Just to be curious I am hoping you do not require password changes every other week.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
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Just to be curious I am hoping you do not require password changes every other week.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
noQuote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Because 70+% of our workforce is now using RDS (and the rest VPN) people simply aren't paying attention to the Windows popups that state their password will be expiring soon.
This got really bad the week after our Covid exodus back in March, because almost forty people in one of our non-US offices had their passwords expire.
And of course no one pays attention to IT when we give them alternate means to reset passwords instead of calling their managers and begging for a helpdesk ticket to be opened.
So at the moment, I run a script every Monday and Thursday and alert those people whose passwords will be expiring within the next two weeks.
Thus far, my immediate-change rate is about 25%; change rate by the time the third email is received is close to 80%. There's still some idiots who ignore all three emails, and we still get up to a dozen tickets for password resets every Monday.
ahh okay and ouch, People need to pay attention to emails.
when I had an office job I had rules setup for my outlook specifically so lots of the BS emails got shuttled off to other folders. Meaning important notices never got disappeared in a pile.
I shipped a desktop setup (pc, keyboard, mouse, phone, monitor) to a guy about 30 miles outside of Philly so he could start work.
The monitor arrived DOA (in its original shipping box; also, I had tested it before I shipped it and it worked fine)
So I sent him a replacement monitor - works fine
Need the original monitor back so I can warranty it
I mail him a shipping label (he has no printer)
Follow up with him for a month and he finally ships it back
Due to Covid and the unrest in Philly, it took two weeks to go between two locations that are less than 20 miles apart
I get no updates on it until this morning
YAY delivery scheduled for after 3pm
It's delivered
I check the camera of my office's reception area - no box
I check the tracking info
Delivered
I look at it again
Delivered back at the original location to which I'd shipped it 45+ days ago
I look at the tracking status minutiae
"Barcode Label unreadable and replaced"
Fedex: we can't contact you when barcodes are damaged, so we delivered it to where it came from
NO! You have the fucking tracking number, you should know the address to which it needs to come, why did it go back?
wait... hold up...
When I worked for UPS if we had a label that didnt scan it went up this loft area where there was a group of people who would look up the data on the address label, try and scan the 2D/Maxicode(that array of dots with the bullseye in the middle on a UPS label, Kinda looks like a QR code), Etc. They had specific methods to recover the normal barcode and get a package on its way to where it was actually shipped.
Ticket: We need an RSA token app installed into Windows
Me: You're a remote user, you use RDS, I can't install one app onto 30+ servers for one person. Do they have an alternate option, like a mobile app?
Ticket: Yes, but it won't allow for the same level of functionality (copy/paste) that we need to do our jobs...
Me: RSA token generation is typically 6-8 numerical characters that remains available for 30 seconds, giving you ample time to retype it on your computer
Ticket: But we can't copy/paste from our phones
Attachment 6166
I finally talked to a Fedex Trace Dept person this past Monday.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Basically she said "you need to re-send a shipping label".
She couldn't grasp that it was Fedex that fucked up, no matter how many times I showed her the emails or tracking info that showed "label damaged" which had a correct initial destination which was then changed.
Oh well. My office admin can fight with them to get the 21 bucks back.
lolz at people having issues copying an RSA key from a fob or phone app. Aint hard to blind type the numpad, I can often enter the key for things like Google or Amazon without looking away from the phone.
Yeah, but they are morons who leave their cell phones plugged in because they probably think the charger IS the phone line and their kid "installed it" in their bedroom.
Ticket: I cannot save information into a window in our CRM; the whole browser freezes
Me: Standard troubleshooting for CRM issues commences. Issue still occurs.
Ticket: I need to save this
Me: Escalates to developer
Dev: I have no issues saving the data
Me: Of course not.
Me: Ticket, please try using the CRM through IE, or RDS
Ticket: Still happening in IE!
Me: What about RDS?
Ticket: I'll deal with it as it is and change the information I'm saving to a (lesser result/non-procedure standard window). I don't feel like switching through 10 tabs to get to RDS, I will lose all my work for the day and it stresses me out knowing the screen logs off or goes black every 5-10 minutes.
:wtf:
Coworker: Have you ever seen this issue?
Me: Yes, it usually happens if their CRM permissions aren't correct. What's her position and name?
Coworker shares it
Me: Huh. Why do I remember this name? ponders Oh, right! She started back in January 2020. Had an issue where HR informed us of the wrong spelling of her last name, and she didn't complain about it for three weeks. We had to fully recreate her accounts.
Coworker: Yeah, she mentioned that. She also mentioned she's had this problem with the CRM since then.
Me: :wtf: It's an important part of her workflow, how has she not complained about it since then?
Coworker: Beats me
Coworker: I installed the RSA app for this user
Me: OK
Coworker: How do I tell them to use it?
Me: Why do they need it?
Coworker: I don't know
Me: Why did they need it installed? Is there a specific website or application that requires MFA to access? If that's the case, that vendor should provide them instructions on how to set it up
Coworker: But how do I help them?
Me: You're done, you did all you need to do
Coworker: But how do I set it up?
Me: You already did. Everything you did is all you can do. They need to either answer the reason about why they need it, or follow up with whomever told them they need it.
Coworker: So I should uninstall it?
Me: NO. It's now the user's responsibility to finish. You're done.
Coworker: But how do I tell them to use it?
:wtf: where's my pakled when you need him
sounds like its time for the Clue By Four
Attachment 6191
I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Ticket for phone audio issues gets passed through two other techs (out of 9) because they can't figure it out.
Ticket: Conversation quality is choppy. (provides several example phone calls Calls are breaking up and either I or the other party are hard to hear.
The calls aren't disconnecting, they're just choppy. I have a suspicion. I listen to the calls' recordings and have my answer within the first second.
Me: I listened to the calls you referenced. The audio breaks sound almost like wind, and the noise cancellation in the headset is having issues adjusting for voice versus ambient audio. Do you happen to have a tabletop fan of some kind blowing towards you while you're on the phone?
User: Wow, yeah, I'm sitting right next to my AC unit.
:iwin:
Me:"Are the textures supposed to be running in parallel lines, or should the textures be covering the entire surface, and not be black everywhere they are not?"
Dude:"What video card do you have?"
Me:"I just need to know if what I am looking at is right. What color is the surface supposed to be? Is it supposed to be mostly black?"
Dude:"Did you update your Direct X Drivers?"
Me:"No. Look, I just need to know what color and texture is supposed to be on the surface."
Dude:"It is a green colored grass like texture, There shouldn't be any black."
Me:"Okay, cool. I know what to look for Thanks."
Dude:"You should update your Direct X."
Me:"I'm running Linux. Everything is under Vega/DXVK"
Dude:"You should still update your Direct X."
Me:"Sure. I'll get right on that. Thanks for your help."
Dude:"No problem. What version of windows are you running?"
Me:"12."
Ticket: My office desk phone won't turn on. The power brick is making a horrible screeching sound.
Me: Dude, don't use it.
User: You mean that's not the phone calls trying to get through?
Ticket: I spilled coffee on / closed the lid on my mouse / broke my laptop
Immediate response from manager: Replace those units with a newer model from stock
Follow up ticket less than six months later: I spilled coffee on / closed the lid on my mouse / broke my laptop
Immediate response from manager: Give them an old(er) crappy one until they've learned their lesson and are eligible for an upgrade
Um... isn't that backwards?
That actually sounds about right to me. Someone does something stupid they can claim it is an accident or one off and they want to get them up and running quickly. The second time they Harry Dresden equipment they begin to look like a buffoon and if you are lucky the manager making the decision quits catering to their crap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
how does one close the lid on their mouse? I mean I have never once considered setting the mouse on top of an open laptop.
This doesn't involve a mouse, but our field trucks have Jotto desks in them for laptops, and one version had pretty large clamps that held the computer in place, thus making closing the lid all the way impossible. We had one guy who cracked three screens within about 3 months by putting his arm on the partially closed lid. THREE IN THREE MONTHS!!! So what did they do, they promoted him to a foreman position. You just have to shake your head at times and wonder about people.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Peter Principle in Practice!Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
(fear my alliteration)
User: My laptop stopped working
Me: Has the power in your house gone out due to the storm? (Tropical Storm Isaias)
User: No, but my laptop is next to a window, and water might have been coming in while I was away from my desk getting my morning tea, do you think that could be it?
:wtf:
Tech support related. I work for a big Canadian IT/outsourcing company and am based in the UK. Currently working from home due to the world going to shit.
We have been getting calls from asian males for the last few weeks saying they work for Sky in London (and never calling from a London dial code) and there is a problem with my router. Normally I just tell them to sod off, but today I decided to humour them.
