Repairing a Novell server via phone Tech Support

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Repairing a Novell server via phone Posted: 10 Jan 2021 08:14 AM PST This happened in Germany in 1996. I was an IT engineer and was called Dr. Novell :-) One customer was very far away and had the pressing problem of a Novell NetWare server not mounting the data partition. You could repair those normally by issuing the command "load vrepair...". The customer's employee at the phone had no computer knowledge and so I had to talk her through it while visualising everything in my head. Unfortunately she spoke German with a russian accent, but we managed to communicate... And when I told her to enter "load vrepair" at the console prompt, she didn't know how to spell it. I spelled it for her like Ludwig-Otto-Anton-Dora-Viktor-Richard .... and so on. But the computer answered with "command not recognized" every time she pressed <Enter>. I tried everything to determine what the problem was, maybe wrong keyboard mapping, language setting, whatever. In the end I was exhausted and described every key she had to press and it's location on the keyboard. And the I found out she pressed W instead of V when typing vrepair. The problem was, Viktor in Russian is seemingly spelled with a W, and so she entered the command incorrectly at every try 🤦🏼‍♂️ submitted by /u/Relevant-Team [link] [comments]

Repairing a Novell Server via phone, part 2 Posted: 10 Jan 2021 11:37 AM PST As a Novell supporter for SOHO companies in the '90s you had sometimes funny interactions. This takes place in Germany. I had an employee at the phone and had to input "load vrepair" at the console of the Novell server. As often I said the command and then spelled it for them. [sidenote: a blank or space is called "Leerzeichen" in German, literally "empty sign"] Me: "Type load vrepair. I spell it for you: Ludwig Otto"... [I'm hearing frantic typing] Me, continuing: "Anton Dora Leerzeichen Viktor Richard" She: "STOP, stop, not so fast I'm still typing Leerzeichen! " 🤣 For my American readers: She actually typed the words LudwigOttoAntonDoraLeerzeichenViktor... instead of l o a d v r e p a i r " submitted by /u/Relevant-Team [link] [comments]

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