Tales from Techsupport

Notice goes out to building on Friday:

"Water will be shut off in entire building between the hours of 9am and 1pm, Monday Morning. Maintenance will work to have water back on as soon as repairs to building are complete."

Water was shut off from 10am until 12:30pm

Today, a a lady walks up to me and asks, "How come the water is always getting shut off?" I pause a moment and realize this woman is always condescending, and if I saved her last penny from falling into the gutter, she'd complain that it touched the ground after falling from her purse.

Me: "Well, we perform maintenance on the building, and at regular intervals, we service valves, boilers and several other pieces of plumbing to lessen the chances of a big problem occurring outside of our controlled conditions."

Lady: "Well, it just seems like the water is always getting shut off here."

Me: "Well, regular maintenance does require service of pressurizedlines from time to time, and as we live in a city that has very hard water, these water lines tend to have an increased amount of sediment in them than other areas of the state."

Lady: "Oh, its because the building is so old?"

::grumble::

:wtf:

:so::so::so:

I told you not to do it this way last week didn't I?

"well, yeah - but I didn't want to do it because it's more work, and I'd have to redo it from the start"...

Well, if you'd have started this last week like I told you; you'd already be done now right?

"well, yeah - but I didn't want to, but now the way I did it isn't working".

WTF do you want from me - I told you what to do, you didn't do it that way. Now you have a problem this way -- this is why you have the problem - if you did it the way I told you it would work.

"Oh, I can make this work".

Fine make it work - quit bugging me.

"organic tape library device" Says: Melcar... I think I did a bad thing... The backup job on ServerX I thought it was running, but it wasn't, but I was trying to stop it, so I deleted the job. and now they all disappeared. See I thought by deleting the running job, it would just stop it - and instead it deleted it.





ya think? Jeee I didn't think "Deleting" it would actually Delete it... p.s. How do you tie shoes? Or put on pants? I Just can't figure it Out! :banghead:

Same boat. I really wonder how some of my lusers can manage to keep breathing on a regular basis.

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Same boat. I really wonder how some of my lusers can manage to keep breathing on a regular basis

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Yeah, this was our AS/400 specialist... " I don't really get Networking or PC's though... I just know my old obsolete piece of junk & that's OK cause I'm retiring in 2 years anyways".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Melcar

I told you not to do it this way last week didn't I?

"well, yeah - but I didn't want to do it because it's more work, and I'd have to redo it from the start"...

Well, if you'd have started this last week like I told you; you'd already be done now right?

"well, yeah - but I didn't want to, but now the way I did it isn't working".

WTF do you want from me - I told you what to do, you didn't do it that way. Now you have a problem this way -- this is why you have the problem - if you did it the way I told you it would work.

"Oh, I can make this work".

Fine make it work - quit bugging me.

---

Story of my life.



_____________


My wife's mother bought each of her children a "one last gift" each a couple of years ago - laptops (except for my wife. Weird).

None of them came with restore cds, but they did all have the restore programs on them. THey all require end user to provide blank DVDs.

I gave everyone who received them 4 DVDs, which each computer would require in order to build the backup software.

I told everyone that the first thing they needed to do when they turned on the laptops was run the restore software from the start menu, etc.

Within 6 months, each and every one of the siblings had asked me to fix their computer.

First question I asked:

"Where are your restore dvds?"

They: "What?"

"Remember the blank DVDs I gave you, and told you to run the software, first, as soon as you got the computer turned on?"

They (in variant forms): "Oh. I didn't run that."

"Why didn't you run it?"

They: "I couldn't figure it out/I didn't understand it."

"Why didn't you ask me how to do it?"

They: "I didn't want to bother you."

Our internal call tracking db app went tits up.
Manager emails the group saying it would need to be reset at the server level (including a server reboot).
Cue no less than 17 emails from people in my group saying "I can't get access to the tracking app".

Quote:

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"organic tape library device" Says: Melcar... I think I did a bad thing... The backup job on ServerX I thought it was running, but it wasn't, but I was trying to stop it, so I deleted the job. and now they all disappeared. See I thought by deleting the running job, it would just stop it - and instead it deleted it.

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So, how come this server doesn't eject the tapes anymore?


I'm gonna go with "somebody" deleted the job... {and of course somebody else didn't check that checkbox when they recreated said job}...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Our internal call tracking db app went tits up.
Manager emails the group saying it would need to be reset at the server level (including a server reboot).
Cue no less than 17 emails from people in my group saying "I can't get access to the tracking app".

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When my wife asks me what my biggest work-related talent is, I tell her "The ability to actually read and comprehend a piece of text". I'm quite serious, all of the coding stuff is just a toolbox :)

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Originally Posted by Dawlin

When my wife asks me what my biggest work-related talent is, I tell her "The ability to actually read and comprehend a piece of text". I'm quite serious, all of the coding stuff is just a toolbox :)

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It's not putting up with absolute idiots and not murdering them or at least causing physical harm to them?

Coworker: I can't print
Me: What happens?
Coworker: The printer says "out of toner"
Me: Choose a different printer. #87 is right next to your desk.
(a few minutes later I get an IM from her)
Coworker: There's no 87 printer in my list
Me: (at her desk) The reason you can't print is because you don't have any of the new printers listed
Coworker: What?
Me: The first week of December I sent an email saying that all the printer info will be changing and must be handled before the end of the year or you wouldn't be able to print
Coworker: OH yeah I saw it
Me: And?
Coworker: I ignored it because I knew I could call you if I had a problem
...
(At this point I should have told her to fuck off and walked away, but I didn't)
Me: I didn't send the email because I enjoy typing it - I sent it to prevent this kind of problem
Coworker: But it's not a problem, you're here to fix it now. I don't have time to read emails

Then you should have said, "And I don't have time to fix problems for idiots who feel their time is more important than mine. Good luck with printing."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Coworker: I can't print
Me: What happens?
Coworker: The printer says "out of toner"
Me: Choose a different printer. #87 is right next to your desk.
(a few minutes later I get an IM from her)
Coworker: There's no 87 printer in my list
Me: (at her desk) The reason you can't print is because you don't have any of the new printers listed
Coworker: What?
Me: The first week of December I sent an email saying that all the printer info will be changing and must be handled before the end of the year or you wouldn't be able to print
Coworker: OH yeah I saw it
Me: And?
Coworker: I ignored it because I knew I could call you if I had a problem
...
(At this point I should have told her to fuck off and walked away, but I didn't)
Me: I didn't send the email because I enjoy typing it - I sent it to prevent this kind of problem
Coworker: But it's not a problem, you're here to fix it now. I don't have time to read emails

---

Resend the email. Walk away.

