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Thread: Tales from Techsupport

  1. #961
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Merrick ap'Milandra View Post
    On the bright side, she can buy a USB Bluetooth dongle.
    Yeah, I sent her to Best Buy to get one.
    She in turn sent her husband, who asked the first employee he saw - a female - for a USB dongle. I wish I could have been there to see her response.

  2. #962
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Merrick ap'Milandra View Post
    Settled on just locking it manually before getting out of my chair.
    I've been doing this for so many years that I don't even think about it anymore. I just slam windows + L whenever I leave my desk.
    "Silver bullet solutions are rare, silver bullet sales commonplace"

  3. #963
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Dawlin View Post
    I've been doing this for so many years that I don't even think about it anymore. I just slam windows + L whenever I leave my desk.
    This.

    Never leave your desk without locking it.

  4. #964
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Ok one only the Techies will understand:

    IP address obtained from DHCP : 192.168.1.60
    Gateway: 192.168.1.1

    DNS servers (Not obtained from DHCP) 10.1.10.20
    10.1.10.30

    --- Geee - the internet don't work?? I wonder why U Can't find any websites?
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  5. #965
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Melcar View Post
    Ok one only the Techies will understand:

    IP address obtained from DHCP : 192.168.1.60
    Gateway: 192.168.1.1

    DNS servers (Not obtained from DHCP) 10.1.10.20
    10.1.10.30

    --- Geee - the internet don't work?? I wonder why U Can't find any websites?
    LOL

    Nice.
    For copyright purposes, all of my posts are covered under the "Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License"
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  6. #966
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Melcar View Post
    Ok one only the Techies will understand:

    IP address obtained from DHCP : 192.168.1.60
    Gateway: 192.168.1.1

    DNS servers (Not obtained from DHCP) 10.1.10.20
    10.1.10.30

    --- Geee - the internet don't work?? I wonder why U Can't find any websites?
    Gremlins?
    'This world may be another planet's hell.'{Aldous Huxley}
    'After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.'{Aldous Huxley}

  7. #967

    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Melcar View Post
    Ok one only the Techies will understand:

    IP address obtained from DHCP : 192.168.1.60
    Gateway: 192.168.1.1

    DNS servers (Not obtained from DHCP) 10.1.10.20
    10.1.10.30

    --- Geee - the internet don't work?? I wonder why U Can't find any websites?
    Why hell was it configured like that?

  8. #968
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Why hell was it configured like that?
    Because somebody was stupid --
    those two DNS IP's are my actual office DNS servers.

    But they'd taken a laptop set the dns servers manually - but then the tech was setting up the VPN client - well the VPN only accepts connections from outside, so she fired up a Verizon Mi-Fi connected to that, but Didn't change the DNS back to DHCP.
    When of course, if they'd have left the whole network settings to DHCP they would have been just fine.
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  9. #969
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I've seen that done a lot over the years, actually.

    Someone will have a poorly configured DNS server, so some tech will fix it by setting to something static and not note anything anywhere or explain to the user what they did.

    User moves somewhere else/visits a spoke office/any number of other things and suddenly things don't work.

    What's worse is when some tech starts using the hosts file as a solution for any and everything that won't resolve instead of looking into WHY it won't resolve.

    2 years later someone upgrades something in the infrastructure or changes an A record to point to a different IP because they swapped out a server and BAM nobody can figure out why this one guy can't access anything.

    These days most level 1 techs don't even KNOW what a hosts file is and DNS is black magic voodoo to most of them.

    My favorite was the one where some client could access their newly externally hosted website from outside of their LAN but not from inside the LAN.

    Turns out their internal domain was the same as their website: companyname.com and nobody thought to update the www DNS record on the PDC when they moved the website from internally hosted to externally hosted. Their contracted developer had everything working fine because he'd never tried it from the LAN.

    Took FOUR techs three days before someone thought to escalate the issue to me.


    They were absolutely certain that the web developer had messed up and wouldn't let go of it long enough to contemplate any other options.

    Now, I've seen a WHOLE lot of web developers who don't understand jack squat about client-server networks or dns or smtp or anything. I could be a six-armed hindu deity and I wouldn't have enough digits to count the number of times a web developer has fucked up SMTP mailflow by not understanding what MX and SPF records are, but you'd think when it works 100% correctly externally and ONLY doesn't work from within the LAN, that you'd stop looking at the web developer right?

    Nope, they finally went to me.

    5 minutes later? Fixed.

    I'm still shocked that they couldn't figure out that pinging it from the inside returned the internal IP to the old internal webserver, which was no longer there, while pinging it from our office gave the correct external server address.

    One quick A record change later and all was good.

