Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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Long ago, when I hosted email and web services, I frequently got emails from customers saying only, "I can't send mail."


Digging into the situation usually revealed that the target domain was blacklisted, or that the customer had mistyped the target email address.


But I could never get over why they would send an email to tell us they couldn't send email. Isn't that like calling the operator to say your phone is disconnected?
 
I think a lot of users have this mistaken view that the "Computer guys" can see everything they are doing "behind the scenes" as it were and think detailing what the issue is isn't necessary.

If you're in the business I bet you've experienced this if you really step back and think about, when a customer responds to your request for more information with some variation on "Can't you tell from where you are at?"

Even beyond legal requires, as in at even normal jobs (to say nothing of the medical environment I support now and the government environment I supported before) you can't just go in and randomly look at user's files and accounts willy-nilly, on tech level we can't see what the user is "doing" to the degree or in the way a lot of users seem to think.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I think a lot of users have this mistaken view that the "Computer guys" can see everything they are doing "behind the scenes" as it were and think detailing what the issue is isn't necessary.

If you're in the business I bet you've experienced this if you really step back and think about, when a customer responds to your request for more information with some variation on "Can't you tell from where you are at?"

Even beyond legal requires, as in at even normal jobs (to say nothing of the medical environment I support now and the government environment I supported before) you can't just go in and randomly look at user's files and accounts willy-nilly, on tech level we can't see what the user is "doing" to the degree or in the way a lot of users seem to think.
Click to expand...

I worked at a small firm where people were convinced of the opposite.

I walked in to talk to the manning partner about something and he was obviously distracted. I offered to come back later and he said no, he is just momentarily confused. You see he just gave a very important, somewhat small, but very time sensitive task to a admin person and asked that they send it back to him ASAP, after explaining how important and time sensitive it was. Now, he was watching their desktop as they shop online and he can't even figure out what they are shopping for. It is more like they are just randomly browsing.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I think a lot of users have this mistaken view that the "Computer guys" can see everything they are doing "behind the scenes" as it were and think detailing what the issue is isn't necessary.

If you're in the business I bet you've experienced this if you really step back and think about, when a customer responds to your request for more information with some variation on "Can't you tell from where you are at?"

Even beyond legal requires, as in at even normal jobs (to say nothing of the medical environment I support now and the government environment I supported before) you can't just go in and randomly look at user's files and accounts willy-nilly, on tech level we can't see what the user is "doing" to the degree or in the way a lot of users seem to think.
Click to expand...
I had a call just the other day like that. Someone thought that I could just see everything in their mailbox. Hello, privacy?
 
And then there are those times when you yourself do something so stupid and end up making a fool out of yourself.

Like just now - I saw there was a global issue effecting all our ETW (extended temporary workers) that disabled thier logins.

All my operations team are ETW's, so I sent an email to their distribution list asking if it was affecting them.

Which they'll never get, if it is affecting them.

DOH!
 
The Commanding Officer of my last ship asked me to set up a "Restricted Internet" category in the ISA server so during periods of low connectivity (like when we had limited satellite access and were reduced to low bandwidth operations which was pretty common out to sea) we could maintain access to banks, educational sites, and official military sites but just keep people off of Facebook and ESPN and stuff.

So I made an ISA rule for .mil, .edu, .org and the top 20 or so banks/credit unions that showed up in our bandwidth report (and sent out an e-mail to everyone saying if they couldn't get on their particular bank or other site they felt was legit to let me know and I'd look into it). Few days later we went into low bandwidth and the Captain asked me to enable it.

I had done it backwards, as a black list instead of a white list. So people could get to ever site except important ones.
 
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Faydra said:
And then there are those times when you yourself do something so stupid and end up making a fool out of yourself.

Like just now - I saw there was a global issue effecting all our ETW (extended temporary workers) that disabled thier logins.

All my operations team are ETW's, so I sent an email to their distribution list asking if it was affecting them.

Which they'll never get, if it is affecting them.

DOH!
Click to expand...

I was in a group that was leaving a firm and noticed that I had stopped receiving emails from some of the groups that sent out regular emails. I checked Groups in Outlook and noticed I had been removed from all my prior groups and added to the group Toast. I sent an email to that group assuming it was just the folks I was leaving with.

Bad assumption, it included everyone who had given notice or who were about to be fired. Very awkward responses followed. I actually thought my boss was going to fire me from the job I hadn't even started yet. Actually, he was just mad about swallowing his chewing tobacco while laughing.

