That's not actually a file. Tech Support |
- That's not actually a file.
- It's nice you want to help, but please don't do that
- "I don't know what this person DOES for the company but..."
- "My email never works and you expensive IT guys won't help me!"
- Biomedical technical services, strolling into the sacred area of IT support.
- Better to be a wuss than stand in a puddle of urinal water holding the old power cord of a wet line printer
- I don't know how to do what you do? (what? read?)
- Nice old man has email troubles
| Posted: 26 Nov 2018 06:13 PM PST I run a small internet cafe, and one of the services we provide is printing. Customer brings files in on a USB drive and we'll print them. Pretty basic stuff. [link] [comments]  |
| It's nice you want to help, but please don't do that Posted: 27 Nov 2018 01:27 AM PST I like my users. At least most of them. I also really appreciate when they're trying to help themselves. However sometimes I wish they'd ask first before relaying their "solution" to their peers. We recently upgraded to a new office, and it seems like server side archived mails don't show up when you search for them, only locally cached ones. That's annoying, I get it. Due to the nature of our business our users exchange lots of files with customers. Due to the nature of our users they use email for many of those files even though that's explicitly forbidden. As a result, the average user accumulates about 2-3GB of data per year, give or take a GB. So now that we've set the stage, enter $well_meaning_User (WMU). $WMU has this email problem and desperately needs an old email. He calls me and I log his inquiry to forward it to our mail provider. We also chat a bit about possible causes; now I'm by no means an Exchange admin, but explain there are things like caching, search indexing etc that MIGHT have to do with it. I even show him the option within Outlook to configure caching for your account. $WMU is satisfied for the moment, or so I think; I promise to update him as soon as I have an update, forward everything and forget about it. That was yesterday. Today is a new day. A day that starts with an email from $WMU to me and his whole department (~30 people) where he gleefully announces that he has found a solution to our problem, and a very simple one also. See, all you have to do is activate cache mode and configure it to download each and every email you have ever received since you're with this company! No sweat! Except for our mail server, of course... :( [link] [comments]  |
| "I don't know what this person DOES for the company but..." Posted: 26 Nov 2018 04:25 PM PST It's a long post. TL:DR - Exec gets onboarded with same username based on scripted naming convention and had a 1 appended to the end of it. They wanted it changed, then wanted it to be their first name only (nobody gets that), and at the end of the day they're making an employee of multiple years give up their username and account for them. Whaddup TfTS - had a doozy of a Monday back from Thanksgiving and figured I'd post it. Our other onboarding tech who would have done deployment today had taken the day off and asked me to handle it. First thing, day starts of with a phrase I'd heard recently HR: "So and So Exec is onboarding today. Can you be ready?" Context is, this End User has been in flux since last month. This marks the third time they're "onboarding today". Of course, we're ready as we have been because we have to be. I'm gonna call this user $IVI for shorthand (read: I'm Very Important). I walk into the office to give a white glove onboarding for this person as they've already bucked the whole system $CHUD: "Good Morning $IVI, I'm $CHUD and I'm here to deploy your company equipment to you. How are you doing today?" $IVI: "I'm doin alright I suppose. I'm gonna run to the restroom real quick. Be right back" - handful of minutes elapse - I decide to enter the temp password and user ID and leave the machine prompting for the personal credentials upon their return $IVI: "Alright, sorry about that lets do this" $CHUD: "No problem, go ahead and put in a personal password of your choosing please. Then we can ensure MFA links up and everything is good to go" $IVI: "Hey, weird question (exec smirk). Why is there a 1 at the end of my username?" $CHUD: "Oh, well believe it or not there's someone here that already has your first initial last name. The accounts are generated in this way" $IVI: "Huh.........you don't say...................................." *walked them through MFA setup - advised not to put their iCloud account on the machine as we've seen some users have issues with personal and business credentials. Not to mention that you shouldn't be wheeling and dealing your personal life on a business machine* $IVI: "So you're saying I shouldn't put my iCloud account on here" $CHUD: "Correct, we've had an issue recently where we had to de-sync and remove the account entirely from someones machine and they were unable to utilize the machine over the weekend that this occurred. We can't control those accounts, and it's generally best practice to keep personal accounts separate" $IVI: "Hmmmm............Well what if, like, I made another iCloud account for here?" $CHUD: "We still would have no administrative control over it to help you and I generally would caution against it" $IVI: "Ok, well alrighty then. I just don't want to have to use more than 1 computer for things." - Just internally roll my eyes and keep on keepin on. Our other execs just straight up use personal ones on the network and we're obliged to support it so whatever will be will be. - $CHUD: "Alrighty well we're about