Caller - (talking me through it like an idiot) open event viewer - ooh look, lots of errors/warnings.
Me - yup
Caller - open (mumbled crap)
Me - sorry I cannot understand you, can you repeat that please?
Supervisor - I am the supervisor, can you open a run box and go to www.teamviewer.com (again, spelled out phonetically)
Me- nope - I am not going to let you access my computer, I work in IT Support.
Supervisor - "motherfucker. you work in IT? fuck off" and hung up
Pissed myself laughing after that.
Hopefully the scamming tossers stop calling me.
Power in my office building is out and has been since 1am.
Everyone in the company gets texts and emails stating this.
I've been getting messages from people saying "we can't access X resource".
My reply is "the power is out in the building with no current ETA on repair".
One lady says back to me, "ok, when is a good time to start bothering you?"
Attachment 6267
BY the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
The guy to whom this monitor was originally shipped resigned around the beginning of September, and this past week finally returned his hardware.
Guess which label was visible?
The correct one, with the office address..
Makes no sense whatsoever why it went back to him.
I've had another Fedex kerfuffle.
Needed to ship several laptops and assorted accessories to our office in Sydney, AU.
9/16: Package it up nicely (all in one box) print out the completed customs forms, (five of which - the commercial invoice - I had to hand-sign) and put it in the purple plastic pouch thingy. Drop it at Fedex.
9/18: Voicemail left after 10pm US time stating "we need the commercial invoice"
9/21: Phone call to Fedex to find out where I need to send it, especially since it should have been delivered by now.
9/22: Finally get a message back from Fedex with the email address, so I send it
9/24: Still no update on the tracking page, so I call. They tell me the doc was received, and it was sent to "the correct department" but there's no update
9/25: Phone call, still no update. They tell me "I should expect a call back" from the AU tracing supervisor
9/26: Yes, Saturday. I call. Still no update. They do however state that, due to the fact I've been calling daily, they're going to reassign my case from the AU rep to a US rep (which makes no sense) and promise me a call back.
9/27: Sunday I keep to myself, even though I actually physically went to the office for a non-related issue (new hire broke their desk phone)
9/28: They give me an alternate email address, to which I forward my original email of the copy of the commercial invoice.
9/29: I called Fedex FOUR TIMES. No one can give me an answer as to the status of my package, even though I've told each consecutive rep that I've sent the documentation, and no one has emailed or called me and the tracking page is still not updated. They're also not sure if it's stuck on the Fedex side of things, or if it's stuck in Customs.
I'd call them back today except this power outage has my attention.
I can't remember when it was that I finally talked to someone useful about my Fedex shipping issue. But she basically said "send it to this other other other email address", it got forwarded to Customs within an hour, eight hours later I got confirmation it had passed Customs, and it was finally delivered two and a half weeks late.
Today's:
User has a problem where his laptop screen went 98% dark. Brightness settings aren't fixing it. Connecting an external monitor works fine. We've had a couple similar issues before where the video driver just "gives up" so I figure this is the same problem and coordinate a remote session after his business hours.
Except I cannot connect to it remotely. I try a few times throughout the night in case his home internet dropped. Same issue.
Talking to him this morning, he says: "Oh, I closed the lid so it wouldn't be too bright in my room, did that mess it up?"
hahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahaha...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
Oh, that's a classic.
User: I had an issue with my laptop three days ago
Me: What about now?
User: What about it?
Me: Are you having the issue now?
User: I don't care about now, I care about three days ago! Why did I have that problem?
"Sorry sir you will need to use a T.A.R.D.I.S and contact me on the day the problem happened"
Due to Covid, a few changes have been made with regards to how new hires are processed.
We have generally not had people in the office.
I mean yes, I was onsite 2x a week from March til early June, 3x until mid July, and daily from mid-July through my wife's Covid diagnosis the first week of December.
New hires last started in the office in February, with the others starting remotely until late October, at which point we had 2 groups start onsite, but then due to the City of Philly's change to office occupancy starting the Friday before Thanksgiving, that's it. 3 new hire groups all year, where there would have been a group every 3-5 weeks.
So some of the new hire processing and responsibilities fall in IT's lap, naturally.
Where otherwise we would assume certain "this is how you do X" learning would occur from a team perspective (i.e. the manager teaching their new subordinate how to do it) we had to schedule an hour or more of time with a new hire (based on equipment received and position filled).
This includes acquiring a business-style photograph/headshot to be uploaded to the office network. Especially important (or so upper management feels) with regards to allowing folks to recognize each other via MS Teams meetings.
I have been chasing up an average of 40-60 people on a regular basis to get their damn headshots, because they don't read emails from IT or some shit.
In a fit of pique for how much time I've spent on this one task in the last year (yes even before Covid) I decided to log into Linkedin, which I don't usually, because hey, easy headshots, right?
Well no. Over half of the people for whom I need headshots for either don't have one uploaded, or they're so bad (due to content or composition) that I cannot use them at all even if I were to steal them from the site.
But that's not the point of the post.
At the top of my "messaging" panel, I see an "Urgent" message from one of my coworkers (several countries removed).
"Urgent. I am unable to log in using my new changed password and am locked out of Outlook and MS Teams. Can you help me please?"
Suuuuuure, because that's an approved method to submit a ticket...
User: We have over 100 people who are complaining that certain emails which used to go into their Focused inbox no longer do so. How can we fix this?
Me: Turn off focused inbox, OR, right-click the emails that do not show up in Focused, go down to the option that says "Always deliver to focused"
User: This isn't tenable for 100 people to do
Me: Then my next question would be, are these emails coming from, OR, being delivered to, one single source or distribution list? Because if the answer is "yes" then my only other option is to set a filter on Exchange.
User: No
Me: Then we can't do that
User: That's unacceptable
Had a user spill coffee on her brand new laptop, requiring an upgrade to the warranty to cover Accidental Damage, and getting a full new motherboard etc. However she was given a downgrade and her now-usable-again computer was given to an exec.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dale
Same user, six months later (just a couple weeks ago, I sent Dale the image of her message to me), spills coffee on her replacement laptop. We give her another downgrade, and unequivocally state that if she does it again, she gets a desktop.
The second coffee-drowned computer was unrecoverable (partly due to its age, but also because it would have required a full rebuild and it would be cheaper just to replace the computer. With a refurb.)
I just wanted to post to say that, even though it doesn't get much in the way of replies, I love this thread.
:)
I can definitely empathize with tech support folks. -Did so myself for a good decade or so. Thread seems whiney to me more often than not though, honestly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarbonius
Providing support for people who are technically clueless... That's the job. If you didn't realize that when you first got into it; I'm not sure what you were thinking.
I've actually had a couple conversations about this recently.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerkahia
The first was with my wife. She mentioned how I barely talk about work except for extreme problems or severe stupidity. That's because well, the range of stupidity runs the gamut from "headset mic is muted" to "battery in wireless mouse is dead" to "dumped coffee on laptop".
Otherwise, it's a lot of rote daily stuff like "create new account", "add to DL", "I don't know how to clear my Chrome cache for the 40th time in two weeks", and "my computer shut down after two hours when I disconnected it from the power connector. I need it replaced." So most of these don't get shared because they're realistically not memorable.
Another was with one of my coworkers. He asked me why I seemed so jaded.
Now, for clarification, I have been doing tech support in one capacity or another since 1988 or so, when I "helped" our third-grade teacher learn how to enter the password into the brand-new built-in-front-of-us Apple ][e. (She supposedly couldn't figure out how to make a # )
I've supported people of all knowledge levels from my parents who couldn't program a VCR to save their lives, to a brand new iMac owner with a printing issue to a partner at a law firm who didn't understand "right-click" to a tech guy who did everything I instructed because I knew my product better than he did, to my current CEO who decided he wanted to ignore tech's explicit warning not to install Mac OS Big Sur, and after having done so has been having nothing but daily password problems.
This is coupled with a healthy dose of "respect for Murphy and Karma".
There's this guy I've known for the better part of 30 years (most of his life, but he's one of my brother's closest friends) who has this "personality trait" where he likes to over-enthuse about the positive, and it ends up reversing itself.
To wit: "This is going to be a great camping weekend, there's not a cloud in the sky", which inevitably results in it pouring down rain from Friday night until Sunday. (This happened for fifteen years of camping trips.)
Or "just had my car repaired, (this part) is good for another twenty thousand miles" - and it breaks again three days and less than two hundred miles later.
It's to the point where we don't let him say anything along those lines.