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Originally Posted by Schezar

Resend the email. Walk away.

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This.

Plus does your company have any sort of weekly interdepartmental meetings between middle managers? I know where I work we have these, with varying degrees of attendance) designed to air out gripes between groups. This would be something that your manager might be able to bitch about when they ask why IT costs so much money.

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Coworker: I can't print
Me: What happens?
Coworker: The printer says "out of toner"
Me: Choose a different printer. #87 is right next to your desk.
(a few minutes later I get an IM from her)
Coworker: There's no 87 printer in my list
Me: (at her desk) The reason you can't print is because you don't have any of the new printers listed
Coworker: What?
Me: The first week of December I sent an email saying that all the printer info will be changing and must be handled before the end of the year or you wouldn't be able to print
Coworker: OH yeah I saw it
Me: And?
Coworker: I ignored it because I knew I could call you if I had a problem
...
(At this point I should have told her to fuck off and walked away, but I didn't)
Me: I didn't send the email because I enjoy typing it - I sent it to prevent this kind of problem
Coworker: But it's not a problem, you're here to fix it now. I don't have time to read emails

---

Bullshit they do not have time. I bet if you could check their internet usage they would mysteriously have plenty of time for checking Facebook.

Walk into a new rennovation, look at cabinets, and realize the cabinet doors wrong. They didn't install them to open butterfly style, and they intended to, but drilled the holes on the cabinet doors in the wrong place. Then they tried to make it look like it was intentional, but left the hinge pieces on the inside of the cabinetry. BIG Mistake.

So I took a picture of it, e-mailed it to the property manager and let her know that it was going to take me a while to fix it.

About 5 minutes later, she was in the renovated unit spewing up a storm on the phone.

Manager: NO GOD DAMNIT. I DON'T WANT ANY EXCUSES. I DON'T CARE IF IT WAS YOU, OR YOUR RETARDED BROTHER. IF YOUR RETARDED BROTHER CAN'T DO THE JOB RIGHT, FRANCO, YOU NEED TO LEAVE YOUR RETARDED BROTHER AT SPECIAL ED CLASS. THINK ABOUT THAT WHILE WE DON'T USE YOU TO DO OUR CABINETS.

Me: ::whispered:: holy shit.

Manager: ::hangs up phone:: - it's okay. It's just franco. He needs to be afraid of me, because he won't do a good job otherwise, and this way he'll come begging for work at a discounted price next time he needs *us.*

Me: We need new hinges as well.

Manager: Okay. Who do we get our hinges from?

Me: Franco

We have a special hosting customer that doesn't care for "unnecessary automation". Sales team of course acquiesces to every demand, and my support team gets stuck doing the menial, laborious tasks that should be happening automatically.

Like log rolling.

A monitoring alert for the server's Logs drive reports it is filling up and breached 90%. Standard SOP is for the tech on duty to hop onto the server and compress IIS log files. This takes a few hours, as there are multiple sites on the machine and the log files each take up around a 1 to 1.5GB per day. (I just counted; there are 36 sites hosted on this server).

So the tech starts this process, and leaves a note in the tracking ticket that reads - "Compressed last month's logs for all sites. Space utilization still rising, now at 94%. Something appears to be eating up the space and it's not logs."

Next tech investigates. Finds a couple of sites that didn't get compressed. Does so. Leaves a note in the tracking ticket - "Agree with [other tech]'s assessment. Space still rising, now 95%."

As 95% is considered a critical event, the issue was escalated. I look at it. I return the ticket with this comment: "After moving the files to the compressed folders, you still need to delete the originals. Space now at 73%."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aazdazen

It's not putting up with absolute idiots and not murdering them or at least causing physical harm to them?

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This has my vote.

It is physically painful for me to not pimp slap some of my users occasionally.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aazdazen

It's not putting up with absolute idiots and not murdering them or at least causing physical harm to them?

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That's my greatest talent.

There would be whole branches of the USDA sitting empty if I wasn't a freaking GOD at that.

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It's not putting up with absolute idiots and not murdering them or at least causing physical harm to them?

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Yeah, something I need to work on - running out of hiding places for the bodies...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charbok

We have a special hosting customer that doesn't care for "unnecessary automation". Sales team of course acquiesces to every demand, and my support team gets stuck doing the menial, laborious tasks that should be happening automatically.

Like log rolling.

A monitoring alert for the server's Logs drive reports it is filling up and breached 90%. Standard SOP is for the tech on duty to hop onto the server and compress IIS log files. This takes a few hours, as there are multiple sites on the machine and the log files each take up around a 1 to 1.5GB per day. (I just counted; there are 36 sites hosted on this server).

So the tech starts this process, and leaves a note in the tracking ticket that reads - "Compressed last month's logs for all sites. Space utilization still rising, now at 94%. Something appears to be eating up the space and it's not logs."

Next tech investigates. Finds a couple of sites that didn't get compressed. Does so. Leaves a note in the tracking ticket - "Agree with [other tech]'s assessment. Space still rising, now 95%."

As 95% is considered a critical event, the issue was escalated. I look at it. I return the ticket with this comment: "After moving the files to the compressed folders, you still need to delete the originals. Space now at 73%."

---

I am guessing this customer cannot be told that some automation processes are part of the operating system and cannot be disabled?

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

I am guessing this customer cannot be told that some automation processes are part of the operating system and cannot be disabled?

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Just manually create a cron job for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

I am guessing this customer cannot be told that some automation processes are part of the operating system and cannot be disabled?

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Customer is aware of automation tools. Customer's last hosting provider used many of them and somehow irrevocably corrupted their source code.

Whether the two are truly related or not, I cannot say. What I can say is that the contract the Sales team signed and handed to us specifically mentions that menial tasks, such as log rolling, are not to be automated and are to performed by live techs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charbok

Customer is aware of automation tools. Customer's last hosting provider used many of them and somehow irrevocably corrupted their source code.

Whether the two are truly related or not, I cannot say. What I can say is that the contract the Sales team signed and handed to us specifically mentions that menial tasks, such as log rolling, are not to be automated and are to performed by live techs.

