Who knows something about servers? Tech Support |
- Who knows something about servers?
- That's not a planet! That's a docking station...
- It's the simple things.
- Shoutout to the professionals that keep me paid.
- The server must be down
- Never take the customer's description of a problem at face-value.
- A/B question? I'll respond with No.
- The access DB
- How the tables have turned
| Who knows something about servers? Posted: 19 Jan 2021 10:15 AM PST A super user walks in and asks, "Who knows something about servers?" My colleagues and I all look at each other a little confused – this is the IT department after all – all of us know something about servers. "I guess… I guess I do?" my colleague answers a little hesitantly. "The WMS test environment is down." We don't really manage the WMS system, the supplier does, so my colleague logs in to VMware® to make sure the virtual machine is okay, "Well, the server is running-" "Just drop it." the user says trying to contain himself "It's. not. working." "Okay, so what is this problem you're experiencing?" my colleague asks, slightly annoyed with the tone of voice and total lack of error description. "Master data from the ERP system isn't getting updated." "Ah okay, so it isn't actually down... The issue might be with the ERP system or the system in between the two. Please go to our colleagues in the other subdepartment right next door, they might be able to help. If they can't, you'll probably have to contact the supplier." my colleague says pleasantly. The user stomps to the other office right next door. I'm not sure what the issue was. Probably a non-issue. It was quickly fixed though. Just describe the issue to us and we'll start diagnosing or send you in the right direction. Also, don't lose your temper over a test system, it shouldn't be critical – that's the point of a test system. [link] [comments]  |
| That's not a planet! That's a docking station... Posted: 19 Jan 2021 06:10 PM PST I'm a jr sysadmin for a small hospital in the middle of nowhere. We have a handful of outside clinics we provide support to also. Those outside clinics are pretty self-sufficient, IT-wise. Their office managers know to check cords and restart computers before calling us. In late December, we ordered a bunch of new equipment for one clinic, including 2 laptops - 1 for each doctor - with accompanying docking stations. The equipment arrived after a week or so and I had the task of imaging the laptops and installing the few other bits of custom software only that clinic uses. The day I stopped by with the laptops and docking stations, the office manager (OM) was on vacation. However, one of the two doctors (Dr. Bleh) was in, so I set up her laptop and docking station on her desk and showed her how to use everything. That was one happy doctor! I left the other laptop and docking station on the office manager's desk with a note saying "Dr. Blah's laptop." (Dr. Blah doesn't like his desk or electronics being messed with.) The next day, the office manager (OM) called to tell me one of the computers I left wasn't working. Me: "Is it the one on Dr. Bleh's desk or the one I left on your desk for Dr. Blah?" OM: "You left 2 computers on my desk." Me: "No, I left a laptop and docking station on your desk." OM: "Wait...what? What's a docking station?" I explained what is was used for and what it looked like. OM: ((Long bit of silence...)) "Oh, that explains why (medical assistant) said the computer I gave her wasn't working. It's not a computer." Yes, she thought I had left her an extra "computer" to use wherever she wanted. Nope...that was a docking station. I can't imaging the conversation she had with the MA after she hung up the phone. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Jan 2021 05:39 PM PST Years ago I was a tech for a industrial branch of a large university. At this location was an engineering center filled with very special equipment for working with circuit boards and similar. I get a ticket about the printer in main lab is not working. Ticket details say they, the two señor professors, have tried everything and it is dead. They need a new printer installed. Now I got along with these guys every well but they were very bad about asking for help. I would say engineers are as bad as doctors when it comes to tech problems. I stated I'll head over and take a look but was told it will be a waste of my time. I go over to the lab and meet with Them. They show me the printer that is not responding. Next they proceeded to tell my they took it apart and put the parts under their new microscope. They also put some parts under a machine similar to a X-ray to review all the circuit board layers. Also tested every fuse and wire from the power cord to the main distribution board keeping detailed notes of all. After spending who knows how many hours looking at every part and then putting it back together they can not see anything wrong but it will still not turn on. Now when I walked in I saw the problem