done here. You've got your PDF and Office apps goin, online access, and I've walked you through ticketing and printing. Do you have any questions for me while I'm here?" $IVI: "Yeah, well I'm just not sure about this username email thing here. I did some work for $Exec for this company before and they gave me a 'demo' account. Are you sure that's not the one taking up the name?" $CHUD: "Yep, I'm totally sure because I've worked with that user for a decent while now. I'll even show you yours and their AD entries" $IVI: "Oh, well I don't really know what that person does for the company, but I get a lot of emails and people email me a '$IVI@iamaneedyperson.com'." $CHUD: "I'll be honest with you, I can't make the call as to what you're account get changed to as far as naming conventions and standards around here go. However, I will tell you that I've already reached out to my leadership about this and the best way to get this sorted" $CHUD: "I'll have to check" $IVI: "I understand, I'm still just trying to wrap my head around this whole 2 computers thing" So I leave because I've already spent too much time in that office and the white-gloves are starting to chaff. So I get back to my desk and immediately hear the Skype kerplunk. $EA (for $IVI): "Good Morning $CHUD (waits for 3 minutes for my reply to try and play the 'pls halp without ticket' game), so $IVI wants to know if they can use their first name with as the email address and have it changed" $CHUD: "So I told $IVI already that I need to check with $Boss as this isn't just simply a mailbox. There are other things to consider. I'll let you know as soon as I have the info. $EA: "Oh..........ok. Well I let me know what you find out because they're requesting that it be changed to the first name" Closed the computer and started helping other people. My superiors superior (same as from the other post I have on here) comes in hot "Nah, we're not doing that". A glimmer of hope? A sparkle in my eye? Is SOMEONE finally going to go to bat for us and our lead even a tiny tiny bit? Silence on the Western Front. End of day comes about - Lead walks in dejected. $Sup: "So, you know $IVI's request?" $CHUD: "Yeah, don't tell me. They're giving them the first name against what we've even told other execs?" $Sup: "No, they're going to the user with the original screen name who's been here for multiple years and they're gonna make them change." On the way out I hear superiors superior on about how if it happened to them they'd just do it. [link] [comments]  |
| "My email never works and you expensive IT guys won't help me!" Posted: 26 Nov 2018 08:10 AM PST (I originally posted this as a reply to a TFTS thread about "assuming nothing" but was encouraged to repost it as a separate thread so that more people could see it.) In the 90s, I did some IT consulting for companies that supplied parts to the Big 3 auto makers. For one client, we arranged a phone line to be installed in an auto plant, so their (the auto supplier's) reps could use a laptop/modem to dial into their RAS server and check email while they were visiting the factory (these were the days before Internet and VPNs). One day I got a panicked call from a client rep. He was on site at the auto plant and complaining that his email wasn't working. He had me on speakerphone and I could hear that several of the most senior managers (from his company and the auto plant) were with him. In front of all these senior managers, he was protesting that his email never worked when he was on site and that I was never responsive to his requests for support. A senior manager from his company then chirped in about how expensive it was for them to have had the phone line installed etc. etc. etc. Basically, the sky was falling and it was all my fault. (I should point out that this client rep was supposed to be an engineer--at least he claimed that he was. He was responsible for identifying and documenting any technical problems the auto maker might have run into when installing his company's products on the production line, then relaying that info back to his company and facilitating any formal design/specification change approval process. My point is, he was supposed to be a technical guy.) I politely reminded him (more for the benefit of the others in the room with him) that this was the very first time he had reported the issue and began troubleshooting. I wanted to hear the modem sounds. Back then, I could loosely identify certain issues based on the noise of the modem, during the dial out and connection. He didn't know what I was talking about. He told me that the modem wasn't making any noise. I asked if he could at least hear a click (when it was trying to open the line) and he said, "No." I thought that the modem was possibly defective or had corrupted drivers. Those PCMCIA combo modem/NIC cards (I think it was Token Ring) were prone to overheat and failure. But I really wanted to rule out a bad phone cable. I asked, since there were senior engineers and managers from the auto plant in the room with him, if he could borrow a different telephone patch cable for testing. His response was, "What phone cable? Why do I need a phone cable?" Suddenly, I knew the real issue. I said something to the effect of "Per our orientation meeting with you, your laptop has a modem card in it. You need to plug the phone line into it, then run the dialer link on your desktop. Once you are connected, then you can open Outlook." His only response was "What?" Thankfully, I could hear a collective groan from all the other people in the room with him. He definitely didn't understand but knew he looked like a fool to all the important managers in the room with him. He hung up on me and I was never asked about that issue again. I never found out if he ever got it working. TL;DR: Client rep, who was supposed to be technically minded, thought that since we installed an analog phone line at his client's factory, he could just walk in the door, open Outlook and his email would magically appear. Managed to throw himself under the bus when trying to blame me. [link] [comments]  |