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Mindboggling. But, hey, if it pays...

Me: I received an auto-reply from a customer's email address that states "mary.doe@law.com" is no longer with this firm. I want to record that they requested removal from our email system. Do you have an account number for Law Firm?
Coworker: What do you need it for?
Me: I need to remove their email address from the system.
Coworker: Why are you removing it?
Me: Because their auto-reply says that she's no longer with the firm
Coworker: Who sent you the email?
Me: It was an auto-reply from "mary.doe@law.com"
Coworker: And she wants to be removed why?
Me: She's no longer with the firm.
Coworker: I don't see a "Mary Doe" for that firm
Me: Right, she is no longer with the firm
Coworker: So how do you have her name?
Me: I got an email to remove her email address from the system
Coworker: Why are you helping them? They never actually purchased the software
Me: ... I'll just remove the address from the system
Coworker: Why did they want to be removed from the system?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Me: I received an auto-reply from a customer's email address that states "mary.doe@law.com" is no longer with this firm. I want to record that they requested removal from our email system. Do you have an account number for Law Firm?
Coworker: What do you need it for?
Me: I need to remove their email address from the system.
Coworker: Why are you removing it?
Me: Because their auto-reply says that she's no longer with the firm
Coworker: Who sent you the email?
Me: It was an auto-reply from "mary.doe@law.com"
Coworker: And she wants to be removed why?
Me: She's no longer with the firm.
Coworker: I don't see a "Mary Doe" for that firm
Me: Right, she is no longer with the firm
Coworker: So how do you have her name?
Me: I got an email to remove her email address from the system
Coworker: Why are you helping them? They never actually purchased the software
Me: ... I'll just remove the address from the system
Coworker: Why did they want to be removed from the system?

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Who's on first?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Me: I didn't send the email because I enjoy typing it - I sent it to prevent this kind of problem
Coworker: But it's not a problem, you're here to fix it now. I don't have time to read emails

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Among the many insanely stupid things I have to do as department head is forward to faculty emails from the Dean or Provost's office'd that they have already received, because they ignore all email from "administration" as a matter of course. It is bewildering to me that smart people can be so stupid.

edit: Of course some of them ignore email from me too ... those are the people I have to treat as unique and special snowflakes if I want them to do anything.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voca

Among the many insanely stupid things I have to do as department head is forward to faculty emails from the Dean or Provost's office'd that they have already received, because they ignore all email from "administration" as a matter of course. It is bewildering to me that smart people can be so stupid.

edit: Of course some of them ignore email from me too ... those are the people I have to treat as unique and special snowflakes if I want them to do anything.

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We moved our Warehouse Operations last week.

Email sent Agency wide, explaining what was going on, that anything related to the Warehouse/Mailroom would be delayed and that normal operations were expected to resume this Thursday (To give us plenty of time to get things up and running and anticipate the unexpected delays that happen)

Doing the mail run today I am beseiged with questions - Why hasn't my package gone out/where is my mail/why don't you have any boxes down in the mail annex/some variation of "Why hasn't X occured?"
Every time I patiently explained about the move and reminded them an agencywide email was sent out a week and then 2 days before the move.

"Oh, I never read those emails"

/headdesk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voca

Among the many insanely stupid things I have to do as department head is forward to faculty emails from the Dean or Provost's office'd that they have already received, because they ignore all email from "administration" as a matter of course. It is bewildering to me that smart people can be so stupid.

edit: Of course some of them ignore email from me too ... those are the people I have to treat as unique and special snowflakes if I want them to do anything.

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Unless its required by your position you should send out an email that you are no longer forwarding emails, Ignoring them from the original source is not excuse for not knowing they exist.

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

Unless its required by your position you should send out an email that you are no longer forwarding emails, Ignoring them from the original source is not excuse for not knowing they exist.

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The role of department head in an academic department is somewhat unique --- in order to achieve certain kinds of goals I need the other professors to do certain things, but I am not their boss -- I can't simply tell them to do them. First among equals gets at it somewhat, as does thinking of the role as a form of coaching. So I can simply not forward emails, or not walk down the hall and say "here's this opportunity, you should take it", and sometimes I don't. But sometimes it is important enough to me to do it. It's still annoying.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris

Manager: NO GOD DAMNIT. I DON'T WANT ANY EXCUSES. I DON'T CARE IF IT WAS YOU, OR YOUR RETARDED BROTHER. IF YOUR RETARDED BROTHER CAN'T DO THE JOB RIGHT, FRANCO, YOU NEED TO LEAVE YOUR RETARDED BROTHER AT SPECIAL ED CLASS. THINK ABOUT THAT WHILE WE DON'T USE YOU TO DO OUR CABINETS.
[/b][/i]

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Sooo....

Franco delivers the hinges to me today. . . .


Me: "Hey man, I'm really sorry you had to get yelled at like that. It was sort of my fault. I just wanted she to be aware of what was going to have to happen with the cabinets before the tenants could move in. I had no idea you were going to get yelled at like that."

Franco: "It's okay man. I shouldn't have left my brother here by himself. I had stuff to do over at another job site, and I forgot to check his work when I got back. He's what you people call, how do you say, 'special?' It won't happen again."


Me: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




:jawdrop:

Other-Tech: Yeah, one of the things I want to work on in the coming year is how to work on an Ipad...

Me: Ummm, What? You want to learn how to program for one?

O.t.: No, just learn how to use one.

me: THere's nothing to learn - you just fucking use it.

O.t.: Well, yeah, but how?

Me: Just like your phone

o.t.: But I have a droid, not an Iphone!

me: ..........
..........
..........
.........
...........
..........
.........

How skilled is this tech as a tech? I mean how can they be a tech if they cannot figure out an iPad?

My thoughts too. We have varying degrees of techs here, because you really don't have to know that much IT to change passwords, help with CAPS LOCK keys and find lost files.
But not knowing how to use an iPad ? Damn...

yea that was my point an iPad is so simple a Congressman can do it...

Quote:

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How skilled is this tech as a tech?

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Not very - her primary role is webmaster. So more artistic then "tech".

That is even less of an excuse because with how popular ipad is a webmaster should at least once and awhile check their site with one to make sure nothing is too funky.

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

That is even less of an excuse because with how popular ipad is a webmaster should at least once and awhile check their site with one to make sure nothing is too funky.

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There are browser emulator websites that do that for free.