Back in 2008 when my sister got her BA, we had a small graduation party for her. It was scheduled on a weekend with greater than 50% chance of rain, and yes it was cloudy up through the morning of - but then it cleared up. He arrives as the sun starts peeking out and starts to wax poetic about how "of course it clears up for such an auspicious weekend" and there were four people trying to get him to shut the hell up.
Similarly, after a maintenance window during which about 200 computers had software drivers pushed out to them to resolve a particularly hinky wifi problem (caused by a Windows update), about a third ended up having bizarre SATA-related driver issues requiring half of those to be reimaged because the hard drive got "lost". At which point I said to the guy who planned the driver update, "this is because you said the driver updates would take care of everything."
Yes, I know it's coincidence. Yes, it's a TV/novel/movie cliche written to subvert expectations or build suspense. (The Martian's Mark Watney blowing up the Hab, for example.) But coincidence and expectation get upended so frequently.
I'm ready for people to be stupid. It's just that, after 22 years of officially getting paid to do support, I'm still shocked at the depths of it.
And yes, some of it can be my own.
Heheh, yep. All fair points to be sure. I can relate.
Getting tired of products getting sold, but delivery information and preparedness not getting completed.
Got hired on with a bunch of n00bs at my exact same rate of pay. None of them are doing their work to completion. Management doesn't pay attention.
Daily, I am going through my order management and seeing other people's work incomplete, and then having to fix their shit to make sure it doesn't fall back on a cluster fuck.
r/Talesfromtechsupport How The Office Karen MELTED 3 Computers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcZHjzWFgdw
Quote:
r/Talesfromtechsupport In today's episode, OP keeps having encounters with an incredibly stupid Karen in the office. Karen has a space heater, and she keeps pointing the thing DIRECTLY at her computer. She manages to melt 3 separate computers this way, and she also gets annoyed at OP when he shows up to fix it. Is she so stupid that she doesn't realize that she's melting the computers, or is she actually devious because she's doing it on purpose as an excuse to avoid work?
space heaters should never be pointed directly at anything, shes lucky she has not caused a legit fire. Folks like that are who burn down their house in winter.
At least the tech was able to retrieve the project data off the drive and prove that she hadn't done ANY work on the overdue project she kept blaming tech support for delaying.
She was fired but will probably pull a similar stunt in the future...
Wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ackar
I'm struck by multiple things.
One -- Potentially critical data being worked on locally ONLY with no backups.
Two -- No regular project check-ins that would have caught the fact that she wasn't making ANY progress.
Three -- That she got past computer number two (was given a THIRD computer) without being flagged as an "issue" with company assets. One full machine replacement? Stuff happens. TWO replacements within a fiscal year? Stuff is happening, alright, and unless it's a pattern with the hardware company-wide (I'm looking at YOU, Dell Optiplex GX 270's circa 2004) that should have been a massive asset management red flag.
There's a whole lot of fail here.
It *does* however, remind me of the time a VP of sales in a company I worked at kept getting his laptops stolen. (The final time was when he left it in the passenger seat of his car and left his car unlocked and RUNNING while he went in to get his morning coffee). "We're giving you one more laptop on the company dime. The CFO signed off on it but asked that we stress that any further replacements will be taken out of your bonus for that quarter because we order ahead for the whole year and only purchase a certain number of hot spares. (I don't know if they could actually do that or not) They don't grow on trees, Mike. What don't they grow on?" "....trees?".
Nothing beat getting to quote one of my favorite movie scenes to the guy over the issue. :D
wow, I lock my car just to go into the McDonalds to order takeout and if I am on my way to work I still hide the iPad under the passenger seat. Even when I have had vehicles with tinted windows I always hid electronics.
Yeah, there was a supreme level of self-absorbed narcissistic entitlement going on with that guy. I suppose, to some degree, such qualities are useful in that line of work, and it's not like he had to worry about the car itself getting stolen, with all of the bells and whistles on it, he could tell where the thing was at all times up to and including whether or not it was sitting level.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
My wife insists on keeping her car unlocked in the driveway.
We have had our neighborhood's cars broken into.
My wife's car only was ransavked and they took a pepper spray and some change.
Sales guy comes into the office for the first time in 58 weeks (exactly).
This is a verbatim transcript below.
SG: Last year a standing desk was delivered for me. Do you have it?
Me: Do you know when? I don't remember anything that big coming in in December
(note: I was WFH quarantined from Thanksgiving until Dec 16th due to my wife having had Covid, but between myself and the guy who had been onsite, we always put received packages in the same place)
SG: Yes, it was about this time. From Amazon
SG: Did you receive any sit/stand desks last March.
Dude you are 50-56 fucking weeks too late to be asking me about a missing shipment.
Idiot.
In my area, if you leave the navigator overnight in the mount on the windshield, the morning is sure to be broken glass!Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
We have this "new" kid on the team.
We'll call him Nervous Norm.
He's been with us approximately a year and a half.
He's the type where, if you give him 5 days to finish a task which is completely within reason, he panics and worries that he'll be fired by mid-day-three if he's not done.
He calls me several times a week both to re-introduce him to operations that are done, while not daily, are pretty common.
He also calls me to "talk him off the panic ledge" because you know it's totally his fault that the group of 100 people that he supports break USB headsets as often as a cat knocks shit off a table.
His original responsibilities included supporting a large team on the other side of the world - which isn't large enough to warrant an onsite tech, but large enough to warrant a shift dedicated to 90% of their workday.
Due to extenuating circumstances, myself and two others have been splitting that shift with Nervous Norm so three of us get one day each, and Norm gets two days of what amounts to half an overnight.
Every month, we have a maintenance weekend. This could range from something simple like call testing (which still takes several hours), DR testing of certain services, or server patching. This past Saturday was the "server patching" type. We scheduled to start at 10am Eastern, but as we never would have finished in time being one man down, I started the "easy stuff" (RDS and web boxes, for example) at 7am.
Nervous Norm was 2 minutes late to the webex meeting (due to having four international locations completing these tasks, there was one scheduled) and about an hour in sends me a message saying, "Did the manager say anything about me being late?"
No dude. You were two minutes late. I don't think anyone noticed. The other guy who sits behind you though, he was 28 minutes late. We noticed that. Then again, he takes a two-hour busride to get into the office, and you are two hours behind us, and it's Saturday, so it's not like he'll get in trouble.
Anyway, one of the box pairs we patched (a couple of our services have redundant or synchronous duplicates) deals with our call recording software. To reduce latency, each large-complement location (my office, and another in the UK) has a dedicated VM for the processing of those calls. It handles the recording, converts the audio to MP3, and shuffles it off to storage.
We discovered early last year that for whatever reason, the software in use would cause one of two things to happen after a certain period of time:
1 - It would stop recording entirely
2 - It would stop converting the audio to MP3 and just build and build a backlog until either RAM or storage were unavailable then shit the bed (which might contribute to #1, but there were discrete instances of both happening)
The vendor said "update the software engine" which we did do, but they couldn't give us a straight answer (and have been publishing further updates that haven't fixed the problem) so we came up with a solution: Reboot the server(s) every two weeks on Sunday.
So Saturday was our patch period.
All of the servers were patched.
All of the servers were rebooted - including the call recording servers - I did them myself and marked them as rebooted
Last night around 8pm I get a message in our Team chat from Nervous Norm
Nervous Norm: Call recording servers were rebooted.
Yes. The ones that were rebooted not 18 hours prior.
Me: Why did you reboot those servers? They were done yesterday.
Norm: I had a reminder to reboot them on Sunday, so I rebooted them
Me: I did them yesterday
Norm: I had a reminder to reboot them on Sunday
Attachment 6507Attachment 6508
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's adhering to his reminders
But seriously dude, this is like the tenth or so time in a row that he's done this, and it's completely unnecessary and he doesn't understand why
Actual Ticket - I'm trying to release an email message (in our spam filter) which gives me access to (insert site here). When I click Release I get the error "Message action failed. The message action couldn't be completed, or the message may have already been processed."
Me: Please send an email with a screenshot of the "hold message" that includes the from address, to address, and subject line
I receive back the screenshot.
The email that was sent was dated May 10th, 2021. The spam filter sent the "this message is being held as spam" message on May 11th.
Me in response to user: That email was delivered May 10th - three full months ago. You cannot release that email as by this point it will have automatically been deleted. You'll need to re-engage the account creation or trigger a "forgot username" or "forgot password" prompt in order to receive the followup email. However as you never completed the initial step of responding to the account creation in May, it's likely that creation process will need to be done again.
User: So what username do I use?
Me: As this is not a (company) internal site, I can only guess. Unless they're using custom usernames, typically the login would be your (company) email address.
User: I tried using "forgot password" but received no email. What next?
