Today is my last day at work and I am relieved Tech Support |
- Today is my last day at work and I am relieved
- "What the hell is 'group policy'?? It's keeping me from doing my job!!"
- 1U Jet Engine
- Tech support failure in the making...
- Where’s the “World” Icon?
- downloads are broken
- Help With Problem Coworker
- Infinite Loops are Edge Cases?
- Typing your own password is hard, even if you do it every day
- Oh local support!
- Is it turned on?
- USB vs RJ45 = clueless IT
- I have a key but I've forgotten which door it goes to
- Wouldn't be a bad idea...
| Today is my last day at work and I am relieved Posted: 08 Oct 2019 11:05 PM PDT Today is my last day at my current place of employment. I work at a small startup with around 25 staff spread out over three locations in two countries. In addition to that I am the de facto head of IT. System and network admin, devops, remote support and pitching directly to clients. Due to my relatively senior role, I had been challenged by management with the tired line that "IT does not bring in enough business". This plus a handful of other business decisions have made my position untenable and I am on my way out. The entire infrastructure I have setup has been documented down to every minute detail, support materials are available on intranet, management has password access to all production systems and something I consider my greatest achievement, the day to day staff have been trained to a level where they can competently troubleshoot minor issues. For that I am relieved. And actually proud of my small, resilient setup. This morning I am going to collect my final dues and then take my three months gardening leave to be with my young family. [link] [comments]  |
| "What the hell is 'group policy'?? It's keeping me from doing my job!!" Posted: 08 Oct 2019 11:26 PM PDT Yay, my first post here! Background: I work helpdesk for a fairly large hotel/casino. I have numerous experiences every day that would garner a chuckle and a dozen upvotes on this sub but this one I can't stop laughing about. Me: me SU: helpdesk supervisor OWD: obnoxious web dev SA: ALL GLORY TO THE SYSADMIN
So we recently hired two new web developers, one of them sends in a ticket on like day 2, as follows: OWD: Why are there these icons on my desktop? I don't want them there, I don't even use them! When I delete them they just come back! They're distracting and keeping me from doing my JOB!!! SU: Those are a part of your department's group policy, just move them out of the way and ignore them if you don't use them. Closing ticket.
Time passes, my supervisor leaves and now I am the one who knocks
OWD: What the hell is "group policy" and how does it help me do my job! I want these icons gone! They're distracting! Me: Hello OWD! explains what group policy is in a friendly and helpful manner. So unfortunately there's nothing I can do for you other than what SU suggested, however... If you'd like I can escalate to... the SYSTEM ADMIN. Now I am not normally such a petty man but the "what the hell is gRoUp PoLIcY" comment really sparked my ire for this unfortunate soul. OWD: Yes, I would like that. Me: shrugs, moves ticket to sysadmin queue The sysadmin is a busy man and does not care to be bothered by such things. After a couple of days letting it marinate, OWD sends another ticket in for the same thing. SA sees it and instead of replying, he calls OWD. SA: Hi OWD, would you be able to come to the IT office so we can discuss your, uh, tickets? Great, thanks. (Just a minor note, but OWD is in a building across the street and about a block down the road, so he has to hoof it all the way here) OWD goes into SA's office and the door shuts. I hear very little except for snippits of "wasting our time" and "used by your department" and "move them out of the way". OWD comes out a few minutes later, head down, looking both upset and humbled, and quickly leaves. SA: close his tickets, the issue is resolved. Me: you got it boss!