Add to that the fact that this is NOT the dot-com-BOOM of the mid 90's and most web developers do NOT get paid particularly well.

OK... Here we go again... and people wonder why I drink:

Webmaster to me: Hey would our Email encryption service do anything to PDF attachments?

Ummm WTF? No. WHy?

WM: Well, I got these 3 PDF's in an email and I can open them just fine, but when I try to put them out on the intranet for people to download - it just gives a 404 not found. and the Only thing I can think of is maybe the Email encryption service did something to the PDF's so that they can't be hosted on the website.

me: Now why in the hell would you think email encryption service had anything to do with our Intranet?

WM: I dunno that's just the only thing I can think of..

{Note, she grabbed me as I was rushing out the door to go fix other REAL problems}


So, I get back sit at my desk, RDP to the webserver call up IIS manager & boom, "logging off for restart"...

Me: WM? Did you just reboot the webserver?

WM: Yeah, why were you in it?

me: Yes.

WM: I was trying to fix that problem with the PDF's...

me: /sigh... fine whatever.

Server reboots get to looking at it & see the problem almost immediately...


Let's see if anybody here can get it file name was: insurance_form_#438523465-3495239457.pdf
{Not the real file name... but the one offending little character is there...}


WM after being told what the problem was: OH! I should have been able to figure that out on my own!

me: Yes, Yes you should have.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Melcar

me: Yes, Yes you should have.

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I hope you said that out loud.

I too have been losing my patience more often lately. I don't know if it's because of the weather or the straws of stupidity are finally stretching the camel's back or what, but I find myself being less and less forgiving when it comes to shit people should know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Melcar

file name was: insurance_form_#438523465-3495239457.pdf

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I don't see anything in there that's an invalid windows filename character. (I assume windows since you mention IIS).

I was even able to get a space in front of the first character via clever re-use of the "rename" command and quotation marks for the string.

Quote:

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invalid windows filename character

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True - which is why she could open the PDF's off a share or as an email attachment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mileron

I hope you said that out loud.

I too have been losing my patience more often lately. I don't know if it's because of the weather or the straws of stupidity are finally stretching the camel's back or what, but I find myself being less and less forgiving when it comes to shit people should know.

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Nope, that's just called: "getting older". :grinyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mileron

I hope you said that out loud.

I too have been losing my patience more often lately. I don't know if it's because of the weather or the straws of stupidity are finally stretching the camel's back or what, but I find myself being less and less forgiving when it comes to shit people should know.

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Because nobody seems to be learning, People do not learn from tech support they just keep calling tech support.

Quote:

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Because nobody seems to be learning, People do not learn from tech support they just keep calling tech support.

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Yes, this exactly: "Why should I learn anything when I can just ask Melcar & he already knows the answer!"

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"Geee - I never knew that document existed!"

Yes, that's because I cleverly hid it in our departmental share, where we put all our notes, under the folder Telephones. Cause I knew nobody would EVER look there for notes on the phone system. (and Yes, I said that out loud too!)

LOL I forgot to tell you guys about this one from Tuesday....

Get a call from one of our users:

My docking station isn't dead - the laptop is fine, but the dock doesn't work at all, no lights on it nothing, I had "Secretary who is going to school to be an IT tech" look and she couldn't figure it out.

----- get up there take a look; Turn to my user & say - is it April fools today?
she says "what no? why"?

Your power cord is unplugged. or rather it's plugged into the laptop not the dock... If it's plugged into the dock it'll power both - if it's plugged into the laptop then only the laptop works.

"Well how would that have gotten switched?"

I dunno - that's why I asked if it was April 1st -- to see if somebody was playing a practical joke on you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Melcar

LOL I forgot to tell you guys about this one from Tuesday....

Get a call from one of our users:

My docking station isn't dead - the laptop is fine, but the dock doesn't work at all, no lights on it nothing, I had "Secretary who is going to school to be an IT tech" look and she couldn't figure it out.

----- get up there take a look; Turn to my user & say - is it April fools today?
she says "what no? why"?

Your power cord is unplugged. or rather it's plugged into the laptop not the dock... If it's plugged into the dock it'll power both - if it's plugged into the laptop then only the laptop works.

"Well how would that have gotten switched?"

I dunno - that's why I asked if it was April 1st -- to see if somebody was playing a practical joke on you.

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That's creepy - I had a user with the same exact problem on Tuesday.

I figured it was the cleaners being careless.

those also sound like what I call a persistent disease in the office world. Tryphobia, Nobody is ever willing to just try something.

I once had someone who had plugged a power strip into itself insist their laptop was broken because it wouldn't turn on. And then proceeded to argue that wasn't the problem when I showed them what was going on. And then was surprised the laptop started charging when I unplugged the power strip from itself and into the outlet. You never know what kind of stupidity people will come up with next...

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Originally Posted by Salamane

I once had someone who had plugged a power strip into itself insist their laptop was broken because it wouldn't turn on. And then proceeded to argue that wasn't the problem when I showed them what was going on. And then was surprised the laptop started charging when I unplugged the power strip from itself and into the outlet. You never know what kind of stupidity people will come up with next...

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Tech support: is your computer plugged into the wall?

Customer: My computer did not come with a wall.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

Tech support: is your computer plugged into the wall?

Customer: My computer did not come with a wall.

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Don't forget though, wall != outlet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

those also sound like what I call a persistent disease in the office world. Tryphobia, Nobody is ever willing to just try something.

---

I have the opposite where I work, for 20 years the company has existed without an 'IT guy', so they've just muddled through. Now they employed me to manage a transition to new software and develop (new) IT strategies as they've finally decided they want to grow the business from what it's been for the last 10 years. I'm forever trying to get them to leave stuff to me as they've developed, what is best called, 'bad habits' over the years.

One example that I fixed in my first week: it's a small company (20 people) and not one of the 20 PCs had anti-virus software installed. Amazingly, not one of those PCs had any sort of infection.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HerbertDypp

One example that I fixed in my first week: it's a small company (20 people) and not one of the 20 PCs had anti-virus software installed. Amazingly, not one of those PCs had any sort of infection.

---

That's the week you play the lottery.

That's the week you don't play. All your luck has already been burned up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

Because nobody seems to be learning, People do not learn from tech support they just keep calling tech support.

---

ka-ching!