| Biomedical technical services, strolling into the sacred area of IT support. Posted: 26 Nov 2018 03:12 PM PST Bit o background OK so my qualifications mostly centre me in repairs of medical equipment, but a lot of this stuff is heading from running on old 80386 processors (yeh in your anaesthetic delivery and EKG analysis devices) to a basic PC module or laptop, so my work load tends to be anything computer related as I got flagged as the one being good at it. It's a hospital, not saying where in Australia. As most of the new equipment comes and goes we end up on remote sites installing new systems that keep track of patients vitals and records all medical events to a server, either industrial or basic pos units from HP you know the retail based computer units, man they can ingest some dust and keep on ticking, but that's not the funny of this tale. As this new installation is heading off, and I am running around like a bluearsed fly helping the reps and their techs getting in and out of secure areas of said hospital, a member of the operating theatre staff keeps peering in my direction (wearing my work uniform, we all have specific shirts for doctors, nurses, and technical staff) as the day draws to an end, we prepare for the ceanup and issue training notices for staff to be educated on the new centralised monitoring. As I head along a nurse member pipes up and asks "know anything about computers?" so NS=nurse ME=me BY=bystander busy at a joining workstation Me, "enough to get a diagnosis of it, why?" NS, "this one won't turn back on" she points to the monitor. Now our it have a habit of only supplying one type of pc these days, little ProDesk 600 G3, always under the monitor stand. Me, problem is obvious, so I mutter hum and go on too look professional, but all I did was gather up the monitor cable, mouse and keyboard and hold them out Me, "mam I can see the issue!" while holding cable ends. NS, excitedly "yes?" Me, "it is evident that the reason the computer is not turning on, is because it's not here!" By, laughing ass off NS, pauses, then laughs Me, "happens to the best of us, but we should track it down" We eventually found it had moved to another office to temporarily replace another burnt out unit, and our IT had been informed. And were attending soon. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Nov 2018 07:24 AM PST I have been asked by /u/thorcik to tell more of my IT nightmares, so here goes. I'm still haunted by this one. Scene: The IT office, next to the servers, in the company basement, a decade or two ago. Me: Slightly alarmed IT guy. Luke: Head of Physical Plant. Took himself waaay too seriously. The creator and rigorous enforcer of the corporate standard height for hanging pictures on a wall. The sort of guy that leaves you mildly surprised when you realize he doesn't bother to put on a reflective vest before taking a dump. Jim: Tech support person with desk closest to mine. Nice guy, with a slight Ned Flanders air to him. Tried to never utter any expletives. The Printer: An old line printer hooked up to an IBM mini. Sadly was rather critical to the company at the time. About the size of a washing machine. Something roughly like this, but more beat up. So I once worked for a company that had been around for many years. Back in the 60s when computers became a thing, they set up their server & IT area in the office basement, where it remained ever since. (My boss at the time could point to a random spots in the asbestos floor tiles, and say, "Ahh, that dent was made by our IBM punched card sorter! Man that thing was heavy. I remember the day we brought that down the staircase in 1969...") What were the problems with having all your expensive equipment, and its operators, in the basement?
All of those are real things we experienced in that place. But this story is about The Printer. My desk was, for some annoying reason, close to that large printer, in a large, mostly open-plan office. One afternoon, I was there hacking on something or other, when I heard it. <tap> ...... <tap tap>..... I am cursed (blessed?) by being easily annoyed by random noise, and this was starting to annoy me. Must... find... source... of... sound... <tap tap>..... <tappity-tap tap> <tip tip tappety tap tap TAP tap TAP TAP tap> Dammit. My concentration was broken. I started looking around. Co-workers are quietly working, or on the phone. Then I saw it. Water dripping on the line printer.
I went over.
At this point, I should explain to you that directly above the printer was a men's room. A men's room which, incidentally, had been experiencing serious issues with the urinal drains which plumbers were supposedly fixing that very hour.
I should note, for the record, that the printer had a lid, and although the viewing window needed a wipe-down, it was STILL PRINTING. Now don't get to thinking it was the Nokia of printers -- the printer service contractor was out so often we knew the names of his kids -- but for some reason, the ONE time you would very much like a printer to fail, it didn't. While Jim went to try to cancel the print job on the IBM system -- not as quick a task as you might think -- it kept on going.