And we haven't heard a peep since. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 08:20 PM PDT For context: I work at a small IT MSP employing about 7 people, even with our small size projects tend to get siloed to certain people and I occasionally get thrown into the mix when a big hardware install needs to happen since I have the most familiarity with the physical stuff. I come into the office and before I've even logged in I'm handed a 1U dell r420 and told I'll need to drive to a client about 60 miles away and install it as a temporary loaner server, this client in particular works in a specialized field where they need enterprise IT gear but there's only about 3 people at the company and it's a home office. I'm given this 1U server and told to go install it, configure it with a static IP, and let our outsourced engineer team know the IP so they can remote in. I head out there and set it up and the second I turn it on the fans ramp up to take off speeds, briefly come back down as Windows starts loading, and then immediately ramp back up and stay pinned at that level. Now normally this wouldn't be a huge deal but this server was going in the client's office. I'm standing there giving it the stink eye when the client walks into the room and yells to me over the incredible racket "is it going to do this all the time?". Now, I had heard this thing from the basement in the office but I just figured they were running prime95 on it or something to stress test it. 1U servers tend to be on the noisy side but they shouldn't be hearing protection loud when sitting idle at the desktop. Confused, I fire up open hardware manager to find that processor 0 is at 95 degrees basically always and processor 1 is sitting at 20. Clearly something's wrong, maybe the chip is reporting it's temp wrong? I decide to shut it down and take a look to see if I can see anything funky inside the machine. I pop open the cover to the server and carefully touch my finger to the heatsink for processor 0 and it's ice cold, not only that but it moves a little when I do it. Now, given that we've deployed this server before it took me a second to connect the dots that a heatsink shouldn't do that. I poke it again and it's wobbling around. Taking the shroud off I grab the heatsink and am able to lift it entirely off the board, it isn't even screwed down. Low and behold on the bottom of it is one of those perfectly sized squares of machine applied thermal paste that the heat-sinks come with. I'm not talking "oh there was some left over thermal paste on it" no, it was a from-the-manufacturer machine applied square of it. The processor, of course, was totally clean. No tale-tale stains or anything. Somehow Dell had QC passed this server, shipped it to us, and we had deployed it in the past with the heat sink just kind of set over the processor, no actual contact. Somehow between Intel's thermal throttling and the fans pushing enough air over the bare heatspreader it had managed to not die. In total disbelief I fetched my screwdriver and for the first time in this R420's life actually fully installed the heatsink for processor 0 and upon firing it up what do you know it's idling at 35 now and the fans don't sound like they're from pratt and whitney anymore. I want to point out, this server was sitting in our basement like this whining away as we installed 1tb ssds, had it build a small raid array, fresh installed server 2016, and set up various bits of software on it for the better part of last week. [link] [comments]  |
| Tech support failure in the making... Posted: 08 Oct 2019 06:41 AM PDT I'm not really in a tech support role at my job, but I know this really amazing trick where you google error messages and follow instructions to fix problems, so I'm the go-to person whenever something isn't working. I recently put in my notice and they decided not to replace me, so I'm training one of my coworkers to take over some of my workload. Like me, this coworker doesn't have a background in IT, but unlike me I don't think she's willing to put in the work and learn the minimal amount of things she needs to know to get by. I've already told my manager (via email, cc'd to multiple people so my ass is covered) that I don't think she's a good fit and they should hire someone else for this role. They refuse to take my advice, but hey at least I get some funny stories for the internet. Last week I walked this coworker through one of our processes: upload an excel file to our company website and generate various reports. It's really simple stuff but many employees struggle with this system so I wanted her to get familiar with it and all possible issues that might arise, since she will be tasked with helping users. After I've shown her an example, I tell her to try creating an excel file and go through the process on her own. I leave for 5 minutes and when I come back she immediately calls me over and says it's not working. Me: It's fine to take some time to figure it out, I'd rather you try to do it on your own first. Coworker: No, I did it exactly as you showed me, come and have a look. Me: Is there an error message? Maybe you can try figuring it out. Coworker: I already tried 10 times and it's not working. She insists until I go over and look at her computer screen. Immediately I see a red error message on the page that says "maximum filesize (100MB) exceeded". Me: So, as it says here, the problem is that the file is too big. Coworker: It's not possible, it can't be that big, I don't know its size but I'm sure it's much much smaller. Me: Let's check the size of the file. [We check. Looooong pause.] I had no idea you could even make excel files that big... This file is 1.5GB... Coworker: Yes like I said, it's smaller than 100! Me: 1.5GB is... bigger than 100MB... Coworker: [surprised pikachu face] I'm almost sad I won't be around to watch when they put her in charge and the entire system crashes and burns. