage from at least two towers (at the time, I think there are four nowadays), but, unable to do anything about it, decide to call my phone service provider the next day from school. Later that day/evening, the power to the entire building is cut. A quick glance out the window reveals that it's not a blackout, every building in the street has power except mine. I go down to the basement to check on the panel, and find... nothing. The breaker flipped for apparently no reason. I flip it back on, and go back to I make my way downstairs, but again, nothing strange about the breaker. Except that it was off of course. I turn it on, then decide to stay for a bit, see what happens. Five minutes later, one of my neighbors (different than all the previous ones) shows up, intent on turning the breaker off. What follows is a bit fuzzy in my head (you will understand why in a minute), but basically, he explained to me that he needed to turn off the electricity to prevent the government from spying on him through the magnets they hid in his walls. Or in other words: my neighbor went insane. I just nodded along, feigning understanding his ranting, and let him cut the power. I then went out for a smoke, far enough as to get cell signal to call the cops. An hour later, they show up, and promptly escort him to an ambulance. Then one of the cops comes to speak to me.
It wasn't. The insane neighbor made at least two of them, one of which he somehow hooked up to the closer of the (then-)two cell towers, and it definitely looks like he was going for the second. I'm not sure of what happened to him after that... tl;dr: Insane neighbor thinks the governement is spying on him with wall magnets (?!). Decides the most logical course of action is to jam cell signal and cut power to the entire building. Gets thrown in the slammer by proxy of pissed CompSci student in need of Twitch. [link] [comments]  |
| They can't even reboot them now. Posted: 02 Jul 2018 11:14 AM PDT Hello TFTS, A little story that happened today, you will see that the issue is quite simple in itself, but the real problem is coming here from a specific user, who I've already talked about in other stories (like this one) It was near 04:00 PM now and I was ready to take my fifteen minutes break of the afternoon, since we work in a "IT Kiosk" system (though we are in an open space... I know, it makes sense), one of us must always be here on site or take a company cellphone we have here and put a forward from the phone line of the IT support to the cellphone. So taking the cellphone and heading to the cafeteria, I'd just pressed the button for the coffee on the machine when the cellphone started to ring.
So, heading back to our "kiosk", $User finally appears fifteen minutes later with the laptop. I can see that the laptop is powered on, but there is indeed no display on the screen.
If users can't even reboot their laptops now, may Roy and Moss help us. TL;DR => User calls in about her laptop, saying her screen is broken and that it remains entirely black all the time. She claims she already rebooted it many times, and after she came to our IT kiosk, I fixed the issue by a simple reboot of the laptop. [link] [comments]  |
| What's the world record for losing phone chargers? Posted: 02 Jul 2018 10:20 AM PDT When people come to me because they need a phone charger, I just give one. They don't have to return it, no paperwork whatsoever. The CEO ($boss) loses his charger very often, so I always give him 3 chargers at once, just to prevent him from returning every other week. This afternoon, $boss comes into my office: $boss: Do you have any chargers left? $me: Maybe a couple. Why? $boss: I lost mine. Can I have them? $me: I just gave you 5 chargers a few hours ago. $boss: Yeah... I lost them. I thought he put them in a bag and lost the bag or something. That can happen, so I reach to a drawer under my desk. At this point I realize I also gave him a total of 13 chargers last week. I do not open the drawer and ask what happened to those 13 chargers. $boss: Yeah... I lost them. At this point $boss opens my drawer himself, takes out the last chargers and leaves. Fifteen minutes later he messages me. $boss: I went looking for the chargers you gave me a couple of hours ago. $me: And, did you find them? $boss: I found two. At first I was happy that he found the chargers. Then I realized he didn't lose all 5 chargers at the same time. [link] [comments]  |