Me: Your account was likely never created as you didn't complete the signup process. Please re-attempt account creation but please let us know in a timely manner if you're unable to release any spam emails from this site. Held emails are automatically deleted after 30 days.
User: I'll just contact their support. Something must be wrong with their account system.
Attachment 6520
Jesus.
Ever had the chance to talk to him in a non-workrelated setting and ask him about the clear trauma he has from a previous employment?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
Unfortunately as he is an international employee, no.Quote:
Originally Posted by Branaman Starbinder
And that counts nights when he calls me moments before I'm supposed to leave and he ends up talking for 45 minutes.
Wow, two trips overseas and I didn't really post anything here.
Today's candidate of ":wtf:"
Ticket:
User: I'm having trouble in video meetings. They start out just fine, but after 10-20 minutes the audio just dies and no one can hear me.
Me: I'd like to do a remote session, please connect to (insert URL) and call me at (blah blah)
Microsoft Teams rings.
Microsoft Teams is NOT connected to our phone system.
Me, aloud: Hi, I cannot hear you, could you please call my desk phone?
User:
User:
User: joins the support session
User:
User:
Me, aloud: I'm sorry but I can't hear you. You need to hang up MS Teams. Please use your cell phone to call me at (blah blah)
MS Teams rings again, triggered from their computer
...
In a meeting - with two signs hung.
One says "In a meeting, please submit a ticket. Do not disturb.
The other is Yoda saying "if headsets are on, hear you we cannot"
I hear mumbling. I figure it's someone walking by saying hi, because it's early. Then someone comes around my desk and practically waves in my face. (At least they didn't snap their fingers.)
C-level person: I need a minute with you, I'm having problems with my speakers. They sound terrible. Can you fix it? I have a meeting in six minutes.
Me: Sure, let me take a look.
After two quick audio tests (< 30 seconds) I realize it's just the left speaker. It sounds blown, but from an external view can't figure out why (object, liquid, etc)
Me: If you let me reboot your computer, I can..
C-level: Absolutely not. I Just did it (actually, Task Manager proves that's a lie)
Me: In that case, bring it back after your meeting or before you go to lunch, so I can update drivers (since we haven't touched this particular laptop in about 10 months due to him being a primarily remote user) and reboot
C-level: Absolutely not. I'll just use headphones.
Honestly - I don't understand why so many people push back against headphones. Both the audio in and audio out quality is so much better - even with a $30(US) pair of USB headphones. Better audio quality for you AND the people on the other end.
Is it because they don't like shit on their head? Do they think it looks bad in meetings? I don't get it.
So even though I am retired I keep in touch with my old boss, and yesterday he told me a good tech support story:
One of the foremen called him about 3:30pm, the time he usually leaves, and tells him he opened a spreadsheet and got a pop-up asking if he wanted to allow editing, so he said yes, then he got another pop-up about something else and he said yes. Then shit started happening and he realized he screwed up. It was a spreadsheet that was an attachment to an email with the subject FWD: and nothing else, the name of the spreadsheet was report.xlsx and the from email was obviously not from anyone internal. The field staff are all on terminal server instances, so that sever was instantly screwed, and about the time my ex-boss hung up with the guy the security breach emails and phone calls started coming in from Secureworks. He quickly shut the server down, deleted it and restored it from a backup.
The really bad part is that for the past 2 years all staff get an email from Ninjio every month that is a cartoon showing ways people hack, load malware and any other kind of computer crime you can think of, but this guy who has been at the agency for at least 15 years went against all of it and clicked on a spreadsheet on an email that was so obviously not legit. It just boggles the mind. If this had happened 2 months ago it would have been my headache.
On another forum, a poster posted a message from a crazy person that had been fired. The person had sent e-mails to every employee of her former company from her new address in Russia, each e-mail with 32 attachments of ranting about how the company was still tracking her, she shouldn't have been fired, etc. Everyone else in the thread is yucking it up about how nuts this is, and all I can think is, you got an e-mail from a .ru address that was (if legit) from a disgruntled ex-employee, it had multiple attachments, and someone opened one of them? This is why you can't have nice things!
My hard rule on email attachments is if you did not already discuss with me sending one I Shift-Del the email not even giving it the respect of the trash bin folder. When someone hit my truck, The insurance and body shop both told me on the phone there would be emails with PDF attachments shortly for example. So clearly they know this is not an uncommon action on emails.
This is an oldie, but a wowie-goodie.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
The last couple of years of high school, I worked under the table summers for an accountancy office. (fact 1)
After high school I worked retail in an office supply store for a couple of years (fact 2), and was head-hunted for a Mac support position at an online catalog retailer.
I started training the week after Thanksgiving.
I got on the phones the week between Christmas and New Year's 1999.
I was seated at the desk of the Mac trainer (because shadow training was a thing then).
One of the first calls I had was from a woman who had received a brand new iMac and printer for Christmas.
She was a worship leader of some sort at her church and was trying to print out something inspiring and heart-warming because the winter of 99 was a bad one wherever she was and she wanted to evoke Spring early in the New Year.
Except the graphics she was adding to her newsletter weren't showing up.
We reinstalled drivers.
We reinstalled her publishing software.
We tried different USB ports. Even tried going through the keyboard USB port.
We tried cleaning the print cartridges (even though they, like the printer, were brand new, and the cleaning cycle on Epson inkjets at the time were tremendously wasteful processes.)
We tried replacement ink cartridges, because someone had the foresight to send her extras.
At this point I've got both support managers listening into the call, both trainers leaning over my shoulder, and a good handful of the team milling about trying to offer suggestions.
I was about to process an RMA for the printer when something she stated out of pique caught my attention.
Church Lady: I just don't get it. Where the graphic is supposed to be is wet.
(needless to say she never mentioned this before)
Me: latching onto that Say that again please? What do you mean wet?
CL: Well it's a newsletter, which I think I've already said. I just love flowers - daisies are my favorite - so I wanted a few daisies on the page for spring-y feelings, you know?
Me: Ma'am, out of curiosity, are your daisy images black line art?
CL: Oh no honey, they're full color. Just a beautiful yellow. You wouldn't know they weren't photographs, this technology is so amazing!
Me: And you say the page is wet.
By this point, her frustration had waned and she's just answering questions in between stories about her church, her grandkids etc.
CL: Yeah, right where the flower is supposed to be.
lightbulb
Me: Ma'am, what color is your paper?
CL: Why, goldenrod, of course!
...
...
Me: Ma'am, you can't print yellow flowers onto yellow paper. That's like using a blue crayon on blue construction paper. It just won't work.
I had to mute my phone because of all the people laughing behind me.
Later, someone asked me how I knew what in the hell color "goldenrod" was.
Well, outside of C3P0 being called that as a nickname pretty consistently in Star Wars, I'd worked with (facts 1 and 2) all different colors of color-specific corrective liquid.
One was goldenrod, and it was a mix of nearly-nuclear yellow and orange.
Attachment 6635
I don't have too much to say about this one.
It did however get accepted by at least two airports' worth of security, and crossed through customs on two international borders.
And yet we still can't carry bottled water.
Among my tasks for the next couple weeks:
1 - Wipe and recycle old network hardware. Yesterday this included repairing a 12+ year old HP switch so that it could in fact be factory-reset.
2 - Remove hard drives from over 80 desktops, and recycle. We've been trying to get them donated for over two years and no one wants them. Partly because they're old Core2Duo units and max out (most of the models, anyway) at 4GB RAM, which is all but useless with Win10 and Chrome. Yes, they'd probably make ok Linux machines but none of the computer organizations I've contacted want them either.
3 - Prepare the office for a return of an unspecified number of people - which is and has been basically ready for such for about a year, but someone complained about something, apparently
4 - Ship several large network devices to a satellite office overseas, hopefully in time for the guy who is going to that office to be able to make use of them. (The last time I shipped something to AUS, it took five weeks to arrive, and I've got three to get it there. This delay is partly due to the primary unit not showing up until last week.)
5 - continue to give my intern his normal daily duties while also trying to transition him out due to a number (more than five, less than ten) of top company leadership catching him reading questionable content (not the webcomic) on his phone. This coupled with his recurring propensity to damage hardware means he needs to go.
6 - Swapdeploy over two dozen laptops - upgrade people who don't need it, and slide their laptops down to people who for some reason have yet to receive laptops at all (mostly due to job function).
fun few weeks.
Ah, it's good to be retired! Those kinds of tasks would be part of my workload right now as well, if I still had a workload. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
*Damn the no edits*
I know what you mean about donating old desktops, we had the same issue, so we just started e-wasting all of them after destroying the HDs.
The first two bins of 20 devices disappeared 20 minutes after the building opened the next day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
-==--==-
So we rolled out MFA to the entire org.
