User provides no details in ticket, insists on a phone call, gives up when I refuse. Tech Support |
- User provides no details in ticket, insists on a phone call, gives up when I refuse.
- "User" said it wasn't the fiber. They were wrong.
- Remote access while PC isn't booting?
- Where's that license?
| User provides no details in ticket, insists on a phone call, gives up when I refuse. Posted: 01 Mar 2019 02:53 PM PST I work as a specialized sysadmin at a medical school. This means I'm the only support person for a particular system. I don't mind that, but to keep from getting overwhelmed during the busy seasons, I have a personal policy that the user needs to make a good faith effort to resolve issues via the ticketing system before I make a phone call (except for emergencies). I enforce this policy year-round so that people are used to it. It works well because 99% of the questions can be answered with one sentence and a link to the relevant user-facing literature. But some people just don't get it. Today, a ticket comes in from a professor, with the subject: No message body, no other useful information. Keep in mind that {Task X} is a simple task (three clicks) with clear instructions available. The following exchange happens almost verbatim.
So at this point, I'm like...okay, I guess she needs the instructions.
Normally at this point I'd give her a call, but she's given me ZERO information in the ticket and I can't set the precedent of responding to that.
*Groan.*
*LOL?* If she'd given me any details whatsoever, I would have gladly given her a phone call, but apparently our ticketing system is too scary. Here's hoping I don't get an angry message from the Dean saying "Why didn't you help her?!" EDIT: Formatting. [link] [comments]  |
| "User" said it wasn't the fiber. They were wrong. Posted: 01 Mar 2019 09:42 PM PST Hey y'all. Back with another semi-riveting story about tech support in the DoD. The cast, in no significant order:
Last Thursday, I took a call from one of our "users," Point A POC. I have user in quotes because our users are normally pretty good about knowing what they are talking about as they are all supposed to be skilled in network technology. Some are more than others, and then there are those who might be better suited to cleaning the track ball on a laser mouse. Moving on, Point A POC explained that they are having an issue between point A and point B. Point B had recently moved their comm equipment to a new location, 15 meters away. This entailed that they needed to run new fiber from their building demarc to the new location. This fiber was apparently run by personnel on the installation who may have had an idea what they were doing. I'm pretty sure they didn't. Point A POC conferences in Point B POC and I get to hear the problem rehashed all over again. Pretty much everything lined up with what I was initially told. Now, to clarify the extent of our support. My crew and I manage the path that our fiber technology utilizes. Once the signal goes from our MSPP to your router, we're pretty much done. If you're still off the network after we've confirmed that the path is good, then we've done a good job isolating the issue to your end (any commo guys here would know that we ALWAYS blame the distant end). And this was such the case. We could see our circuit down, but a quick check of the path revealed that the errors were definitely coming from Point B. I put up a loop-back test and could get Point A to green up, so they were conclusively ruled out. I put up a loop-back facing Point B and... Nothing. Point B POC used this time to pick my brain for what possible issues it could be. Stirring what few brain cells I've left, I deduced that the most likely cause was something physical layer (that's layer 1 of the OSI model for those still studying). I advised him to check each and every fiber pairing, making sure that each pair was A-B/B-A (A/B polarity) and that none of the connections were straight through. Left the loop-back test in place so that they could see their connections green up when they were successful. The next day, they were still not successful. My young colleague who makes me feel old each day (he just turned 26 not too long ago), ended up fielding another call from Point B POC. Point B POC insisted that there were no changes made to the equipment for close to an hour. Near the end of my coworker's rope on this call, it was discovered that there was a minor configuration done on their router (moved the circuit from one port to another). They had tried their fiber connections in both port, but still couldn't establish a connection. By this point, Government Worker Drone 42 was done with this call, whether Point B POC knew it or not. I offered to take the call to give him a break; he's not quite used to /headdesking yet. Queue me. I get on the call, which ended up getting Point A POC conferenced in again. Another rehashing of where we are at. It was announced that the cable installers went through their work and confirmed everything was good. Why he went back to the cable installers instead of having him and his crew verify is all beyond me. While the two POC's were talking back and forth, I got Government Worker Drone 65 on IM and asked him to do a soft reset of the network card on our equipment, just in the odd hope that maybe, just maybe, that might fix the issue. Ha! It did not. I got Point B POC to put his own loop-back tester on the line facing towards Point A from their building demarc. Point A greened right up. He put his loop-back tester facing