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 06:47 PM PDT my company provides support for multiple clients EU: user who claims that they're "tech-savvy". Also just started with the company and I completed their new user orientation. Me: tired help desk tech. ———————————— EU: calls the help desk line HELLO? Is this IT?! Me: Hi, yes this is IT. What's going on? EU: So I'm working with "Bill" in the field today, and he has this world icon on the bottom of his screen. Can you install this application on my computer? Me: Uhhh.. sorry, but I don't know what application you're referring to. Can you describe it to me? EU: It's this circle with a globe in. It has some squares in it. Me: Sorry, but I don't believe this is an application that is installed by default. EU: Look. "Bill" has this on his machine. I NEED this application right now so I can get to work. How are you not understanding what I'm saying?! Aren't you in IT?! Me: I understand your frustration. Let me remote into "Bill's" machine and see what application you're talking about. I remote into Bill's machine and immediately have EU say: "Look it's there on the bottom left. When he presses it, all these things show up". Me: ...... Me: EU. That's the start button. Bill is on Windows 7 (he's getting upgraded soon. Just won't come into the office). You have the same exact button, but it's just four squares on the bottom left. If you press that on your machine, you should see something similar. I remote into EU's machine and show him the start menu EU: oh... thanks! Bye. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 07:16 PM PDT tl;dr - title is a lie, (l)user is broken. just happened... A user of our web site contacts me to say that he's having difficulty with the website. He's trying to download a document that he needs to do his job. U: I click the blue 'download' button, and nothing happens I reset the password, log on as he, click the blue button, and bam! Fox-o'Fire opens up a window asking if I want to open the document. Call him back, get him to reset his password - back to what he had it, apparently, but I don't know, I don't (well, actually, I do) care. It sounded (with the frantic typing) to be strong enough - it was long enough. Guide him through to the download point, he clicks, and... "nothing". Me: hmmm... what browser are you using? FF, Edge, Chrome, IE? U: I dunno. {sigh} We eventually figure out - Chrome. Me: OK, once again, click the blue button and tell me everything that happens after you click it. ... {click} U: I saw some light arrow scroll down the screen and then disappear. Me: OK. Sounds like we have something. Go to where your files are downloaded. U: huh? Me: see the three vertical dots on the top right hand corner? [me fully expecting the question "which way is 'right'?"] Click on that, and select the 5th item down, called "Downloads". U: Done. Oh! My document is there! Me: click on it. U: it's opened in Acrobat [which is correct, it is a PDF document] call closed. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:41 AM PDT This isn't a typical tale from tech support, but I need some advice. I'm a high level engineer who has been tasked with some server admin duties. The current server admin, who was moved from net admin, is the problem. He's an alcoholic. There's no sugar coating it. He's over 50 and has already been told by doctors to stop drinking, but he won't. It's that bad. He comes to work drunk, nearly every day. His old boss, a friend, was sick and tired of covering for him, which was a small part of why he left the company. But I'm in even more of a precarious situation. Because this alcoholic coworker is my fiancee's uncle. He's butted heads with my current boss for a while, but now it's to the point where he's going to the VP of HR drunk off his ass to complain about the boss. The boss is a total ass, to be fair. He's bipolar as hell, and when he calls you don't know who you'll get. But, my uncle in law's complaints about the boss have gotten more and more ridiculous. I know I need to report him, and my fiancée wants me to (she wants him to go to jail, tbh). But, my main issue is that I've known about the issue for well over a year now, but haven't done anything. Before it wasn't really my responsibility. He kept it mostly under control, but then his mom started to die (wonderful woman, but she was 91). During that, he went off the rails, but was on FMLA. When he came back, it was a bit better, but he was still drunk most of the time. There was a 6 month period where me and his old boss thought he was drunk all the time, but it was really his blood pressure being poorly managed (by him). All this to say that it's now getting to the point where I'm catching major fuckups from him before they happen. I know I need to say something, but I know that saying something will lead to the fact that I knew about it and never said anything. Anyone have advice on how to approach this to my boss? [link] [comments]  |