It's almost like an incentive to not educate end users...if only they'd generate work when I wanted them to instead of when I was in the middle of something actually complicated instead of something I'd told them already 9 times.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Merrick ap'Milandra

ka-ching!

It's almost like an incentive to not educate end users...if only they'd generate work when I wanted them to instead of when I was in the middle of something actually complicated instead of something I'd told them already 9 times.

---

In the words of my Theories of Personality prof at Temple (for whom I had a major crush), "If you all don't get A's in my course I have to go back and figure out how I failed to reinforce you to do so."

E.g. you are in a co-dependent relationship with your miscreants here. Frankly well upwards of 90% of the problem here is with your recidivists. Indeed they may be, like ivory soap ... 99 and 44/100% to blame. Whatever is left there is within your control. Of course that begs the question is it worth your effort AND within your abilities to reinforce them to knock it off?

In the meantime your misery is the gain of those of us in the cheap seats getting shits and giggles at their expense. I doubt I'd have the patience to deal with customer service. Hats off to those of you here who do.
... :Popcorn:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aennyil

In the words of my Theories of Personality prof at Temple (for whom I had a major crush), "If you all don't get A's in my course I have to go back and figure out how I failed to reinforce you to do so."

E.g. you are in a co-dependent relationship with your miscreants here. Frankly well upwards of 90% of the problem here is with your recidivists. Indeed they may be, like ivory soap ... 99 and 44/100% to blame. Whatever is left there is within your control. Of course that begs the question is it worth your effort AND within your abilities to reinforce them to knock it off?

In the meantime your misery is the gain of those of us in the cheap seats getting shits and giggles at their expense. I doubt I'd have the patience to deal with customer service. Hats off to those of you here who do.
... :Popcorn:

---

The problem I run into is that most of my users don't have any ambition to learn. Even the ones who don't use it as an excuse to slack off and blame it on IT just aren't driven to do anything to understand the what or the why.

Why would they? If they wanted to know how computers function to the same degree you do they would be in IT themselves. Most users just want their stuff to work. Their computer is a black box to them, and they like it that way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Why would they? If they wanted to know how computers function to the same degree you do they would be in IT themselves. Most users just want their stuff to work. Their computer is a black box to them, and they like it that way.

---

I'm not even talking to the degree I am at.

I don't think it is too much to expect to understand the difference between a Windows login box and an application login box. For an application that is used every day.

Or how to fill out a web form completely after you've been told you need to 4-5 times.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aennyil

"If you all don't get A's in my course I have to go back and figure out how I failed to reinforce you to do so."

---

Awesome prof, except for the word "reinforce". Indicates a failing on the part of the students.

I had a similar prof, but he said "If anyone gets a failing grade, I see it as a failing in myself to motivate you to care about the material."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aennyil

E.g. you are in a co-dependent relationship with your miscreants here. Frankly well upwards of 90% of the problem here is with your recidivists.

---

LOL. Busting out the Fox News phrasing here.

Thing is, it's not their JOB to know how to deal with application crashes from home-brewed software that's written by another team than I'm on. It's mine. Their job is to USE the software to do THEIR job.

Mine is to assist them in making it work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aennyil

Indeed they may be, like ivory soap ... 99 and 44/100% to blame. Whatever is left there is within your control. Of course that begs the question is it worth your effort AND within your abilities to reinforce them to knock it off?

---

The end users are NOT idiots, it's just not their job to know how to deal with the fact that some LEC portal has gone down or that InHouseApp#1 is chucking an eax offset error, or that suddenly lots of apps won't launch because, without prompting the user, their machine updated to java 8, which breaks the 20 year old stuff that still relies on java 1.3 because there ARE no firmware upgrades for switches that old.

There is a TON of stuff within my control, and educating end users is part of that. Generally, I'm lucky, because they're happy to learn.

That being said, most of them use us for what our JOB is, and that is for helping them with things they can't do for themselves either because they don't have the access rights or because they can't interpret the errors.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aennyil

In the meantime your misery is the gain of those of us in the cheap seats getting shits and giggles at their expense. I doubt I'd have the patience to deal with customer service. Hats off to those of you here who do.
... :Popcorn:

---

I don't "deal" with customer service.

Your automatic assumption of "misery" annoys me. I don't do this because I HAVE to. I do it because I enjoy it and I can still regularly advance in my pay grade while doing so, and work with like-minded people.

It's what I really love doing, day in and day out.

I went back from administering dozens of citrix and exchange farms, which I was GOOD at, to a mixed management/tech role that involved direct contact with callers because I like the ability to plan things out in advance rather than shoot from the hip under management that insists on reactive instead of proactive.

So yeah, now I'm at a job that cares more about doing things right the first time than doing things over and over for the quick solutions.

I still have plenty of funny stories to tell, but over the last decade or so, it's become clear that what I love the most is customer service.

Not a meat mill like an average call center, but actual customer service group staffed with knowledgeable techs.

It's a far cry from "My Cup Holder Isn't Working".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Why would they? If they wanted to know how computers function to the same degree you do they would be in IT themselves. Most users just want their stuff to work. Their computer is a black box to them, and they like it that way.

---

While that attitude from users sure keeps a large industry gainfully employed I will say people should at least gain a basic understanding... lets just say a large number of tech support calls after a big summer microburst is "Is my cable out the screen says no signal" They had a power flicker and they did not know they had to turn the computer back on.

Quote:

---

E.g. you are in a co-dependent relationship with your miscreants here.

---

You do realize we only share the funny stories right?

These are the truth:
http://i.imgur.com/VHwPoV9.png

And I'll add two more states of depression/elation:
Circle of Hell 3, indeterminate exit of SNAFU: http://i.imgur.com/gKVzIL3.png

Survival of Hell 3 leads to Hell 0: http://i.imgur.com/gcPT2D6.png

But in an entropic system, fall from grace is inescapable leading to Hell 1:
"I have no idea what I am doing."

Escaping from Hell 1 leads to Hell 2:
"I am a a God."

It is impossible to go through the Hell levels out of order, no exceptions.

"Hey Melcar! I was working on Server04 the other day, and now I can't find the Server2012 DVD. Did you do anything with it?"

Nope.

"Well it's not in Server04's DVD drive".

walk back to server room -- "See it's empty".

That's Server03. - This one's Server04. and TADA! DVD right where you left it. You're welcome.