    The sheer shock and awe of the techs around me, two of them level 2 technicians with 10+ years experience, just made me hang my head and convinced me that troubleshooting simply cannot be taught.
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  10. #970
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I'm still shocked that they couldn't figure out that pinging it from the inside returned the internal IP to the old internal webserver, which was no longer there, while pinging it from our office gave the correct external server address.
    The answer to that is quite simple - people don't read. when they do read they don't comprehend.

    To them, ping is magic - it either works or it doesn't, they don't "interpret".
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  11. #971
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Using your brain to comprehend the logic of a system is apparently engineer level sorcery to most. I learned long ago to just not dwell on it if the person in question isn't a tech of some sort. If they are I may or may not report the lack of useful technical skills to their chain of command.
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  12. #972

    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Yeah. I totally get it.

    I just don't completely understand the scope of your realm which you do tech support for. Are you the in-hour Sr IT Guy for a large corporation, or are you the Sr guy who goes throughout a wide portfolio of clients?

    If the case is the latter, I could better understand this being the case.

  13. #973
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I just don't completely understand the scope of your realm which you do tech support for. Are you the in-hour Sr IT Guy for a large corporation
    Were you asking me or Merrick?

    For me, I'm the Senior IT guy for a small local government in MN.
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  14. #974
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Coworker: Customer needs a CD with their licensed program updates shipped to them because they don't have internet
    Me: Okay
    (created the CD and had it shipped)
    Coworker: The customer complained that you didn't include the internet-based securities resource app
    Me: Right, because they don't have the internet
    Coworker: But if they download the program while, say, at a Starbucks or something, can they use the program then?
    Me: If they don't have internet in their office, they can't use the app, because they need to have a continuous internet connection for it
    Coworker: But they don't have internet at their office
    Me: Yes, now you understand
    Coworker: So why didn't you send them the app update?

  15. #975
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Hey Melcar, can you help us with this printer -- just got this new one, and I got all the other computers connected to it, but this one won't connect... We asked "other tech" - and she said something about this computer was restricted?

    Melcar: "UMmmmm what?"

    "Yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either"

    Melcar: "OK, let me just take a look Ah, don't have the right driver edition... Yes I suppose 32 bit windows is restricted from using the 64bit driver... Give me 2 minutes and I'll load the 32 driver onto the server."





    Read Understand - Take action... Yup - I'm a miracle worker to these fools.
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  16. #976

    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Melcar View Post
    Were you asking me or Merrick?

    For me, I'm the Senior IT guy for a small local government in MN.
    I was asking you.

    And yeah. Sr. IT Guy, Local Government. It all makes sense.

    I know a couple guys who work in similar sections of my city, and I've heard all too many similar stories from them.

    Bottom Line? - People think their offices are just as easily "plug and play" as their home network. When problems arise, they think YOU (the IT GUY) is the problem, and YOU don't understand how "the internet" works.

    This is THE reason why I chose to avoid this line of work about 15 years ago - End Users are too capable of looking up the wrong information that is irrelevant by way of the Google without asking the proper questions, paying proper attention to related syntax and then implementing those small grains of perceived understanding properly - and I can't deal with it.


  17. #977
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Honestly his stories aren't too different than ones you will hear from any competent SysAdmin.

    Except the fucker will never provide pictures.

  18. #978
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I've been receiving nearly daily calls from this one particular customer who keeps playing phone tag with his Account Manager. I send her an IM after the most recent contact from the customer.

    Me: The customer really wants to talk to you regarding his pricing changes
    Her: Did you tell him I was at lunch?
    Me: I said you were unavailable
    Her: Did you tell him that I have a new iPhone to pay for?
    Me: No, but somehow I doubt he'd appreciate it.
    Her: Is he on the phone now?
    Me: No, I let him go, let him go, he didn't want to wait anymore, let him go, let him go, until you came back to give what-for. I don't care what he has to say, but he wants to give us money so let him pay
    Her: I don't care what he's going to say, let the man rage on and on and on... New Yorkers never bothered me anyway!

  19. #979
    Mr. Angsty Spice
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    No, I let him go, let him go, he didn't want to wait anymore, let him go, let him go, until you came back to give what-for. I don't care what he has to say, but he wants to give us money so let him pay
    Her: I don't care what he's going to say, let the man rage on and on and on... New Yorkers never bothered me anyway!
    Please tell me you had good harmony during this part.
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  20. #980
    Mr. Angsty Spice
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Except the fucker will never provide pictures.
    You would say this on the day I left my Iphone at my house too!

    Fucker.


    [quyote] competent SysAdmin.[/quote] Woohoo! I'm competent! Nicest thing anybody's said about me in years!
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

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