right away but let them tell me about everything they did. Once they finished I silently walked over, bent over, and turned on the power strip it was plugged into and magically it turns on. The printer amazing still worked after their "repair job". They were dumbfounded they missed something so simple. How or why they never tried another outlet or power cord is beyond me. Given they should have never even opened it, let alone take it apart, it would have been an easy thing to check. I worked there for several more years and it was still a running joke. They took it well a 20 year old tech out solved several professors with masters in electrical engineering and similar. In the long run it was a great icebreaker and they started calling sooner and more often given it could not be more embarrassing. [link] [comments]  |
| Shoutout to the professionals that keep me paid. Posted: 19 Jan 2021 07:26 PM PST Had a lovely call today. Which started on Saturday. Saturday: Received a photo of a print server (device which connects USB printers to a network). Text reads > I can't print... Monday (MLK day): I arrive at the home office of this CPA. All the lights are off and the "Open" sign is off. I open the door and realize the owner is not there. Quickly close it, and notify the EU they forgot to lock their door. Today: Call from EU: EU: "Thank you for telling me that my door was unlocked. I had XYZ repair man coming to fix such and such and they forgot to lock it. Come over whenever. I can't print. Me: "I saw the ticket and just wanted to verify the problem. You can't print. Is there anything else going on?" EU: " I can't print to any of my 3 printers. I have one printer that won't pick up paper. I can't access my tax program. My phone internet is slow. And I can't access the internet from my computer." Me: "Did you move anything?" EU: "We rearranged the office." I arrive onsite: The home office is a mess. (they run 3 businesses from this space). Everything is out of place. I organize the EUs desk. Quickly find the source of the problem (they accidentally used their ISP modem as the router, and had the router's incoming port plugged into the modem's incorrect port). The whole time the EU (a very nice Mexican woman who has known my family for a generation.) Is making pleasant small talk. The entire time thanking me over and over again for coming over. Here is the list of things I did:
(total time on-site 44 minutes) End of the call: EU thanks me again. Explains that they have had their tech savvy: cousin, son, grandson, and housekeeper as their tech support since the last time I supported them. Then said the most honest thing: "I know how to run my program. I don't know anything else about The EU paid onsite. And then bought xyz from my company. I hadn't been at this customer's site in 7 years. The last time I was there I fixed a MAC (bad HDD). Apparently the EU had been told by a young family member that they could have done that for free. Hence why I had not been onsite for 7 years. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Jan 2021 05:57 PM PST One of the groups at my company isn't very tech savvy. Ok, they are pretty terrible to the point that our IT help desk has asked me (QA Manager) to triage their requests because they are flooding queues with nonsense requests. This includes such hits as: "Someone deleted my spreadsheets from the desktop" "I moved my email to a folder, but I don't know which one. Can you resend it?" "I forgot my password and didn't set up the self service options. Also I gave a fake phone number for the text message TFA so I didn't get scammed" Today one of the users sent a company wide (600 people, yes they used multiple distribution lists to achieve this) to state that our Document Management System (DMS)was slow. After an eye roll where my spine may have appeared, and eyeballing up my whiskey shelf I sent a quick chat message: Me- "Hi Maria, I saw your note about the DMS being slow, I've been in it all day and haven't had an issue. I did check the server and everything looks healthy. I'd suggest rebooting or checking your connection at home. No response. Then a second email comes out from the same user telling the company the server is down and projects can't go live. I get a call from my boss "hey Skull, you got an ETA for when the server will be restored? Is IT aware or are you just handling it" Me- nope servers fine. Error is on the user end. I'll clarify. So I send an email stating it isn't down. Give the user and her Supervisor a call. Me- so the server isn't down, probably best to NOT tell the company that. I haven't ward any other complaints and IT hasn't had any either. Maria- it's slow! It takes a while for me to do anything. Me- ok, but that doesn't mean the server is down. Let's try this, we are going to ping web address. I proceed to walk her through the steps, which she is utterly confused. Ping time average is 350ish. I have her ping a few other sites and they are all obscenely high. Me- ok, so it looks like your connection is a bit slow. Do you know what your speed is? Or do you have a lot of people on? Are you on a wired or wireless connection? Her- huh? It's just me, and my husband is working from home too; my kids have class. At this point that whiskey looks really good. Her supervisor- Maria, you need to make sure your connection is adequate. Maria- I will put a ticket in for my IT to upgrade my connection. Me- no. IT can't fix your connection at home Call your ISP- it's probably Comcast, maybe Verizon, and see. You should have at least 100mb/second. I'd recommend 200. Her- I have America Online. And that My friends is when I poured myself a drink at 2pm. [link] [comments]  |