| Infinite Loops are Edge Cases? Posted: 08 Oct 2019 06:46 AM PDT This is a request from another thread. I posted an anecdote about a Twitter bot run by a company I used to work for, and was asked to make a full post out of it. So here goes... At the time, I was working as a NOC tech for a company known for math software. They run a Twitter bot where you can submit code snippets by tagging the bot, and the bot will parse the code, render a graphical result, and post it back to Twitter. It's a neat little tech demo for the product. The bot lived on a VM in the production environment, and the guest didn't have a lot of resources allocated; it didn't see too much traffic, so even though it was doing some potentially computationally-intensive work (3D graphics were a very common thing to render), it wasn't in use enough to warrant a lot of allocation. The code for the bot was also a bit on the rough side. Its logging was particularly noteworthy; it logged all activity - without timestamps - to a single file, and had no rotation set up, either on the application or OS level. It also didn't have any checks in place as to who it was replying to; there was a moderation team responsible for removing the occasional troll post where people would tweet to it with offensive usernames, or similar. There was also a problem with the bot replying to itself; if you included the bot's name in the message, the rendered result would be picked up by the bot and queued for another reply. We had discovered this by accident, and the developer said that it wasn't a big deal (big mistake). Despite all of that, it worked well enough, and was spotlighted sometimes by news articles, and the occasional contest run by the marketing department. Well, one day, the marketing department went to drum up some publicity, and posted a tweet from the main company account, tagging the bot's account. Then they send a follow-up tweet from the bot's account, quoting the original reply. This results in a tweet with two mentions of the bot's name. And this goes about as well as you might expect, for not-polished code without proper error checking. The bot fires off a response to itself, rendering the result. Which triggers a response, and another render, and... well, you get the idea. The guest VM running the bot, having never been provisioned for this kind of capacity (rendering several tweets every second), goes absolutely haywire. It maxes the CPU and memory consumption quickly, which starts to generate errors. The single (very large, at this point - on the order of several GB) log file starts to bloat. And the VM environment starts to hang because of all of the traffic (it wasn't designed to handle that kind of I/O). Thankfully, we managed to kill (almost literally; Force Stop and the VM's disk ended up moderately corrupted because of it) the VM guest before it got too out-of-hand. And Twitter actually suspended the bot, which also put a stop to it. A poor intern still ended up having to delete - by hand! - several thousand tweets. It took them a few days. The bot developer, meanwhile, learned a valuable lesson about what constitutes an "edge case" (and why you don't ignore them). And "error handling"... [link] [comments]  |
| Typing your own password is hard, even if you do it every day Posted: 08 Oct 2019 07:15 AM PDT I work for a relatively big manufacturing company in IT, and we are just doing a software rollout of our SAP solution to an eastern European country. Me and a colleague from the business side of things are currently on site there, watching over users try to work with the new system after weeks of training, testing, and a generally successful GoLive last week. Today I was trying to add an iPhone app to one of our technicians phones where he can see his daily work load (which customers at what time etc) without booting his laptop, so it can be seen in the car and used for navigation. This app needs the normal Active Directory username and password. I "install" the web app to his phone, and ask him to log in. He takes a piece of paper and notes down his password and hands it to me, but I tell him no and ask him to just do it himself. He types it in, and the password popup just comes again. He tries several times, and I watch him. He types it in correctly as written on his note. I ask him if all letters are always in lowercase as he is typing them, feeling bad for asking such as stupid, almost insulting question, but he insists they are indeed lowercase. I try to get feedback from out AD guys, if there are failed login error messages in some logs, etc., but didn't reach anybody due to lunch time etc. Finally while he is outside on a smoke break, I ask him to unlock the phone, and then I go back inside and try it myself with his note... only this time, on a hunch, I enter every letter in uppercase instead of lowercase. And you already know how this ends, I am logged in instantly. I want to go home. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 02:54 PM PDT I work as a tech support rep on a team of 8, we provide remote support mostly for ms office applications and general office issues. Lately our local support team has been dwindling and getting absolutely swamped so the time it takes for a low priority issue to be addressed can be anywhere from a week to a month. Recently users have been cracking me up. Here's one from today. Had a ticket that needed to be routed to local support due to access issues. User asks before I route "local support will be stopping by today right?" What I want to say: Haha good one, maybe in a week or 2 they'll get off their asses and get around to it. What I actually say: normally they take at least a couple of days, they've been really swamped lately. If you need this right away, their office is on x floor. User every time: I dont wanna do that. Routes ticket to local as per users request Also user every time: calls back a week or so later upset that local support hasn't touched their ticket, but still the users dont feel like going to the IT floor for assistance. Suffer well [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 09:05 AM PDT I work for my local city, and we have City Council Meetings twice a month. The room is set up with a projector, and microphones for the Elected Officials and Company up atop a dais. There is a podium centered in front of them below, and a desk off to the side for a laptop feed to the projector. Whatever engineer designed this system thought having the control box inside of the podium was a good idea. All of the microphones and VGA feeds go to that, instead of the closet with the rest of the equipment. If the Podium isn't plugged up, half the things won't work. Right as I go on vacation, they have budget meetings in the room and disconnect the podium. Our maintenance guy did this (like usual) and I'm assuming he's the one that hooked it back up. All of the cables are labeled, and most can only go into one plug (Mixture of a Serial Cable, VGA, Microphone, 3mm Audio Plug). Never had an issue before. Cue the day before the actual Council Meeting, they started up a Youth Council, and the system wasn't working. I come back from out of town that night to see an email sent from my boss to the CFO, City Clerk, Assistant City Manager, and the City Manager himself (the 4 top level people) stating that the system is down; no sound, and no video feed from the laptop. My boss expects the console in the podium to be out and has scheduled an emergency tech call from a local A/V company to get it back up before tomorrow's meeting. Knowing it's likely a simple fix, I head into work (5minutes from home) at 11pm that night to take a look. Instantly look at the floor box and see that the cable labeled "VGA In", is plugged into the "VGA Out" plug. Laptop feed roars to life on the projector. See that the microphones are not muted and walk to the closet. The amplifier at the bottom of the hanging rack cabinet is flipped Off. Flip it back to On, and everything is back to working. The system is controlled by either of 2 tablets to turn on/off everything, so no one should ever be turning things off in that cabinet. Cue me Replying All to the email that sent by my boss stating that I came in during vacation and fixed the system. "One of the cables was plugged into the wrong port, and I turned the amplifier in the closet back on". Next day the CFO messages me on Snapchat laughing asking if it was really that simple of a fix, and that my boss nor new coworker couldn't figure it out. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 07:19 AM PDT Hi TFTS, this is a tale about a $School I remember going to. It isn't the same $School as last time. It has about 1000 students, proper IT, Azure AD, Office 365... lots of stuff. Cast: $Teacher: a good teacher of Music. Doesn't click all buttons he finds, doesn't unplug random cables because they're ugly, doesn't think that the network fix you did broke the mouse, respects that IT is just better with computers. Recently moved classrooms, now he's in the most isolated room of the entire school. No wifi, only an ethernet port. But at least he got a printer of his own... $Me: a person (student) with some technical skills, no admin privileges, no knowledge of the network, no employment contract, but is known as 'the guy that fixes computers'. Story: I get into class with this teacher and the subject starts. When we get into a more open section of the class, where we learn different musical instruments by ourselves (with assistance from $Teacher), he just casually mentions: $Teacher: Oh, just by the way, my printer's broken, $Me. You can look at it if you want, but I doubt that you'll be able to do much; IT came down here and they didn't know what to do with it either, so if you want to look... $Me: (in my head) Well that doesn't mean a whole lot. (to $Teacher) Alright, I'll see what I can do. I come to the PC and get a more detailed description of the symptoms. $Teacher: It says it's offline, and when I print to it, it just... doesn't print. That's been happening since the friday a week ago. IT added this other printer for me, but it's a 5 minute walk away, and that's just a pain. $Me: Yeah, I can imagine. I confirm the symptoms (14 print jobs pending...) and check that the printer is on. I print a test page to it, nothing. Drivers are working, and another (networked) printer using the same driver works. I reboot the printer. It starts up fine, I can even open the settings. I glance at the back and see a USB cable going to the PC (this printer is a network printer, but $School is using USB for it. I knew that, as I helped move the printer 2 weeks ago). $Me: Alright, I'll try switching the USB port the printer is using. I plug the printer into a different port, but nothing. Wait, what? Nothing? Not even a ding to indicate a new