---- 20 minutes later. "Server04 wasn't doing what I wanted it to so I rebooted it. But I couldn't find it on the KVM, I could only find Server03 -- so I just held the power button in on Server04 - but how do I get the KVM to come up to Server04"

all you have to do is push the button on the KVM. It's this button, 1 button away from Server03.

"Well I did push the button and the screen was black!"

Yeah, did you wiggle the mouse to wake it up?

Also, you could have restarted Server04 through Remote desktop


---------------------

Staff Member to Other Tech: We did a Interview over in the interview room with Law enforcement on this date/time -- could you assist us with burning some DVD's?

Other Tech to me and boss: Can't find the interview on the DVR on that date.

Me: I can what's your problem?

Boss: Maybe the DVR's date/time is wrong?

Me: The Date time of the DVR is synced to our NTP server.

OT: Oh, I was looking at the wrong month.

Me to boss: Unfortunately I can't sync other Tech's brain through NTP.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melcar

"Hey Melcar! I was working on Server04 the other day, and now I can't find the Server2012 DVD. Did you do anything with it?"

Nope.

"Well it's not in Server04's DVD drive".

---

Good. It shouldn't be. You should put things away when you're done with them so other staff members don't have to go on a disc-hunt or waste a blank to burn an .iso file.

*twitch*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melcar

so I just held the power button in on Server04 - but how do I get the KVM to come up to Server04"

---

*double twitch*
I appreciate that you're not pressing buttons willy-nilly, Staff Member, but PLEASE learn how to use a kvm.

Oh man, sometimes it's SO hard to be professional with people like that.

I worked for an MIS once who used to leave TONS of CD's *complete with VL keycodes written on them* just LAYING AROUND at client sites.

3 Years later, after a voluntary audit turned up about five times the number of XP SP 2 copies we'd purchased in use *somewhere* he said "we should stop keeping those codes with the CD's".

Uhhh, way ahead of you, chief. The rest of have a password protected file on our laptops, a copy on our usb keys, and another mailed to our e-mail accounts in a folder. We carry blank cd's but we haven't had to use one in ages because...those spindles over there? Those are our growing collections of things with your name and the keys on them that we retrieve every time we go somewhere and find them.

He just hung his head in shame and headed back to his office, coming out later to thank us for picking them up.

Thankfully, he was aware that he was a major offender, he just didn't know we'd been cleaning up after him for months and just silently shaking our heads at that one particular quirk of his absentmindedness.

He took a while to get used to but we all know that if we'd asked him to stop leaving CD's with Keys on them everywhere before *HE* brought it up, he'd blow up about how back then he was always dashing from site to site and didn't always have TIME to check that he'd ejected discs. (which was bullshit because we all did it, but we knew his temper better than he did.)

I should add that MOST of them were SQL Server or Windows Server codes, with the occasional copy of Visual Studio and a ton of MS Office for Access licensing, but the only ones most people cared about running off with at client sites were free copies of XP and Office, and mostly XP.

Quote:

---

*double twitch*

---

You might want to consider getting that looked at...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melcar

You might want to consider getting that looked at...

---

Just need more potassium.

Went into a Five Below store today. (Basically like a dollar store, but everything under $5)

Woman walks up to the register and hands the cashier her phone, and a stack of packaged cell phone cases that the store sells.
Woman: "You need to tell me if this'll fit my phone."
Cashier: "What kind of phone is it, ma'am?"
The phone is already in a case.
Woman: "You need to tell me, and tell me if one of them will fit."
Cashier: "Lady, you bought the phone, not me."

I wanted to high-five the cashier.

"So, I exported the database to a csv for the reporting team."

"Uhhhhh, okay? What are they going to do with it?"

"They said they wanted to run some stats on it. Stuff like gross sales, average inventory age, you know. But they keep telling me they can't open the file. Excel keeps crashing."

"Didn't we have like... twenty million records in the primary table like three months ago? Did we finally throw out all the dead records?"

"Oh, I don't know anything about it."

"How big is the csv?"

"22 gigs. Do you think it's corrupted?"

"I think opening a 22 gig csv in any program is probably going to be bad idea."

Quote:

---

"22 gigs. Do you think it's corrupted?"

"I think opening a 22 gig csv in any program is probably going to be bad idea."

---

Oh god - that reminds me of one time way back in the late 90's in the Air Force - Don't remember if it was Win95 or 98 -- our Tech orders (manuals for EVERYTHING) had changes that came out, they distributed it as a single text file that was several hundred mb in size.

I was finally able to open this file by dramatically increasing the size of the Windows swap file.

----

hmmm, bet you could open that 22 gig CSV by throwing in a SSD and dropping a 50gb swap file on it. :evil:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ikeya

"So, I exported the database to a csv for the reporting team."

"Uhhhhh, okay? What are they going to do with it?"

"They said they wanted to run some stats on it. Stuff like gross sales, average inventory age, you know. But they keep telling me they can't open the file. Excel keeps crashing."

"Didn't we have like... twenty million records in the primary table like three months ago? Did we finally throw out all the dead records?"

"Oh, I don't know anything about it."

"How big is the csv?"

"22 gigs. Do you think it's corrupted?"

"I think opening a 22 gig csv in any program is probably going to be bad idea."

---

I think a 22gb anything not a video or audio file being opened in one shot like that will choke a computer.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

I think a 22gb anything not a video or audio file being opened in one shot like that will choke a computer.

---

My computer makes moaning sounds if I try to choke it.

Quote:

---

My computer makes moaning sounds if I try to choke it.

---

If it's still making noise that means you're not choking hard enough.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

My computer makes moaning sounds if I try to choke it.

---

There is a politically incorrect joke I could make but I will resist.

Tech: These instructions don't work.

Me: ???? Ok, what are you trying to do?

Tech: Moron wants to change his voicemail greeting - and we're following these instructions and they don't work.

Me: They work perfectly fine - Dial voicemail phone number enter passcode when prompted, Dial 3 like instructions & voice prompt says for user options, dial 1 to change greeting, (again like both printed instructions and voice prompts say.)
see watch! puts phone on speaker dials number, enters passcode... you have 32,767 new voicemails, press 1 to listen to new voicemails, press 2 for other options, press 3 for User options.

(3)

To change your greeting press 1!

See just like instructions!

Tech: Ok.


5 minutes later.

Tech: These instructions don't work!

Me: I just showed you they did.