Which I did.
Luke always wanted to be at the center of a disaster, so this was what he lived for. He arrived, wearing his hardhat and wielding a clipboard. He was always prepared for the dangers of -- who knows what, falling keyboards?
The macho play just doesn't work on me. Sometimes it's nice that the dirty thing is someone else's job. And even if the color was rust, the only possible source of a leak at that precise point was the urinal drain pipe. In my book, there's no such thing as a clean urinal drain. And besides, I'd much rather have a power-tripping physical plant boss think I'm a wuss than stand in a puddle of urinal water while messing with the old power cord of a wet line printer.
Luke put on some gloves I hadn't noticed he brought with him. (Who keeps rubber gloves in their desk ready to go at a moment's notice? Luke, apparently.) He unplugged the printer and pushed it to one side a bit. Then disappeared, almost running, back up the stairs. Meanwhile the dripping continued, and was more of a stream by now. It had tripped our water leak detector (we had several of those due to being in a basement), causing a loud alarm. So yes, just to recap: we were in a basement, had a printer covered in urinal (err, RUSTY) water, a growing puddle of water by the printer, and now a loud alarm. The shutoff of which was on the other side of the puddle. They eventually got the leak stopped, Luke came back down, took down the now very soggy ceiling tiles (spilling a yet more "water"), and we now began our sadly well-known procedure of "sweep the water to the sump pump pit" which would, of course, be followed by a few days of loud fans running to dry the place out. Mid-sweep, one of our accountants came down for help, and started talking before she could see the printer area.
She rounded the corner, saw the wet printer and about four guys trying to herd a yellow water puddle to the sump pump pit. We all froze for a second. She took in the scene. Then -
And that, folks, is why, to this day, the sound of dripping water makes me tense. Epilogue: As we were finishing up the water-based adventures for the day, Luke said, "I'll be right back with my tape measure. I noticed that your poster looks an inch or two low on the wall." So yes. Priorities. We may have soaked a printer with urinal water, but at least our posters would be at the right height. [link] [comments]  |
| I don't know how to do what you do? (what? read?) Posted: 26 Nov 2018 09:32 AM PST At my company, I'm the IT Manager, but I don't have a team, so I'm a very well paid, glorified password reset tech. And my predecessor hid what we do from the users so much that they became dependent upon him for every little thing. Seriously, he would change their passwords for them on their computers, their phones, he did everything for them. I don't work that way. My time has value and I will not have it wasted. That said, sometimes I have to help people that are just a little too thick. But it's always in the strangest of places. The assistant who's mom got her a job at the company wants to try to pull weight with me? Yeah, I expect that. But the art department? You would think those guys should have at least a modicum of their shit together. So I'm in the process of getting rid of the role-based accounts and I've taken care of two of the three accounts in the art department. And now it's the third guy's turn and of course it's a challenge. I start by changing his login to his computer and get a little push back in the "wait, I have to do something different?" arena. Two seconds of "Do you know your name? OK, you know your login." Then we go to setup Outlook and he doesn't remember his mail password (I haven't fixed SSO yet ... been dealing with another clusterfuck ... all in good time), so I say "let's reset it."
None of the passwords worked, so I reset his password for him. And I get his Outlook profile setup and on the final screen, this mental midget decides to chime in with
Apparently English comprehension is not his job. If anything's going to make me leave this place, it's going to be people actively refusing to comprehend the English language because technology hard. IT Manager mean man. Edit: why the fuck was I using the royal/symbiote "we"? Edit 2: Fixed the one misspelled word, thanks to /u/Leufkax's ever so astute observation. [link] [comments]  |
| Nice old man has email troubles Posted: 26 Nov 2018 10:31 AM PST A pretty tame tale; one of our retired users emailed us out of nowhere about how he got a new tablet and that he was having trouble connecting to our organization's O365 email:
Of course I respond to him trying to figure out what email client he's using and if it's his organization email. I get this, almost a carbon copy of the last email:
I think I understand the error considering he's made it clear twice. So I decide to clarify, and ask "Are you using Outlook, Gmail, Thunderbird, etc.?" I get this:
I snorted audibly at the thought of this poor old man being unable to discern the difference between the email app he was using and his retirement home's ISP, and at the fact that he was really concerned about that error to the point that he detailed it exactly three times in a row. Long story short, got him to install the Outlook app on his tablet and he got it going, mentioning he was 98 years old as well. What a great guy. [link] [comments]  |
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