Got 500+ people between January and March.
The last 120-odd in the last ten days, over a quarter of which had complaints or supremely stupid problems.
We've had people complain about sharing their phone number with a third party.
Uh... ok so you're putting the number into a third-party website, but it's only going to be used if you lock yourself out of MFA, or if you get a new phone and need to reactivate.
One guy complained about adding a third party app to his phone that can track him.
He uses an iPhone.
One lady installed the MFA app, validated once, then removed it from her phone because she thought one-and-done was how it worked.
Then there were the people who installed an app with a similar name, but was not an MFA app.
Oh and the other guy who called up saying his fourth device wasn't compatible with the app install, to which our question was "why do you need it on four devices, let alone two?" - it's because he travels between his house in the Poconos (tablet), and his house in France (tablet), and his USA and French cell phones.
I love it when people are worried about tracking and own a smartphone. Because Apple, Google, CellCo are not already tracking them and selling location data.
tbh multiple devices for 2FA seems like a major security risk, So he would just have this tablet in oh France sitting in another country in a home hes not at for extended periods with the ability to code generate the code needed to login to a corporate network? Generally the idea of 2FA apps was that people tend to maintain constant control of their device.
I mean, it's possible that he does keep all of his devices at home all of the time, and brings the relevant ones (tablet 1 for France, tablet 2 for Poconos, etc) with him on his various trips (presumably there are connectivity issues when they are out of region?). But then he's still leaving the rest of the devices at home while he's away, so there's still a risk with them being unattended while he is out of the country.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Whatever happened to keychain 2FA devices (I'm referring to a dedicated code-generator, not a plugin USB device)? Have they fallen by the wayside entirely?
I am guessing companies now prefer apps because cheaper. I have the keychain thing for my Battlenet still.
Don't get me started on the fact that banking still uses text sent codes over a codegen app or keychain.
Keychain 2fa devices are cheapish - 6-10 bucks - but more likely to be lost/forgotten etc than a phone.
Remote New Guy (position irrelevant) started back in January (actually as of this posting, it might be exactly or very close to three months).
We shipped him a laptop to arrive before his start date. I actually shipped it the week between Christmas and New Years because at that time we were shipping quite early due to the holiday/new year expected shipping crunch.
It went missing.
We shipped him a second laptop.
The second one arrived, and the first one arrived several weeks later.
RNG replaced his phone a day or two before his start date and screwed up something where he wasn't receiving emails.
So he missed being scheduled for his first-day conversation with IT about how to access his laptop and certain other sites/vpn. Things like that.
(We don't send written instructions because if the device goes missing, we don't want some rando having that info.)
I got to him late on his start date, but spent about ninety minutes with him to get him on his feet.
He still to this day (just about three months later) sends me messages asking how to access certain things. After the first two, I've decided to ignore the messages and hope he figures it out on his own or asks his manager/peers because these are apps/sites/whatever he is using daily.
RNG was not among the first, second, or third wave of people to be enrolled in MFA.
This is because in his first two weeks he sent four emails to HR - NOT IT - that he couldn't log into his computer due to bitlocker PIN.
Which I had explicitly told him what it was, and had him write it down.
RNG has also been completely blindsided by the fact that we require passwords, and that they need to be changed.
I walked him through the process of changing his password as the second or third task on his first day. And told him (at the time) that password resets were required every thirty days.
Both times that has occurred(1), he has emailed HR, and this time CC'ed IT.
From his personal email address.
Which got blocked by our spam filter due to impersonation rules.
We implemented auto-reboots of devices with high uptimes, coupled with automatic reboots every month on the weekends where we have our scheduled maintenance/patch periods.
Also, we have disabled Sleep mode through Intune because people are sleeping their devices through maintenance periods and causing all kinds of red flag warnings indicating missed patches or not receiving important app updates etc.
Needless to say, having his computer shut down is causing him fits and he kept emailing HR (from his personal email address) for his bitlocker PIN - which no less than five people (two in HR, three in IT including myself) have told him what it is.
After the 5th? or 6th? such email my manager got involved and told him we will under no circumstances will we accept IT contact from a personal email address, and blocked his personal email at the org level.
So as of yesterday we were up to 11 separate instances of communication - in under three months - of him contacting HR or his manager and NOT IT about passwords/PINs.
The last two times his manager submitted a ticket, blaming the laptop.
No.
No.
No. No no no.
My manager forwarded his manager several of the multiple emails. That manager requested re-training.
:wtf:
So my manager asked for a volunteer. I volunteered because I didn't want to be voluntold. It usually ends up me, see, so I figured I might as well. I'd given him his original first day IT meet&greet. I'd contacted him the lion's share of the times he needed assistance. I was rejected.
I was rejected. Denied. Shot down.
My manager pinged Nervous Norm for the task.
As mentioned before, Nervous Norm is a good kid. Young, a little green, does some quite good work. Listens to most instructions.
He spent more time than was necessary with the guy, because RNG couldn't understand Nervous Norm's accent.
I'm thinking my manager did that because it might require the guy to pay attention during the training.
Which I'm not quite sure will have been a factor.
It remains to be seen how this will turn out.
(1) - now that the entire org is on MFA, password resets are at 90 days. No one yet has noticed.
We've been doing license audits for various softwares.
Cleaned up shop on Adobe licenses, for example, and reduced our Adobe bill in half.
IN HALF. due to removing licenses from people who no longer need it. Thousands of dollars a month saved.
But Visio. People are hanging on to their Visio licenses - even if they only use it once a month - like a dog clamping down on their favorite bit of rope toy right before you throw it away.
We yanked Visio from all but five devices of people that are expected to be using it. Several dozen uninstalls.
One or two people complained.
So I was charged two weeks ago to find a suitable replacement. A free replacement.
Lucidchart is out.
That doesn't use Java.
yEd is out.
That is updated.
Pencildraw is out.
That opens up Visio files. And saves files to a file type that can be read by Visio.
Which my search ended up bringing me to LibreOffice's Draw application.
Sure, the UI isn't exactly as polished as Visio 2019, but it draws diagrams and flow charts. And there's a little massaging that needs to be done when re-opening the EMF file in Visio (because Visio doesn't open the open-source Draw file) but it is pretty quick in my testing. Unless you have multiple-page diagrams - that takes a little more work.
I had a brief conversation yesterday with one of the primary requesters asking for Visio and gave her a briefer demonstration.
Yes, you read that right.
I pushed the install in the background and called her when she confirmed she could access it.
Visio Requester: So what is this blank page you're showing me?
Me: This is called LibreOffice Draw. It's a replacement for Visio.
VR: What am I supposed to do with this?
Me: ... I don't understand? Do what you would do with Visio.
VR: But Visio comes with squares and diamonds and circles and lines...
Me: as she says the shapes I'm drawing them in the app.
VR: momentary silence Wait, you mean this is manual?
Me: I don't understand, what do you mean manual? You have to create the flow chart. Add text and lines. Yes there are templates, but...
VR: But I have to build it myself?
Me: Well yes...
VR: Oh no no no. That won't do, that won't do at all. We need to figure something else out.
:wtf:
The conversation was just under six minutes - only 18 seconds or so was screentime on the program.
Later I told my manager whose question was, "how does she think Visio works, anyway?"
Thankfully, I did NOT say that to her even though I really, really wanted to.
I have a long-winded post I want to share about my intern, but it might be too soon.
So I'll leave you with this nugget.
We are setting up a number of semi-surplus machines to be sent to one of our satellite offices and they need to be shipped out by the end of the month.
My list of tasks was simple.
1 - Replace CMOS (over half are showing signs it is dying)
2 - Install SSD if one is not present
3 - Reimage and place at a certain desk
4 - After we get to the target number required, stop 1-3 and go to 5.
5 - Get a surge protector. Stack 6 completed devices (they are very small) at a desk with monitor and keyboard, plug in only power, and let them sit for 15 minutes.
6 - Log into remote management tool and push final config script.
7 - Let them reboot and let them sit for no more than one hour (longer is not necessary).
8 - Gracefully shut them down and stack back at desk in step #3.
Some minor technical hurdles aside (found 8 with bad motherboards in the first twenty machines) steps 1-3 should have taken him no more than two days if he spread out the devices to desks that haven't been used in two years.
Instead, he was doing two at a time. Total. Even after my demonstrating to him that was poor efficiency. (Partly because I was doing 7-10 at a time in between my other tasks.)
So yesterday after I finished almost 40 devices in a day and a half by myself (again, not completely focused) I asked him to finish 6-8 for me.
He stacks 6 of them each at 4.5 desks (four desks, one filing cabinet near them, totaling 30).