Tech: Well they don't work on mine either! Come watch.

dials voicemail phone number --- (enters system default passcode from 8 years ago). That was an invalid entry..... Please re-enter.

Tech: See Instructions don't work!



Me: .................................................. .......................................And That's when I shot her your Honor.

I'd hate to say it, but your tech is right! They Don't work! (For stupid)

Ok folks, boss is on vacation - so I forwarded his desk phone to "main" office number. So if you answer it, and somebody wants to leave a voicemail for him you must use the Transfer to Voicemail function. -- If you use the cnf/trn function it will just come right back to "main office extension". Ok?

great sure...

Tech on phone: "Sure let me transfer you to his voicemail." -- Main office starts ringing. "Teeeheee ooops... I screwed it up, Melcar how do I do this again?"

Melcar: Press Transfer to Voicemail, dial 3 digit extention Press Pound"

Tech: "But that's what I always do".

Melcar: Well, if you already follow the procedure daily what's the problem?

Tech: "You confused me by telling me to do what I always do".

Melcar: Right, well, if that's what you always do then carry on procedure has not changed.

Tech: "but you said..."

Melcar: /sigh

One of my problem users sent me an IM.

PU: We got a secure file transmittal email from a customer
Me: Okay
PU: What's the password?
Me: Have we received files from the customer before? You can find that out in the call tracking system under their profile page.
PU: I've only been handling the email box since lunch time for this week
Me: Okay... but if you look at the customer's profile (or give me their info so I can do it) I can tell you if they've sent us similar emails before, because typically we try to keep the passwords complicated and hidden
PU: It's the first email I responded to today
Me: Okay... what's their account information?
PU: They sent a file, I need their password
Me: I need their account information
PU: I need their password
Me: Make one up and write it down
PU: Make what up?

I've got an internet cafe that I wired electrical for over at my main building.

I put in my two cents that the windows administrator accounts should not be the primary means of entry, in fact, I configured user accounts that were essentially guests so that no one would do anything stupid. I locked out all software installs, etc from the user accounts.

About 3 weeks in, the manager called me and asked for me to change everything over to administrator because they were having problems with printing. I made a suggestion that I could install the drivers that would be capable of doing it, and the manager said she just wanted everything to be easy for the users.

I said that I didn't think it was a good idea, but i could do that, explained that there would be shit loads of terrible software that would come up installed on them and it would be a nightmare as soon as the two computers became unusable.

about 6 months ago the first problems occurred. People were installing software with toolbars onto the computers.

about a month ago, I started noticing porn pop up, as well as the pop-ups with obnoxious Audio saying, "YOUR PORN IS A VIRUS!" And the like.

That all being said, I don't want to have anything to do with it. I'm not paid to be the IT guy. I chose not to pursue the career of an IT guy, because like you guys, I don't like users, and no amount of money you could pay me would make me feel remotely okay with the idea of fixing others mistakes when it comes to software. (I can rip a pipe out of a wall, but dealing with software uninstalling is a painfully boring process for me, and I don't ever have the luxury of sticking 8 PCs in one room in order to work on all 8 at once. I have to do it as a case by case basis, and I don't have time for that).

From fixing family computers, to these silly, preventable work dilemmas, I don't have time for it.

I fix my cars, not because I want to be an auto mechanic, but because I don't like paying someone to do what I can do myself.

I build my own furniture, not because I want to be a carpenter, but because I don't like paying for a lesser product made out of particle boards, even though it is more expensive to do the same thing myself.

I fix my computers and optimize them, not because I enjoy working on them, but because I have a specific task that I have in mind, and because I need to optimize what I am using them for.

This thread is the perfect argument for why I have no desire to be everyone else's IT guy.

YOU guys get paid for it. YOU guys have a salary, a commission, and a particular rate of pay for how you will be compensated for it.

ME fixing someone ELSE'S mistake is NOT changing the tire in the car that I was in on my way to Disneyland because I chose to carpool. ME fixing other's problems is they not heeding my advice to make backup disks, and make a drive account, and backup their critical data.

THEY complaining about their computer's misfortune is THEIR misfortune, and will NEVER be understood, because they choose not to understand.

I Can show someone where water comes out of a pressurized pipe in the form of a spray, and how a drip from their garbage disposal is simply a drain. But as soon as "water coming out of the sink" becomes a phrase that I hear, I know that they have no idea what they are talking about, just as much as the know-it-all smart-ass who is telling me about the water at his Silicon Valley condo tastes like crystal pussy juice compared to the gruel that comes out of the pipe's in this god forsaken town because his brita water filter is making all the difference, because the particulate meter says so.

Riiiiiiight.

Stupid rant, but this is mostly just a word of respect for you guys who actually get paid to deal with this bullshit day in and day out, and how someone who doesn't can hardly tolerate getting the same shit you do every single fucking day only once every six months because someone worked up the courage to ask me.

You guys on the other hand have to deal with, "Hey, can you tell me how to fix my home computer too?"

I can hear some of your stomachs groan.

Back when I was doing IT work I wouldn't touch someone's personal computer with a ten foot pole. I just wasn't willing to be responsible for it. I would happily give information on where to go for that kind of help, but that was it.

Quote:

---

Back when I was doing IT work I wouldn't touch someone's personal computer with a ten foot pole. I just wasn't willing to be responsible for it. I would happily give information on where to go for that kind of help, but that was it.

---

Same. Only Family... and friends so close they are family.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/colorado-m...191856963.html

Quote:

---

Colorado man cited for 'killing' uncooperative computer with handgun

---

I think we can all relate a bit....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Back when I was doing IT work I wouldn't touch someone's personal computer with a ten foot pole. I just wasn't willing to be responsible for it. I would happily give information on where to go for that kind of help, but that was it.

---

Once you touched their PC you owned it for life. No matter how unrelated the problem is to what you fixed, they always come back to you expecting a solution. It's one of the reasons I didn't do work on the side for people. I already had people I didn't know calling me "Hi! I'm a friend of your mom's and she says you fix computers and could help me...".