| Never take the customer's description of a problem at face-value. Posted: 19 Jan 2021 07:26 PM PST This is my first post on Reddit, though I've been lurking on TFTS for about a month or so now. Background: I work as a Tier II technician with about 3-5 other technicians for a retail company with over 70 stores. Each store has at least a half-dozen PCs, with roughly half of them being the POSes and the other half being used for other purposes in the back areas of the stores. One of these back area PCs is the PC that the store managers use to do their End-of-day activities, monitor security cameras, and do other manger-related tasks, so these manager PCs are pretty important for the store to function. All of our PCs are in an Active Directory Domain and follow a very specific naming convention, particularly when it comes to the PCs at our retail stores. If a retail store PC dies, its replacement gets the exact same name in AD as its predecessor. (This is important for the story below) Story: This takes place a few years ago. One day, we get word from the 1st-shift manager at one of our stores that the hard drive in their manager PC has died. Since we don't have a fancy imaging solution where we work, where we can just grab a pre-imaged hard drive and swap it in, we end up having to configure a temporary replacement PC while we call the PC manufacturer and get them to replace the hard drive. I had the least amount of things to that particular day (which is still a lot of things), so I went ahead and quickly began configuring a replacement PC. Before doing so, another tech deleted the PC with the dead HD off of domain so that I could configure its replacement with the same machine name. After a few hours of working, I'm nearing the completion of the replacement PC, when the following exchange occurs with one of my fellow techs: $OtherTech: "Hey, forget about replacement manager PC" $me: "Why? It's almost done!" $OtherTech: "Yeah, it turns out that our definition of a "hard drive" isn't the same as their definition of a "hard drive" $me: "WTF?" $OtherTech: "They got their existing PC working, but now they can't log onto it due to trust relationship issues. Can you go ahead and put it back on the domain?" As it turns out, the 1st-shift manager doesn't know too much about computers. Her definition of a "Hard Drive" was the PC itself (i.e., the PC case). Myself and my fellow techs all made the mistake of taking her words at face-value and began configuring a replacement until the 2nd-shift manager came in, noticed that the power cable to the PC was loose, and tightened it. However, because we had already taken that PC off the domain and put its replacement on the domain with the EXACT SAME NAME, the PC started having trust relationship issues and the manager had trouble logging onto it! Needless to say, I wasn't too happy with the fact that I wasted several hours of my day because the manager's definition of a Hard drive was wrong, yet we never questioned her words. TL;DR: 1st-shift store manager says that the hard drive died in the manger PC. We begin configuring a replacement PC until 2nd-shift store manager notices that the power cable on the manager PC was loose. However, he can't log onto the PC now since we took that PC off the domain in the process of configuring the replacement, which is on the domain with the exact same name, but is now no longer needed. Several hours were wasted because the 1st-shift manager believed that hard drive==PC case, yet we took her words at face-value and did not question her when she said that the hard drive had died until 2nd-shift manager discovered the true issue. [link] [comments]  |
| A/B question? I'll respond with No. Posted: 19 Jan 2021 02:16 PM PST We've all experienced it, we ask for information with options A or B and get option Q or just a Yes/No. Cast: Myself OF - Office Manager SR - Sales Rep who offers nothing but it's their equipment. A ticket came in yesterday submitted by OF for SR's cell phone. Ticket says it's not booting up, just a black screen. I send SR and OF an email with some quick troubleshooting steps and ask if it's possible for SR to go to a carrier store to have them look at the phone. No response. Send a follow up email today and OF replies. Below is what our email chain turned into.
