The internet hates my wife. Tech Support |
- The internet hates my wife.
- Hero To The People or: The Case of the Confidential Password
- Tales from the past - The Magic Computer
- The NVR is not wi fi, believe me ma'am
| Posted: 03 Aug 2019 06:41 PM PDT This happened many years ago when the internet was newish to consumers and people were still using dial up to access it. I was working for a PC manufacturer in a call centre as a second level support agent. I took an escalation call that had been passed on by another L2 agent who was at his wits end.
Previous techs had tried all the basics, but no love from the internet for her. Even if he left it connected the minute she sat down to use the computer it would disconnect. Eventually, I was reminded of another client who couldn't use the internet between 3pm - 6pm and 5am - 7am. That was because that's when his neighbors electric fence was turned on and the cheap modems that we were shipping were so sensitive to outside RF interference that the fence was enough to prevent his modem from connecting, we resolved that by shipping a hardware modem instead of the usual soft modem. So, I started digging into the situation. Was anything electric running that she was using that her husband wasn't? I was thinking maybe an electric wheelchair, turns out I was close. She had a prosthetic arm that had some kind of motor in it to open and close the hand, that was enough to knock out the modem. Solution was to send a hardware modem, after that the internet stopped hating his wife. [link] [comments]  |
| Hero To The People or: The Case of the Confidential Password Posted: 03 Aug 2019 01:48 PM PDT Here's a short tale on how my school's administration manager declared me a Hero To The People. A little bit of background: My school has three distinct networks - a semi-public one (which all teachers and pupils can connect to and which is obviously ranked lowest in the router's list of priorities), a private one for all the school's PCs and a seriously locked down one for the administrative and privileged stuff. The latter one also isn't supervised by our school's own IT staff but by a dedicated company (The Company from hereon) which solely does this kind of work for our state. They're also a bit weird. You'll see. That much for the background. On to the story! So, our administrator (let's call him Felix) has this really powerful laser printer. Coloured prints, duplex, *really* fast, stapler, everything you might need to print lots of documents (be that certificates or disciplinary records). Costs a considerable four-figure sum. He recently had to replace the fuser - that one was easily done: Open the lid, pop out the old one, push new one in, close lid and reset the fuser counter. It was the last step where he hit a small snag: The menu in which to reset the counter was password protected. The Company in its undecipherable wisdom had decided that because the printer was connected to the administrative network that all its features needed to be locked down. Hence the password. I'm not precisely sure what havoc the maintenance menu could wreak on the network but hey! And yes, maintenance menu. This printer also had a separate configuration menu (protected by a different password). Off to the support hotline he went to answer the riddles three - promptly to be thrown into the abyss. Felix: "So you see, I kind of need this password?" For some reason this then resulted in a three months standoff after which The Company could finally be persuaded to dispatch a technician. Come the day of His Arrival: Yeah, the rest of the meeting went equally well. The proposed solution was thus: Buy a new printer (remember the four-figure cost? That would come out of our budget!) and scrap the old one (because it had been contaminated by secrets!) Needless to say, Felix didn't think much of that "solution" and that's when he approached me. The rest of the story is somewhat anticlimactic: I had a look at the printer and it definitely had a bit more computing power in there than your usual $30 printer from Walmart. In a flash of inspiration I also remembered that most devices have some hardware capability of resetting stuff to factory settings. A quick Google search yielded a video on YouTube how to do just that for this exact model of printer (you can find tutorial videos for the most insanely off-track devices on there. Now, if those guys could just reduce their waffling from ten minutes down to the actual 30 seconds of relevant stuff...). One minute with a screw driver and a change of position for a jumper and presto! No more password. And yes, the default configuration works just fine, too. It was then that I received my title of Hero To The People. For about one day, after which had to talk to my principal who for some weird reason is not that keen on new and exciting blotches of colour on the ceiling (I'm also a chemistry teacher). [link] [comments]  |
| Tales from the past - The Magic Computer Posted: 03 Aug 2019 10:31 PM PDT In the late 80s, early 90s I got re-involved with a charity that was trying to help disabled people, especially those with progressive illnesses, stay in work. One of the clients had multiple sclerosis. She was a talented architect in her mid 50s and was the senior partner of a practice. Unfortunately the MS had become so bad that she could no longer go to the office to work. She was wheelchair bound and needed a 24 hour carer. But there was nothing wrong with her brain or her vision of how building should be designed. This was driving her crazy so we arranged a home office for her using the highest specked PC we could think of at the time. It had a Wacom tablet that weighed a lot, an A3 plotter as well as a daisywheel printer and a early model Dragon Dictate card. The computer ran AutoCAD software. We spent a couple of weeks recording the verbal commands for controlling the software as she spoke them and matching them to the appropriate keystrokes. Think "Undo" matching to CNTRL-Z etc. Eventually we got it all working and she was a happy bunny. Then I got a call from her carer saying that she had a problem and could I call in. Me: Hi Bunny - what's your problem Bunny: the computer is magic - It's doing things to my designs before I tell it to. I'm somewhat confused as I has never heard of a computer that could predict future action except in Science Fiction. Bunny: I see you don't believe me but if you can stick around I'll show you. She starts working on an incredibly complex drawing for some restoration project she was working on. Then all of a sudden she has a spasm and the Wacom tablet's stylus goes flying and the drawing has a huge line added to it. Almost simultaneously she yells "OH F**K". The computer thinks for a second and removes the line. Bunny: See I was going to tell it to undo the last operation but it has done it already. It's magic. Me: Is it a problem? - I can make sure it doesn't happen again. Bunny: DON'T YOU DARE. Do you think it will learn to read other thoughts? Could I get it to do more things? Me: I don't think so - it could have unintended consequences - best left alone I think. However I did get a brand decal made for the computer that said "Magic Computer". She was happy and told everyone who came to see her that was worried she couldn't produce the work that she didn't have a problem with her work and her MS because she had a magic computer. I didn't tell her that I had mapped her "OH F**K" sound file to the undo command also. [link] [comments]  |
| The NVR is not wi fi, believe me ma'am Posted: 03 Aug 2019 06:26 PM PDT I work in tech support for one of the major survelliance system companies in the US providing support to installers and end users. End user called, very upset since the beginning of the call. Me: Thank you for calling tech support, how may I help you? End user: Hi, the remote access for my NVR is not working, I don't know why all is hard with you guys this system cost me 2.000 dollars. I don't care how much you paid for your system first, and if is not working that's why you call, that's why I get paid, don't make this a big deal. I did the normal process of asking the contact information and it took to her like 15 minutes to check the model number of the unit and always complaining about the size of the label bla, bla, and bla. Then the big question... Me: Ma'am you have the unit connected to the router with an Ethernet cable? End user: What you mean to "connect a cable to the router", the internet white box? Me: Yes, ma'am the system should be connected to the router in order to have the remote access. End user: That doesn't make any sense, it was working with the wifi. Me: Ma'am your NVR doesn't support wifi it must be connected to the router to grab an IP address from the router. End user: You're kidding me and lying to me, I want to speak to your manager. I just said Ok, I was explaining my manager what happened with the user and she said, "ok, that's fine lemme continue with the call" I was not even upset the only thing that grinds my gears is an old lady just saying stupid things and trying to sound as an installer. My manager took the call and the only thing that said: "Ma'am the system is not wifi and at this point you'll need to get in contact with an installer" The old lady just hanged up, she called 4 times that day, same story, we just laughed until she hanged up. Hope she call an installer... [link] [comments]  |
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