Which key is the space bar?... Tech Support |
- Which key is the space bar?...
- The story of software that was too easy to install
- You migrated them wrong!
- An oldie . . .
- Oh great! Guess I'll use some more annual leave...
| Which key is the space bar?... Posted: 04 Aug 2020 12:25 AM PDT Lately we have been setting up quite a lot of users with remote access as you could imagine, the users that we support have (widely) varied skill levels with computers, they use specialized software and only need to know how to do very specific things, so often their knowledge of how to actually use computers is quite limited. I received a call from one of the users asking for me to show them how to connect to the remote system, I had already set it up for them a few months ago however they only used it a few times and needed a reminder of how to connect, no biggie. I first ask them whether they are using a Windows computer or a Mac, as our process for connecting is slightly different depending on which OS they use. "A Mac" - okay no big deal, at least they know what kind of computer they have. Me: "Could you please open up a web browser? You likely have Safari installed" User: "What is a web browser?" Okay here we go... Me: "You would use your web browser to search the web and to access websites, on your system it will be called Safari, it is a light blue icon on your Mac's dock" User: "Okay let me have a look" After a short time they still couldn't find it Me: "Okay, we should be able to find it if we search through your list of installed apps, we can open Spotlight Search quite easily, I will need you to hold down the Command key, it is directly to the left of the space bar" User: "Uhh, okay and which key is the space bar?" Me: "Okay so it is the longest key on the keyboard, it is at the very bottom and more or less in the center" User: "Okay, and what is the Command key?" Me: "That's the key directly to the left of the space bar, if you hold down the Command key, and while holding that key, press the space bar once, you should see a search bar appear" Finally they managed to get the spotlight search to appear, they typed in Safari and we were back on track. Me: "Now if you could find the address bar, it is a long text box that spans the whole window and is situated at the very top of the Safari window, can you see that?" - They find the address bar - "Now could you type in the following:" (Going to use a random address but read them the link to visit our support page which downloads the access agent so that I can access their system) Me: "h-e-l-p-.-t-e-c-h-c-o-m-p-a..." User: "h-.....-b-.....l-...e-.-e..." Me: "No, sorry, that's h-e-l-p..." User: "h-c...-a...c" Me: "Sorry, let's start again, HELP, H for Hotel, E for Echo, L for Lima... " User: "A-...E-...L" Me: "Okay let's try something else, do you have an email account set up on your computer?" User: "Yes, the address is user@users. com" (Added space so it doesn't hyperlink in reddit) Me: "Okay great, I have sent you a link, all you will have to do is click the link and I will be able to access your computer to show you how to connect remotely" Finally I get access to his computer and everything else was luckily free from issues, I was able to show him how to connect to the remote computer and he writes everything down on his note pad. The worst part about all this was that I was trying to contain my laughter the whole time, luckily I was able to contain myself and was able to help as professionally as I could, but you just never expect that you might one day have to explain to someone what a space bar is! I had many questions, does he ever use the space bar? I mean he could type in his email address without it, maybe his password, he could visit websites (if he knew the CORRECT sequence of characters to use) Maybe there are people out there who don't use their space bars and I am missing out on this interesting way of life? [link] [comments]  |
| The story of software that was too easy to install Posted: 03 Aug 2020 10:29 AM PDT Been doing IT help desk for a little over a year now and I've had my fair share of mind numbing tickets but this one probably takes the cake for the dumbest thing I've seen. We've got a new user at one of the offices we support, so we're going through the motions of getting all their programs installed. Everything goes smoothly enough, until we get a call a few days later, asking us to install a particular suite of software onto her computer. Now, this software is something that we have pretty much never had to interact with- barring the occasional password reset- and, even weirder, we have absolutely zero documentation on this stuff at all (barring a nonfunctional admin login). So my buddy takes this call and is absolutely baffled- apparently everyone in the office now has this software suite installed locally on their computer. So he messages me and asks what I did to install it. Of course I don't know either. We assume there was some breakdown in communication with this new person, and just show her how to open a remote session on the server, which is where all this software is already installed. (sidenote, yes, I said we showed her how to do this, because she called back minutes after being shown how to do this because she had forgotten, and I got the call the second time around). 