It was at that point I nearly gave myself a concussion. I sent an email back with numbered questions. All of the emails from yesterday through today had SR copied in so he could answer. He never did. OF did call me and actually explain some stuff she left out of the ticket and actually answered my questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Jan 2021 08:31 AM PST I once worked on a access app (My 1st "real job" - was 3rd guy who had to work on it #1 and #2 were no longer there) It contained some life unecrypted customer passwords, which I didn't want to have on my dev system. So I fixed the issue. Later my mentor was reviewing the code but had issues logging in. He bypassed the logon screens and checked for his password, and only found ******. He tried for almost a day to figure out how I managed to add an encrypted password in access. Since that was still in the last millennium and access had no such feature at all. Because I was at a customer that day he didn't ping me directly. When I got back the next day he asked me how I had actually implemented it, I told him that I used a real direct SQL approach to handle it... Due to security reasons : update Allusers set password = '******' He was impressed by that approach and lunch was on him that day ;) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2021 04:59 AM PST Something a little different for you guys. I'm a field service engineer that specialises in medical products. A lot of the stuff I do is high end eye scanners, lasers and optical testers, but today's tale is about a simple table. Customer books me in to come fix an equipment table that won't go up anymore. These are motorised tables that you can adjust the height of to accommodate different patients. Customer said he wouldn't be there, but others would and they'd show me where the table was. I drive out to the site 40mins away and spend another 15 finding parking. I go to the office and guess what, it's closed and no-one's around. So I call the customer. He thought someone would be there, but no, it's dead quiet! He asked me to find the building manager as she could let me in. I find her office, but guess what - She's not there either. But! There's a mobile number. I call the number... no answer. Bugger. The customer is trying to call around to see if someone can let me in when the building manager calls me back. I explain the situation and she says she can get the cleaner to let me in, but first she needs to talk to the proprietor of the office. Unfortunately she doesn't know the person I've been talking to and needs to hear the OK from someone else I've never heard of. So a round robin of calls later and the customer has contacted the person the building manager knows who has called the building manager who called the cleaner who let me in. I can finally get to work! I find the table and it's a model I've never seen before. I check it and it is indeed not going up anymore. there's a digital readout showing some sort of message, but it's only 3 letters "RES" which doesn't mean anything to me. The down button engages the motor but since it's already at the bottom position it doesn't go anywhere. The up button does nothing. The switches are old and worn, so maybe they are faulty? I pull the switch box apart and run some tests. Continuity is good and shorting the switch directly does nothing. Not the button. So now I have to pull the table apart. The main control unit is under the table (which is all the way down) so I have to lie under the table and unscrew the heavy metal plate that holds all the power points and the circuitry. I put a chair under it so it doesn't drop on my head when I take the last screw out. At least I wasn't that dumb, no not today anyway. I get the panel off and find an enclosed box that acts as the control board for the table. More screws and a bit of pushing and swearing to get it out. Oddly there is only 1 screw on the unit itself. I undo it, but it won't open. Looks like it's a sealed unit! Bugger again. Now what? I decided to go back and look at the control panel. As I'm looking I see a post it note stuck to the table. "If table goes into reset mode (RES) Hold the DOWN button until it clears." I hold the down button. I count to 5. The message disappears and the display is now showing the table height. I try the up button. Table goes up, table goes down, Table goes up, Table goes down. I shake my head. 20 minutes later I have the table all back together and all the machinery plugged back in. I call the customer and tell them it's fixed. We all know RTFM and RTFS, so I guess now RTFP should also apply when there's a post it note telling you exactly what to do. [link] [comments]  |
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