Coworker: Customer's getting an error when working in client data
Me: I know that error, don't let her make any other changes, send it right into us for examination
CW: Now the customer can't access the data at all
Me: Wait, what? What did you do?
CW: She rebooted and tried to re-access the data and now she's having further problems
Me: So... why didn't you just have her send in the data like I told you to?
CW: I didn't believe you

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mileron

Coworker: Customer's getting an error when working in client data
Me: I know that error, don't let her make any other changes, send it right into us for examination
CW: Now the customer can't access the data at all
Me: Wait, what? What did you do?
CW: She rebooted and tried to re-access the data and now she's having further problems
Me: So... why didn't you just have her send in the data like I told you to?
CW: I didn't believe you

---

:grinno:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Back when I was doing IT work I wouldn't touch someone's personal computer with a ten foot pole. I just wasn't willing to be responsible for it. I would happily give information on where to go for that kind of help, but that was it.

---

Same deal. I only help family, the other path leads straight into a bog....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Back when I was doing IT work I wouldn't touch someone's personal computer with a ten foot pole. I just wasn't willing to be responsible for it. I would happily give information on where to go for that kind of help, but that was it.

---

That is why the SOP at most ISPs is to tell people to talk to their computer vendor once you know the link is functional.

Of course it does not help that customers are so fucking dumb they think the internet is their cable modem and so if they get a virus it clearly came from that rather than their stupidity of clicking things they should not.

This is the month of "Who's on First" and it's getting old

Co-Lead Tech: Do you know if (specific error) was ever fixed?
Me: We've only ever had two calls on it, and both are yours
CLT: Yes, but was it fixed
Me: And the first one was escalated to development
CLT: Yes, but was it fixed
Me: And you were the last person to communicate with either development or the customer about anything that stemmed from the escalation
CLT: Why are you telling me something I already know? Was it fixed?
Me: YOU are the one who escalated the problem. YOU are the one who communicated with the customer. YOU are the one who should know, NOT ME. Check your notes. Verify with the programmer. Look at your archived emails. I have NO information.
CLT: Why not?

Problem Coworker: When I'm in the office, everything's really slow
Me: Have you rebooted?
PCW: I just got in.
Me: When you left home, did you shut your computer down or put it to sleep?
PCW: I put it to sleep
Me: Go ahead and reboot and let me know how it manages

(30 minutes later)
PCW: It's still really slow. This happens all the time when I'm in the office
Me: *remotely connects to her computer and looks around*
Me: Do you always connect to the VPN when you're in the office?
PCW: Yes

So, we've got a New Law Enforcement database going in soon. We've got training today, We've got 4 computers setup in a conference room - had to drop a switch in there to have enough network ports (only 2 in the room normaly) -- so, they call in, "jeee we were on the network and connected and suddenly it dropped off, now it's just stuck trying to connect";

Ok, we'll get somebody to check it out.

(here comes "Tryphobia" again)
Me: Hey Other Tech - Go check it out, this is the situation...

OT: went and looked switch has lights, but they can't connect... Maybe check the uplink port maybe something happened to that?

Me: Are you joking? sure, fine - login to switch sho int g0/16 -- Line down, Line protocol down; That's Cisco's way of saying cables not plugged in.

OT: Oh. Yup, cable got nocked loose.

me: Ya think? Why didn't you check that first?

OT: Oh, I just though maybe the switch port got disabled...



Translation - Switch networks confuse me, therefore that must be where the problem lies, because I don't understand it - rather than running through my troubleshooting steps of checking TO SEE IF IT'S FUCKING PLUGGED IN FIRST.

Because checking the physical layer requires actual work... Yet checking the cable should be the first step in networking issues when said cable is accessible. It is not hard to unplug it and then reseat it

Quote:

---

Because checking the physical layer requires actual work... Yet checking the cable should be the first step in networking issues when said cable is accessible. It is not hard to unplug it and then reseat it

---

Actually it was more work the way he did it.

He walked down, walked back to ask me to check the uplink port on the remote switch. and then I made him walk back down again after I told him - CABLE is UNPLUGGED!

Instead of Jee -- maybe this cable lying across the floor of the conference room that people are walking on and around got bumped -- cause that'd be to easy.

haha sounds like someone who would call tech support because their plugged in laptop is not charging, Before reaching down and making sure the cord to the outlet did not wiggle out of the power brick itself.

User: OH MY GOD it's all gone! And there's no undo button!
Me: Did you try Ctrl-Z?
User: Do what now?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mileron

Problem Coworker: When I'm in the office, everything's really slow
Me: Have you rebooted?
PCW: I just got in.
Me: When you left home, did you shut your computer down or put it to sleep?
PCW: I put it to sleep
Me: Go ahead and reboot and let me know how it manages

(30 minutes later)
PCW: It's still really slow. This happens all the time when I'm in the office
Me: *remotely connects to her computer and looks around*
Me: Do you always connect to the VPN when you're in the office?
PCW: Yes

---

I have seen that TOO MANY TIMES TO COUNT in just the last month.

My favorite is people who don't know that their password for the corporate wireless is their windows username/password...the one they used to log in every day...and every time they've been up from their desks for more than 5 minutes.

So they connect to guest wireless...then VPN into the network. "It's the only way I can access my network drives!!!"

/facepalm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melcar

Me: Are you joking? sure, fine - login to switch sho int g0/16 -- Line down, Line protocol down; That's Cisco's way of saying cables not plugged in.

OT: Oh. Yup, cable got nocked loose.

me: Ya think? Why didn't you check that first?

OT: Oh, I just though maybe the switch port got disabled...

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....I think I've seen a switch port randomly disable itself ONCE....in 15 years (when there were no other problems and the switch wasn't simply in the process of dying).

It had something to do with PoE and firmware, I think, and it was only the one port. Something about an early version not being able to handle enough load on individual cards or something. It's been years. I got the impression it was literally a coding typo.

Flashing fixed it.

DEFINITELY nowhere *near* the first thing I would think of unless I was in a room full of college students who were LEARNING switches and didn't know that a simple mouse click can shut off a port on some models. Heh.

A chatty network card "can" do it. But yeah, switch port going to an error disabled state is rare. That's the thing.

Step 1 of troubleshooting is: "check to make sure the fucking thing is plugged in"!

On a conference call with 18 devs and one other support person, the lead/moderator of the discussion says:

"We need to have Support write up a list of questions that they ask to help them determine the problem so that we can better understand where they're coming from."

Quote:

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"We need to have Support write up a list of questions that they ask to help them determine the problem so that we can better understand where they're coming from."

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Question 1) What are you trying to do exactly?

Question 2) How exactly are you trying to do it?

Question 3) What exactly is the problem?

Question 4) Could you check to make sure it's actually plugged in?