I'm on a meeting.
He disappears and comes back a half an hour later. He checks the remote tool and finds none of the devices have dialed home to get the final config.
I hear him over in those desks banging around, complaining about the power cords or the surge protectors.
I peek over the cube wall.
Me: You need to turn them on.
Him: Really?
Attachment 6644
So then we get confirmation that the devices have received the final config and I start hearing him unplug them.
Me: Wait, wait wait. Why are you doing that? I need them gracefully shut down.
Him: Occam's Razor
Me: ... what?
Him: Occam's Razor.
Me: I know what Occam's Razor is - but how does it apply here to the steps I gave you to complete?
Him: You're overcomplicating the process
Me: No, you're not listening. I need you to follow the steps I gave you. You didn't ask any questions so I figured, based on our prior conversations about you not pulling the power out, or holding down the power button to shut devices off, that you might have understood why. But since you're not listening, here you go: I need them gracefully shut down to complete software updates in preparation for their shipping.
Him: But that means I need to find keyboards and monitors for all of them.
Attachment 6645
Me: You do realize one keyboard and mouse will work, as HDMI and USB are hotpluggable?
Him: I still think Occam's Razor applies.
Me: Not in the way you're thinking it doesn't.
Attachment 6646
I mean, sure. There are lots of instances where colleagues, and / or internal customers seem woefully under equipped to deal with (what we perceive to be) simple, technological issues.
But seriously... Not this many. -Not 99 pages of such.
Y'all come off as privileged bitches, whining about fellow employees that don't happen to have had the same educational background as yourself.
Suck it up, buttercup. Everyone in a specialized field deals with the same thing every day of their working lives.
Sheesh.
:p
There are lots of instances where people who walk into a hospital having injured themselves doing dumb things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerkahia
This isn't Tales from the ER.
There are lots of instances where privileged Karens walk into a hotel or restaurant or retail establishment and yell and scream like toddlers who want their pacifier-like equivalent and either get everything they wanted and more or get their tiny little moments squashed by people with more brains than corporate toadyism.
This isn't Tales from The Front Desk or Tales from the Customer.
https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/Quote:
But seriously... Not this many. -Not 99 pages of such.
738 thousand subscribed readers.
No, we're just people who are commiserating in a manner similar to "drinking at the bar and bitching about the day"Quote:
Y'all come off as privileged bitches
but I don't drink
I haven't been in a bar in over three years
the last trip that I can remember that wasn't "wings only" was this one
https://www.graffes.com/forums/showt...=1#post1872398
seven years ago
You make assumptions.Quote:
whining about fellow employees that don't happen to have had the same educational background as yourself.
Related to my immediately prior comment:
I had some very simple instructional steps I needed followed.
They weren't.
It cost me more time that could have been used finalizing the task or on something else, because I had to do it myself as the intern took it upon himself to leave shortly after I asked him to do it the way I had originally asked him to do it.
Start your own "Tales From (Work Annoys Me/Lifts Me Up/People Suck Because X)" thread, then.Quote:
Suck it up, buttercup. Everyone in a specialized field deals with the same thing every day of their working lives.
I'd love to read a few examples of what you deal with.
I don't read a lot of the other threads that come up in my New Posts list.Quote:
Sheesh.
:p
No one's forcing you to read the thread.
Fair enough. Was a drunk post anyway. I really gotta stop doing that one of these days.
Apologies if I offended anyone.
Oh its tempting. I work in such a niche industry though I doubt anyone else would relate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
Carry on ~
I have been dealing with my site being outside of the norm of our regular corporation.
To put it simply, my location is one of 13 national "red headed step children" that has a minimal server room. Almost everything is done through the ages old Linux based server that dials into our corporate server in North Carolina.
The rest is inventory and requisitions handled at a server in "normal" site with our server at its location, controlling a/r at a pricing index located within the district which it resides in.
My "step child" location is in district a. Our requisition and pricing is in district b. Our invoice generation is in district c.
Prices, logistics, carriers, etc, are completely different between all 3.
They have "upgraded" all normal locations to use a completely separate price and requisition as well as invoicing generation tool.
Our quarterly updates will not import properly from site C, because site B overrides our site A pricing/logistics utility with site B's district data.
Since March 3rd,i have been aware of this and have gone back and forth from IT (solomon's key procedure #1) to Pricing Center (solomon's key procedure #2) and both sites indicate the problem is with the other.
I have no way of expressing this hypothesis to anyone with sudo privileges, because I do not have sudo privileges, and I have been refused access, because I am not a senior enough level to do so, and none of the management chian above me has authorization to grant me sudo priveleges, because they do not have {or need} sudo priveleges.
So instead if remote desktopping in from IT and me walking them through grabbing or developing a packet sniffing and parsing tool, I have spent the last 9 weeks conveying the entire procedure of pricing and logistics that refuses to update properly at our location to a new person every single week on the pathway up the corporate ladder who after realizing I might be worth my salt has forwarding my email tree to the person above them.
I did not *know* that there were 9 levels of hierarchy above me,and it sounds as though it might be as many as 11 levels before I get to the person who has sudo priveleges to analyze, parse, and then diagnose the ledgers that are not handshaking data properly, until finally, I might be able to have that data forwarded to development to correct it.
I am the highest level of management (currently) at my step-child location, but my lack of ability to produce the error in a way that makes sense to the folks in charge who have facilities that are not step-children locations is absolutely daunting.
So I had a follow up call with the lady, and someone else in her identical position with whom she has no usual direct contact with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
Went over the app options.
OtherGuy says, "hey, what do you think about Powerpoint?"
Me: In what respect
OG: It allows editing of org charts on a slide
Lady: Sold, show me how to do it
Narrator: Of course, she still has to do manual entry... but now she has a template. And someone else to show her how to use it.
There is something that's comforting about a template, though. "Yes, I'm doing this correctly. Yes, this is how it is supposed to look - I just need to change the names/titles as needed."Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
A totally blank page can be a terrifying thing, but the presence of a few pre-existing text boxes, with reasonable spacing and defined links between them, along with a soothing pre-selected colour scheme, can make a big difference in terms of perceived task difficulty.
I'm not actually being sarcastic or condescending here; perceived task difficulty is a real obstacle to productivity. If a template can act as a catalyst to get things moving forward, then why not use one, right? :)
Absolutely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarbonius
The issue I had was that all people would give me the time for, when asked why they need Visio, was "we know we use Visio that's why we use Visio".
When I was doing my testing for a possible replacement I was tunnel-vision gung-ho set on Libreoffice because
A) Updated regularly
B) didn't break MS Office
C) Could import from (but not save back to) visio files
Since they already had an apparent glut of Visio files, why not use it?
But Powerpoint is already installed on all devices. Already licensed. And more of the people in the respective departments use PP for "normal stuff" that I don't need to worry about anything in relation to training.
My company switched to Libreoffice after they got rid of the IBM terminals in the early 90s. I love the suite. It is tremendous. THey have the ability to save permanently onto workstations completely disabled.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
We have to download to a temp directory and then upload to our Microsoft One Drive, because the temp drive purges ever hour.
Hypothetically, this is to keep "sensitive" information and documents from being exposed to individuals on the networks/terminals that shouldn't see it. but it is a pain in the ass.
They could just as easily provide single directories on the server with each of our logins... but... we don't login to the terminals using a linux user. that is always automatically logged in as a generic, and the individual applications that run from it have our IDs tied to each of those programs.
But .. yeah..
for my same issue that i posted with the other day, they continue to try and circumvent various errors in pricing/inventory/invoicing by attempting to draw from different resource fields of pricing. MSP as opposed to cost... They just won't fix the problem, but instead circumvent making it a smart fix, and continue to break two additional modules of pricing/shipping/invoicing/ordering in order to fix one.
Part of the problem of our "step child" version of our location is that we don't have don't have any of their hotfixes in place that should work fo rthem at alternate locations. We are a beta product that no one properly designed from the ground up, for data logistics.
I'm now on level 12 of tech support, and who knows how many laterals that I've actually been placed on, because a 12 level tech support/development support hierarchy seems stupid. there's no fucking way. I couldn't be above level 3 or 4.
No worries!Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerkahia
Some of this is "Holy crap, that's a new record!" e-peen measuring for some of the stupid stuff we have to put up with.
Like, after a long enough period of time working in IT, you think "I've seen it all" and then, at some point, someone one-ups you in a way you never thought possible.
Like a "server room" where someone "racked" the Ubiquiti gear by resting it on top of a zimmerframe/walker (just saw that pic a few hours ago, NOT MINE thank goodness).