JoeMorgue said:
The Commanding Officer of my last ship asked me to set up a "Restricted Internet" category in the ISA server so during periods of low connectivity (like when we had limited satellite access and were reduced to low bandwidth operations which was pretty common out to sea) we could maintain access to banks, educational sites, and official military sites but just keep people off of Facebook and ESPN and stuff.

So I made an ISA rule for .mil, .edu, .org and the top 20 or so banks/credit unions that showed up in our bandwidth report (and sent out an e-mail to everyone saying if they couldn't get on their particular bank or other site they felt was legit to let me know and I'd look into it). Few days later we went into low bandwidth and the Captain asked me to enable it.

I had done it backwards, as a black list instead of a white list. So people could get to ever site except important ones.
Click to expand...

I almost swallowed my chewing tobacco, you jerk!
 
I really do love it when people call purely out of curiosity.

I just took a call from someone who asked me "What is Sync Centre?" He'd just seen it and was curious as to what it was all about. I was able to give him a very quick and simple explanation about how the enterprise was being updated to use more cloud services and what it meant to synchronise data from the cloud. It was only a very quick and non-technical explanation, but it satisfied his curiosity and he learned a new thing. And I'm all for that.
 
I just overheard a colleague on a call:

"The form you need is the FTP Access Request... FTP. F for Fred, T for Tango... no, F for Fred. F for Foxtrot. FTP. F for Foxtrot. No, F for Freddie..."
 
One thing that happens to me with depressing regularity is I'll get a request from a new employee. It's obvious that their teammates or their supervisor has told them enough to know they need something, but somehow managed to end the conversation before explaining to this poor soul how to get it.

So they come to me with this question about their job, and all I can think is, "why hasn't your team explained your job to you yet?"
 
arthwollipot said:
I just overheard a colleague on a call:

"The form you need is the FTP Access Request... FTP. F for Fred, T for Tango... no, F for Fred. F for Foxtrot. FTP. F for Foxtrot. No, F for Freddie..."
Click to expand...

"F for Fred, T for Tango... no, F for Fred. F for Foxtrot. No, F for Freddie..."
F for... (reproductive eternal punishment...)

LOL, It wouldn't be polite to actually say what I was thinking, but I bet you are now too...

:D
 
Dabop said:
"F for Fred, T for Tango... no, F for Fred. F for Foxtrot. No, F for Freddie..."
F for... (reproductive eternal punishment...)

LOL, It wouldn't be polite to actually say what I was thinking, but I bet you are now too...

:D
Click to expand...
Well, that's why this thread exists, isn't it? :D
 
theprestige said:
One thing that happens to me with depressing regularity is I'll get a request from a new employee. It's obvious that their teammates or their supervisor has told them enough to know they need something, but somehow managed to end the conversation before explaining to this poor soul how to get it.

So they come to me with this question about their job, and all I can think is, "why hasn't your team explained your job to you yet?"
Click to expand...
Oh, absolutely. And the worst part is when I look them up in the corporate structure, I see that their supervisor has done this many, many times and by now should know better.

Like those people I posted about earlier who continually need their password reset, and have to ask every time how to do it. You'd think they'd learn after the eighth or ninth time.
 
And here's the guy who seems incapable of speaking in complete sentences:

"Oh, hey, I'm having a problem with... uh, it's a RAS problem and I can't... it just won't... uh... I've had this a couple of times and... I can't get the..."

Hard not to interrupt someone sometimes. I was easily able to determine what his problem was (he need to download and install Citrix Receiver) but actually getting him to say what was wrong was excruciating.
 
5 pm before you leave for vacation is not the time when you request assistance with the remote access over your personal Macbook.

And arguing with me and questioning everything I ask you to does not accelerate the process. And when I give in to your demand to send someone to your desk to assist, that won't either. Or s/he will do is stand there and tell you to do the exact same things I am. Plus you get the added feature of one of them becoming available.

We are not going to touch your personal laptop.
 
Donal said:
5 pm before you leave for vacation is not the time when you request assistance with the remote access over your personal Macbook.

And arguing with me and questioning everything I ask you to does not accelerate the process. And when I give in to your demand to send someone to your desk to assist, that won't either. Or s/he will do is stand there and tell you to do the exact same things I am. Plus you get the added feature of one of them becoming available.

We are not going to touch your personal laptop.
Click to expand...

Touch the laptop, Donal. Go ahead, it's okay. I don't mind, really. You know you want to, Touch it, Donal, touch it!

:D
 
Cheeses, people. If you're going to make major changes to a major ICT system, including modifications to workflow and process, you need to do two things: First, make sure it is finished before you implement it. Second, tell people that you're doing it.
 
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