5 minutes later, she's calling again, insisting that this software suite needs to be installed on her computer. Being the jackasses we are, we just say "you know what? you want this software so bad, fine" and start googling for install links, knowing they won't work. We rip one off the website and remote onto her computer to install it, but notice this person happened to have their email open. Normally we just ignore it but in this case, she had a message pulled up that had the logo for the software we were about to install, so naturally, we gave it a quick look. Turns out the reason we had nothing documented for this software suite was because the install was as simple as clicking a link in an email that said "click here to install this software". We were just never told about this whole process because it was so self explanatory that the folks at this office didn't think we'd ever need to help install this program for anyone, considering all you need to do is click a link and a couple of "next" buttons. Our new user literally lacks the ability to comprehend a single sentence long email. After we installed the software, she changed her password to log into it and promptly forgot it 3 minutes later. Have mercy on my soul. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2020 02:53 PM PDT Hey TFTS! Long time viewer, first time poster. Some backstory. I work and get paid from a company that has created and acquired several other smaller companies and now am the go-to IT guy for these new companies. I started with the main company in their second year as an intern and have been with the company for nearly 3 years now and have probably gained some trust from my CEO during these years. Our most recent acquisition required me to migrate all of the newly acquired company's local server data to join our sizable (possibly oversized imo) DropBox corporate account. This was done about 9 months ago and things went without a hitch. That is, until today... CEO: "Hey frzn, all or most of the migrated DropBox files that you transferred are not accessible. Please check on that and let us know the status ASAP" Me (visibly flustered from my WFH desk): "Okay I'll take a look and see what the issue might be" Me: Checks permissions settings and sees that all of those who need access already have access granted. Me: "Is there a specific folder in question? From first glance, I can see the files just fine and can confirm that we all have the same permission settings. As a reminder, the files that were migrated are all within a folder titled "Migration Files". CEO: "Everything works now, thanks Frzn" Mondays amirite? Maybe it's time to touch-base on a pay raise... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2020 08:07 AM PDT I was reminded of someone this morning while chatting with someone else who has been with the company for as long as I have been. This was like 20 years ago. Our password policy was a lot looser, could be dang near anything back then. 'Paul' called in at least once a week. He always forgot his password. I'd reset it at first, then got the idea to set it to 'iforgot'. This stroke of genius worked for a year or more. Whenever he tried to remember his password he'd think "I forgot my password . . . oh yeah!". One day he called up angry that his 'special' password no longer worked. Me: 'You typed i 'iforgot' right?' Paul: 'I typed in 'iforget' and it doesn't work!' Me: 'Not 'iforgEt' Paul, 'iforgOt. It's GOT not GET', all one word and all lower case. Paul: 'Don't you understand the words coming out of my mouth? I said I typed in 'iforget', and yes - no spaces and all 'lower caps' '. Back and forth a few times, spelling it, saying it phonetically, emphasizing GOT over and over and I swear to what ever powers that be, I actually heard a BING! as the light bulb lit up above his head. I hear a slow tick-tack-tick-tack-tick-tack-tick-SLAM. 'Never mind, I got it!' followed by a second slam of his phone in the cradle. My boss actually asked me about it as Paul was complaining about 'my attitude'. I was glad when he retired shortly thereafter, as were his coworkers. [link] [comments]  |
| Oh great! Guess I'll use some more annual leave... Posted: 03 Aug 2020 11:08 AM PDT Hi everyone, 2nd time poster to the sub I work on a front line IT Support where we deal with quick fixes (password resets, mailbox issues etc) I receive a call from a user that has been working from home (getting a lot of these recently for obvious reasons but this one bugged me) Me: "Hello you're through to the help desk, how can I help?" User: "Yeah I have been on 2 weeks leave and can't remember my password" Me: "okay no problem" (go through the details and reset their password to something generic to change once logged on) "there you go, if you want to try logging on for me" User: (after a couple attempts) "nope not working" Me: "hmmm strange, where are you calling from? " User: "I'm at home" Me: "right okay yeah that won't work unfortunately, you'd need to be connected to the VPN for me to reset your password, so you've got 2 options, you can come into one of our buildings and restart the laptop or I can set it to what it was before I changed it if you can remember it" (I know it's not great to ask the users passwords but it's the only fix if they refuse to come in and we get them to change it straight after) User: "so you're telling me you can't reset it? Why can't you just do it?" Me: "because if I change it to a temporary password it will not sync up with your laptop, unless I change it to what it is" User: "Oh well that's just great! Guess I'll have to use another half's day leave because I can't do any work!" Me: "sorry about that, if you can come in it'll sync up and then you can get going" User: "no I'm not coming in today, I'll sort it tomorrow" hangs up Moral of the story: Don't forget your password after just 2 weeks off [link] [comments]  |
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