Attachment 6653
"Level 5" was me talking directly to the developer who wrote a given module for an application once. I'd gone through every level of their tech support and the senior, senior, specialist guy said "hang on, instead of relaying this over IM to the dev, he asked if he could just call you..." That was pretty cool. WHILE ON THE PHONE WITH ME he'd code a fix, compile it, throw it in dropbox, I'd download it, run it, and feed error information back to him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris
Hard to believe that was only a decade ago. I can't imagine getting an actual developer on the phone for moderately sized product these days. I remember quipping with him when he said his boss probably wouldn't be happy that he was doing this directly that this was about as agile as development could get, so he was adopting the culture as thoroughly as humanly possible. :P
Every month we have server maintenance and patching.
This past weekend I arrived at 6:55am, breakfast in hand.
Checked out the building electronics recycling. Didn't find anything cool.
Went about my tasks.
We had an onsite repair scheduled for two servers.
9:20 the tech calls me and asks if we'd gotten the parts. We hadn't. He says they were picked up at 7am by special courier. Okay, well they haven't shown up.
9:28 one of my guys shows up.
9:35 the other one comes in.
9:40 he calls back and says they're "ten minutes away" and comes on over.
10:10 he shows up. No parts.
10:45 he calls his dispatch and is on the phone with them for twenty minutes while they try to figure out what happened to the parts. They tell him that one of the batches is on its way.
Meanwhile I get a call from the second courier stating she'll be arriving after 11:30. I asked if she could show up sooner because the tech has already been onsite for the better part of an hour.
She arrives at 11:10.
Working with the tech we get one of the devices repaired.
At 12:15pm while trying to decide what we want for lunch, and while the tech is back on with his dispatch trying to find out what happened to Parts Batch_001, we get an alert that the AC unit in the server room has gone down and the temp is going up.
Keep in mind, it's one of the hottest days so far this summer - but we'd come to find out it's a new problem and our usual steps to fix it weren't working.
We set up our portable coolers and, fifteen minutes later as the unit isn't coming back on we start shutting down servers which we needed to complete patching/verification thereof.
By 12:45 we have our virtual hosts and two other servers running out of fifty. ETA on the HVAC emergency response is 60 minutes.
The tech gets with his dispatch again and they state that, as no one had been present to receive the package, it was sent back.
I send him on his way.
After, I call the mfr and rip them a new one as politely as I can, stating that after having watched our CCTV footage, there were no visits from anyone outside of the timestamps listed above, and all I get is "we're sorry for the inconvenience." I reschedule a new delivery for Monday because by that point the item was on its way back to depot.
3pm the hvac tech shows up and goes through a bunch of things. At this point four days later I can't remember what his initial diagnosis is, but it's some bullshit about how the unit "shut down due to inconsistent flow from the building water supply". If that were truly the problem, it would be having issues every weekend, not just this one. Plus if that were the case, there'd be building engineers crawling all over the place because we're not the only tenant with water cooled AC in our server room.
But it starts cooling by 4:30 or so, and slowly dropping.
We power up our servers and get our shit finished because it's getting late and we'd lost two guys due to time zone shenanigans.
5:30 rolls around and it drops low enough into the low orange that we button up and I head home, pulling out of the garage at 6pm.
6:20 I hear my phone ring, but no handsfree in car so I keep going home.
6:32 I get home, feed the cats, and remember that phone call. It was the emergency notification system stating the temps in the server room shot back up.
Shit.
I put my shoes back on and run out, getting out of the house by 6:40 and back into the building at 7:10 due to sportsball game traffic.
While I'm rushing around setting up the cooling units again two of the other guys are shutting down those same servers again.
Building engineer shows up at a few minutes after 8pm because he lives only a few blocks away and was on his well deserved weekend, but when one of the C level people in my org calls his boss, he's gonna show up.
HVAC tech shows up about 45 minutes later.
Turns out there's a condensate pan on the unit (as there should be) but the sensor that triggers cycling of the system is manual reset.
So what happened was humidity caused the pan to fill up with condensation, and the float sensor turned off the unit. Except for some reason some idiot installed a "manual override" float, instead of "automatic" - so if the unit ever shut off for this reason, it would need to be manually turned back on after a default cooling period of 15-20 minutes, plus any time required for the pan (currently bone dry) to drain.
The tech removed the trigger for the float and left after getting part information to order next business day.
I left at midnight after two conference calls - one with the tech and my boss, and the one after that with my boss and the C-level who called in the cavalry. I also set two rubbermaid totes under the pan for condensation catching purposes. Not ideal, but it would work.
I was back the next morning a little before 9 to check up on it. Still dry, still running.
Another of my guys went back in the afternoon. Same deal.
Turns out the mfr of the HVAC unit had no idea the device was shipped with a manual reset on that trigger. They had to special order the automatic part, which would require reprogramming of the unit - but as it's now Thursday morning and I've gotten no further calls from them about it, we don't know when it'll come in or what sort of downtime we're looking at (again).
to be continued...
Wow, that sounds like it was SO much fun. Luckily I don't have to deal with that anymore now that I'm retired, but we used to have our A/C unit go down in our server room at least once every summer, and almost always on one of our many 100+ days, AND almost always on a weekend. Since I lived less than a mile from the office I was the one who had to come in and figure out what was going on, get our HVAC contractor on the way and wait to see if remedial actions would get the temp down enough to leave all the critical servers on.
We eventually went hunting and found a large portable A/C unit on wheels that fit in our server room, and it worked great. The only problem was it wasn't automatic, someone had to physically turn it on, and luckily for me they assigned that to our on-call techs, we would just program their badges to allow them access during non-business hours. Our main units weren't water-cooled, they use refrigerant.
Now my only tech support work is for my wife, who works from home, and it's all minor stuff. The problem is her company (Tetra Tech) locks her laptop down hard, so I am limited on what I can do.
honestly makes me wonder if the drain is partially clogged, because you would hope the initial drip pan under the coil would be able to drain at the same rate that the coils can produce from the air.
Yeah, we have two smaller units that can be setup if needed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
They used CO2 canisters to blow it out from both ends and confirmed correct drainage.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Today they replaced the float trigger, but didn't confirm the reprogramming was complete. We'll follow up next week.
Yesterday (August 15th) DUO Security had an issue where SSO logins were broken on about a third of their authentication systems.
We discovered it just a few minutes before 8am.
When we discovered it wasn't a transient problem, we implemented a temporary fix to allow usage we then sent out an email with a workaround at 8:10, and watched tickets roll in anyway.
This is one of the responses I received after that email went out.
Attachment 6684
Mine:
Our office is starting a "strongly recommended" hybrid situation - you must appear in the office two days a week. Some of the questions I've been getting:
Do I need to bring my laptop with me?
Do I still need a badge to get into the office?
Will you give me a (desk/voip) phone back when I come into the office?
What if I can't come in on Tuesdays?
If my internet goes out at home, how will I work in the office? Don't I need VPN? (yes that was all one question)
Sigh.
From my wife, whose boss had a deeply technical email question:
Can I CC more than one person at a time?
Wow, just wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mileron
I'd like to point out that I may have been unclear - my wife's boss had asked her if the CC'ing multiple recipients were possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
New:
Had someone ship back a laptop after they left the company... and overwrote the hard drive with a fresh install of Windows 11.
So this issue finally got its wheels rolling. But in the process internal IT (north carolina) and Bangalore (after hour updates, nighttime engineers, etc) got wind of me and interacted with our I -site third party IT team. The third party came down,three of them to talk to me. This was about 2 months ago. Got a job offer the first week of October with the IT company.Quote:
Originally Posted by Merrick ap'Milandra
Fast forward. Tomorrow is my first day officially doing IT in a new career with a new company.
I am getting a company car, gas card, not to mention the true resume experience that has kept me from pursuing this field for over 2 decades. I am excite.
Congrats. I hope it continues as awesome ass it starts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris
Thank you so much!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dale
But GOTT DAMN! Today has already gone off to a hilarious start. I have been a full time employee one way or another since I was 20 years old. For over 2 decades, every single employer I have had that I have been full time with has had problems with their on boarding for one reason or another. As far as I can tell, it has never been anything due to me making something happen incorrectly, like a bad application, or invalid references.
From payroll errors, to incorrect job description labeling, to going to an interview for a position and then being grouped into an onboarding, hr and procedures seminar for those already hired, to now today.
I mentioned everything above about how I got hired by this company. I had an assignment with my previous employer that I had to complete before I could leave. Thanksgiving was another blockade for me getting to start early, because it was only going to be a 2 day work week, and new hires need 2 weeks to complete all their related training.
All this is mentioned, because I completed my hiring data background checks and screenings by November 2nd. Essentially I was hired then, but would not start until today, the 28th of November, due to an assignment with my previous employer.