his equipment, and got it to green up as well. By this point, I am extremely confident that it is their fiber, but the half-baked potato keeps insisting it's not. He hasn't been able to provide any evidence that it isn't, especially since the fiber installers didn't seem to leave any documentation showing that the new fiber was certified good! Now, to expand just a little bit on the layout of Point B. Our network equipment is housed in a different building than the one Point B POC is calling from. The fact that his loop-back tester managed to green up Point A with this layout was the icing on the cake that I needed. We had even had Point B POC move his equipment to their old location to see if they could restore connection. No joy there either. I did some digging on my back end and couldn't find any documentation to show that this move was coordinated with my group. I wasn't sure if that was a big thing or not, but since our project has high visibility with the Secretary Of Defense, it would seem to me that they would at least include us on that. An idea comes from Government Worker Drone 65 to have Point B POC put a loop-back on our equipment in the other building. Unfortunately, that building isn't open 24 hours, so they'd have to wait until the following Monday to test that theory. Personally, I didn't see a reason for the test; we'd already proved that we could green up Point A from the building demarc in Point B. Throughout all of this troubleshooting, Point B POC was pretty confident that the issue wasn't with their brand new fiber. Having been a network tech for half of my career, I was pretty damned certain it was, but I didn't press the issue. I figured we'd take this one step at a time. Fortunately for me, the end of this second call pretty much signaled my weekend for me. I didn't think we'd be revisiting this issue until Monday, and even then, that it'd probably be the day shift that would handle it. Sunday rolls around and I get a Bookface message from Government Worker Drone 42. I could almost hear how giddy he was through his text! Turns out, IT WAS THEIR FIBER. No one was exactly clear on what exactly was the issue, only that they replaced ALL of their new fiber. Best guess is that they went the cheap route and probably used multi-mode fiber instead of single-mode. That's the only reasoning we can think of on why they would replace ALL of their new fiber cable. TL;DR: "It's not the fiber! It's not the fiber! Oh, it's the fiber." [link] [comments]  |
| Remote access while PC isn't booting? Posted: 01 Mar 2019 07:54 AM PST Short one for you today. $Me: Thanks for calling IT Corp, how can I help? $User: Ah yes hello, my computer has an error saying imminent HDD failure. $Me: Huh that's weird, we installed windows updates on this machine earlier didn't we? It's the same machine? $User: Yes that's the one, the one that's been running slow for a while. Can you remote on? ... $Me: Has the computer managed to boot into Windows? Or can you still see that HDD error? $User: I can still see the error, it's a black screen. Can you just remote on and I'll leave it with you? $Me: Sounds like this error is present before the computer has booted into the operating system. I don't think I'm going to be able to log on. $User: Ok, can I have a new computer? $Me: I think we are upgrading you all, so let me double check the status on this. Is there a spare machine you can use? $User: Yes that's fine. Can you still remote onto the other computer? $Me: (Facepalming at this point) No it's showing as offline for me at the moment, but this is because... $User: Oh but it was connected to the internet! $Me: It was yes but because you're getting an error before the computer can boot... $User: I've been having issues with this computer for ages, it's been running slow. $Me: Yes, I suspect the HDD has been failing for a while so we will need to... $User: Yes it's been crashing on my apps. I will leave it with you to connect while I use another computer. $Me: (Silence for a second or two) ...okay I will see what I can do. She is pleasant enough, just isn't particularly IT literate and wasn't listening! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Mar 2019 03:47 AM PST Hey everyone, since my last story got a lot of positive resonance, I'm going to share my next story about $FG and $Me, the tale of the lost Adobe license. This time, starring: $Me - IT guy who does everything except web development; $FG - Former IT guy who still thinks he should be in charge for some things; $CB - Cool boss; $BA - Boss's assistant. $CB asked me to check on our Adobe licenses, since we have multiple subscriptions to Creative Cloud and $BA needs some Adobe software for his work and doesn't want to have to send his files to $FG so he can edit them and send the files back when he feels like it.
So I begin checking it out. I log into the company account and see that we have three packages of Adobe CC subscriptions, each with two licenses per subscription. There are three people in the marketing Team, each one using a license. That'd be one left over. One is in use by $FG on his company machine. One is used up by another worker who does remote work. Did you count with me? One license is missing.
I'm getting some bad vibes. I'm sending an E-Mail and BCC $CB in, just in case.
I speak to my boss.
A couple of days later over coffee in the break room
AND IN THE NEXT EPISODE: Introducing $BA and his approach to handing out login data all willy nilly! [link] [comments]  |
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