| Social engineering doesn't have to be part of the plan Posted: 02 Jul 2018 12:43 PM PDT Just got a job at an MSP and one thing we do is redistribute and maintain antivirus software from $AVCorp. Boss asks me over lunch if I can find some kind of active monitoring portal/alerts page we can put on a screen in the main office. Here are your main characters: $JrTech=Me $SrTech=My boss $SG=Support Guy $AM=Account Manger $GK=Gatekeeper, giver of access to control clients $AVCorp subscription. The story begins when I go to the website, and see the support chat Me: Hi, do you have some kind of active monitoring portal that redistributors of $AVCorp can use? $SG: Yes, are you a partner? I go and ask $SrTech, he says yes Me: Yes, we are partners $SG: Excellent, please email $AM I open my email, and send an email to $AM: I'm a new tech at $MSP, and I've been tasked with investigating if we have a page to actively monitor all our clients that we've sold $AVCorp monitoring services to. I can confirm that we have clients, and can update the security rules for different clients. If a monitoring page is available, how can I access it? Thank you, $JrTech 30 minutes, and I get a response. Nice. Hey $JrTech, You just need portal access. I have requested this for you! -$AM My response: I don't believe I'm supposed to have access, I've just been sent to find out how to access it for more $SrTech Our wonderful account manager has decided now is the time to escalate, and CCs in $GK. $AM: $GK, is $JrTech all set right? $GK: I have given $JrTech access, yes. I don't even want this kind of access, but it's been given to me. [link] [comments]  |
| When Authentication Services Attack, or, What's My Password? Posted: 02 Jul 2018 10:13 AM PDT My environment is a mix-mash of aging crap that was set up wrong 10 years ago, aging crap that was set up wrong 5 years ago, and new crap that I set up (mostly) correctly. The REALLY old stuff has no concept of centralized account/password management. The old stuff is linked to AD for non-prod, but not for prod because my predecessors had NO idea how any of it works, and thought that they had to put servers in a different domain to get them to authenticate against AD in that domain. As a result, all of the really old stuff, as well as the old prod servers have individual accounts and passwords on them. If you login to one of those and change your password, it ONLY gets changed for THAT system. I built out a new dev, test, and QA environment for one of the dev teams. Due to a typo in the server template, /tmp got the wrong permissions. Now, when you login with AD, the kerberos portion creates a credentials cache file for you in /tmp where it keeps your ticket. With the bad permissions on /tmp, nobody but the superuser could create that file...so nobody but me could login. It took me less than 15 minutes to find and identify the problem, and 15 seconds to fix it. OPS opens a ticket stating that he can't login. My first thought is, "Did I miss one of the servers?" I check, and no, /tmp looks ok. I start checking logs...sometimes sssd will try and talk to the wrong AD server, but that's been mostly fixed, too. The logs report that the password is wrong. I tell him that he probably fat-fingered his password. *"What password should I type?"* Dude. Contrary to what the TV shows would have you believe, the SysAdmin has NO idea what your password is. "Uhhh...your AD password." *"Which AD password?"* Now, to be fair, this is a valid question. My domain is separate from the corporate domain. But we've NEVER used corporate domain accounts to login. OPS knows this, though. Right? I ask when the last time he logged in to a domain-connected system was...he doesn't know what I mean. I figure I'll save some time and just reset his domain password. He's now able to login, is forced to change his password, and all is good. ...for about an hour. *"I can't login to $OLD_PROD_SERVER"* "What's your local password on that system?" *"Same password I just set."* "Well, there's your problem. This server is local authentication only. It doesn't talk to Active Directory. You need to type in your local password." *"What's my local password?"* Dude, are you freaking serious? "I don't know your password. When was the last time you logged in to this server?" *"Yesterday. My password expired and I had to change it."* And like that, the lightbulb goes off. He changed his password on a standalone system, then tried to login with AD to a new server with the new password...that AD knows nothing about. "Use the password you set this one to yesterday." *"I don't remember."* I reset his password and add this server to the list of systems that need to be scrapped and redeployed with AD integration set up properly. [link] [comments]  |
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