During all that, they had to extend some Homeland Security requirements that normally have to be completed within 72 hours. Also during that period, the major conglomerate that owns this company (or, now owned) has split the company off, and they are now a separate entity. All URLs for onboarding I had been completing were directing to the previous conglomerate and now that I am actually part of the company, all of my onboarding information did not import, because they no longer have those assets.
However, my remote onboarding and start date still was going to the previous conglomerate. They scheduled a remote orientation today while I was supposed to, initially go and train with my supervisor. I worked it out with him, and he was a little confused, but I have no idea about any of this background information until after my remote orientation meeting was already going, and I couldn't get my internal ID for the meeting to attach to the Microsoft Teams meeting.
Long story short, I am stuck between two systems.
After all was said and done with orientation, and me weaseling my way into the meeting using the provided token from the e-mail, and loading a stripped down version of teams onto my Linux running Laptop, I was able to get in, and follow all of the Onboarding information and orientation that they had on the docket for this morning.
After that, I got a call from my Boss Boss. The company services another very large company, as well as many others, as an on-site IT for several major retailers. I will be handling a district for one single retailer, and effectively am one of their employees; IT dude in Sheep's clothing.
We learned in that phone call with my Boss Boss that i am stuck between these two systems, and he has to import as much data as he can from the old system, no longer associated witht he company, and I had to resubmit everything again.
SO far everything is fine on my part, and I am getting paid to clean out my garage and repair my desktop I have in my workshop in the garage (because, I don't normally run windows, and it is going to take a while to get my company car, because they are all out of company cars, and they have to get me a rental, and before they can do that, they have to send me an american express card, which has to be attached to my login information, which has to be imported from the old system, and a new file built, etc etc etc).
Dude. I have never had a normal hire with any fucking company, and it just makes me laugh.... and laugh... and laugh.... because, what else am I going to do after 21 years of dealing with this?
Quote:
How dumb work technology rumors start:
Assoc: what are you doing?
Me: I am cataloging the model, asset tag, firmware and hardware versions of these credit card sig cap machines in every store.
Assoc:why are you doing that?
Me: we are never told exactly why we are surveying hardware, but in this case, it looks like they want to see how many of these units will be capable of firmware upgrade to next level technology, and which ones will require a physical hardware upgrade.
Assoc: what is next level technology.
Me: we aren't necessarily going this route, but it would be for options like phone touch apple or Samsung pay and thta kind of thing, if we have enough machines capable of it.
Assoc 2: what is he doing?
Assoc 1: he is upgrading it to apple pay
Me: I absolutely did not say that.
basically the whole point made way back in elementary school with the game Telephone. Teacher hands a kid a note, they read it and then tell it to their neighboring student and so on across the class in a set order and then at the end one compares the note to what the final student in line heard.
What a day.
1 - Sales guy comes up to me regarding an email we sent him a couple days ago. One of our security portals flagged him for DLP - which is weird, because the files that were twigged were all downloaded simultaneously. Turns out all he did was get an update to MS Teams on his phone at around the same time an update to our DLP system took place. However he had a more pressing concern - apparently he noticed in the last few weeks that certain... searches... were appearing in his work computer's browser, which we know he doesn't use for that purpose. Seems like Google's gmail account sync is a little too tenacious.
2 - We've been getting catered lunch every Tuesday since October. Additional incentive for people to return to the office. Today I'm in a meeting dealing with (#3) and the office manager runs over to me and says "Help the sterno is on fire!" I run into the main breakroom and apparently someone had knocked one of the chafing dish trays hard enough to slosh the fuel goop out onto the table. I smothered the sterno can with a coffee mug while someone else managed to grab one of the chafing dish lids and do the same with the wad of goo on the table. Table's a little burnt.
2b - this brings to light the fact that we don't have updated fire suppression capabilities outside of general systemic sprinklers, so I get voluntold that I'm one of the new fire wardens for the office, oh and I just might get signed up for first aid training as well. Cuz you know, in IT we're never busy.
3 - Have to provide an emergency replacement laptop for one of our Canadian people. Since we don't have a large physical presence in Canada, one of the managers up there has been storing extra devices for deployment. However the lady who needs the replacement is over five hours away and we had to decide whether we wanted to ship from the States, buy new, or ship from his house overnight to the tune of $300+ Canadian. We decided on overnight shipping for the transfer.
4 - There was an HR miscommunication for an employee transfer between locations. The transfer ticket for the incoming/destination office was submitted and assigned to me Monday night. Then the HR lead for the employee's location submitted a separation ticket for her instead - which one of the UK guys got to and processed Tuesday morning before I even got into the office. Needless to say I need to go through and basically re-onboard her from an IT perspective.
5 - We're sticking with Windows 10 22h2 for now, but a handful of my team have agreed to suffer with Windows 11. It's all shiny and pretty, they say, and annoying to get used to but once you do, it's basically alright. However two people have this ongoing issue where, if the device goes to screensaver/blank screen and isn't used for 30 minutes, it auto-disconnects the VPN. Can't figure out why. It's not Modern Sleep causing it. I get to spend time this/next week figuring that out.
for the VPN id see if Windows is somehow pausing any programs when it goes to screensaver, It may not be sleep but don't discount various power saving features. Especially if they are laptops, If laptops that also means check anything related to the wifi for power saving. does the machine lock when it goes blank? could MS have some deeply buried security feature that discos all VPN links when a machine locks.
Assuming it's not already turned off, that 1000% sounds like windowskey+x -> device manager -> right click specific network adapter -> properties -> power management -> uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
For those that work tech retail...
Spoiler for image:
I've updated the device drivers, turned off all power management, confirmed with a coworker that the firewall doesn't kick idle connections, uninstalled Dell Optimizer (which does some f'y shit with power and network connections).Quote:
Originally Posted by Merrick ap'Milandra
It's weird, another guy on my team who has an older device running 11 doesn't have this issue. It's only the newest machines.
3:30am - received notification call of cooling issue in datacenter
4:10am - arrived onsite
4:12am - set up portable cooling units
4:21am - called (HVAC Provider), got hung up on
4:21am - called (HVAC Provider) back, asked for a tech to be dispatched
7:35am - called (HVAC Provider) back, asked for update on ETA of tech
7:54am - started shutting down non-critical systems
8:37am - called (HVAC Provider) back, left voicemail
9:16am - got on brief bridge with two of my UK guys to shut down some more systems
9:36am - called (HVAC Provider) back, asked for update on ETA of tech. Was told he was nearby and would be arriving soon.
10:04am - Brief chat with (manager) regarding issue and tech ETA
10:10am - temperature issue seemed resolved; unit started to cool. (Based off temperature readouts in the (Datacenter environmental monitor) system)
10:18am - noticed the temperature dropping in the Comms room
10:20am - (HVAC Provider) tech arrived
11:11am - Temp in Comms room seemed stable, so started bringing devices back online
11:17am - after tech left, he called me back with a few questions related to the setup/issues / scheduling of the office AC units over the weekend possibly causing issues
12:09pm - all devices back online, room internal temp under 68 deg F
12:38pm - noticed temp started to rise again in Comms room
12:42pm - called (HVAC Provider) back, stated the issue had returned, please send tech back out
1:44pm - called (HVAC Provider) back asking for update. Different tech being sent out
2:20pm - lunch (otherwise, all I'd eaten til now was swedish fish candy)
2:38pm - received call from (HVAC office manager)@(HVAC Provider), tech should be here in 40-45
2:53pm - brief chat with (manager) regarding tech ETA, and request to get tech in contact with CIO / (HVAC office manager) / (manager) after the tech arrives and examines issue
3:04pm - call from (HVAC Provider) to request building security give the HVAC tech approval to enter building
3:05pm - called building security to approve HVAC tech arrival
3:09pm - (HVAC Provider) onsite
3:49pm - temperature dropping after poking at the control panel and thermostat. Additional testing being done on thermostat
5:00pm - per new tech, states the issue may be the thermostat. He's trying to trigger it to fail but as yet has been unsuccessful. He will try to bypass it to ensure the hvac unit remains online through the remainder of Sunday
6:38pm - had a chat with tech. He's still leaning towards issues with thermostat.
7:51pm - chat with tech and CIO. I need to be back onsite Monday early to receive new wave of techs to replace thermostat.
8:25pm - in car
9:00pm - home
I don't know what our emergency SLA is for support with the HVAC company but I think they're probably in breach. 6 hours seems excessive.
Last August I spent a day in the office - it was 17 hours - 7am to 6pm, feed cats, back by 7pm, left by 1am
Today it was just under 17 door to door.
I'm calling it a tie.