device being plugged in? $Me: Looks like something's wrong inside the printer which is preventing the USB port from working. But it supports the network, it even has Wifi written on it so... it should support the network. I'll see about the ethernet port... I look closely behind the printer and see a Wifi logo on a sticker. Under it lies a USB port, presumably for a Wifi dongle. So much for wireless. Looking at the Ethernet port... $Me: Wait, that's... no way. I unplug the network cable from the ethernet port. And find a USB B connector. Apparently, the USB cable from earlier was plugged into the ethernet port. With my glance, all I saw was a cable, not the connector. To my surprise, it actually fits pretty well in there. I plugged it into the USB port and the printer came to life. $Teacher: Oh uh, probably cancel that, there's a few print jobs, one of which has about 100 pages. I cancel the current printjob from the printer, take out the cable, cancel the other print jobs from the PC (about 130 pages in total, but that's not unexpected for this school and subject) and plug it back in. It reminded me how the day before, I tried to force a Displayport cable into an ethernet port. Tying up some loose ends: Who did this one? I'm guessing some kids from the school. Why did they not find out? I heard from the teacher that they only checked the software on the PC after the lesson. Yeah, that's stupid but... Tl;Dr: Printer cable is plugged into the ethernet port. IT has no idea how to fix it. [link] [comments]  |
| I have a key but I've forgotten which door it goes to Posted: 08 Oct 2019 12:13 PM PDT As previously mentioned before, senior tech support for the Fruit-based company. Customer calls in saying that his sister has an phone with iCloud lock. The phone shows the first letter of the email address and the bit after the @ related to the iCloud account as a hint. He called us yesterday and we sent him an email change the password for his sister's account (after identity verification). Today, he calls in because he has managed to change the password, but has forgotten what account it's related to. Note: If they don't know the full email address, we can tell them what it is if we find it and we pass account verification, which is what I assume happened here. M: Me C: Customer M: "So you're saying you've changed the password but can't remember the account it's related to? When you changed it, it says on the page when you create the new password." C: "I know, but I've forgotten." M: "Well, doesn't your sister know? She's the owner of it." C: "She is, but she's forgotten what it was too!" While this is happening, I try to find any information but I find nothing. Can't find a case number, their emails return no results, their phone numbers link to accounts they own but not the one we want, I have no idea how the other account was found. M: "Check the password reset email we sent. Is it not there?" C: "No, it has the dots covering it too!" M: "Did we send any case number? Do you remember the name of the person you spoke to?" C: "You didn't and I can't remember who I spoke to, it was a man." I'm getting desperate. I put them on hold, ask on our chat if anyone has spoken to them, but nothing. It's as if that call never existed but all the details he tells me add up, it's not some sort of prank call. At this point, I've run out of options. M: "Sir, you and your sister, have a good, long think about what you did earlier today and try to remember the email address. Or else you're going to have to send us your proof of purchase to remove that account." C: "But my sister has all her photos on that account... M: "I know, but it's like you're calling the fire department because you have the keys to your house but you've forgotten which building it is." C: "I get it... I'll call you back later... Thanks for the help." He hasn't called back yet, but I'm not very hopeful they'll remember what the account was. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2019 07:30 AM PDT This one is pretty short and sweet, and a lesson I learned as well. Had a lady call in with printer problems, and of course the first troubleshooting that is easiest is just power down the computer, unplug the printer, and unplug the router, right? From my experience, fixes a lot of the issues I get regarding printers. Well of course when there are cords, when aren't there problems? This lady apparently had two boxes, one for her modem, and one for her router is what I assumed. I'm not her ISP and have no knowledge of her in-home setup, and... surprise surprise, neither does she. We got the computer powered down, the printer unplugged, but she isn't sure which box to unplug for the router. Now mind you, during this, I was assisting two other customers on chat and thought process probably wasn't the best at the time, but I kinda just went f'it and told her to just unplug both. dead silence Hello? ...hello? Hmm, hellooo...? ...crap. Whoops, apparently indicated she should unplug her phone line too. Bye bye phone call! Soo it wouldn't be a bad idea to familiarize yourself with the naming of what is what in your house, and (as a tech) not recommending to unplug things you don't know what they are for certain haha. (She did call back and we were able to get the printer going again, ended up having to remove/re-add it to the computer anyway </cry>) [link] [comments]  |
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