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

Status
Not open for further replies.
plague311 said:
My boss used to do a "TILT" at the end of the day (things I learned today). It didn't last long because he mostly learned that no one checked the channel in slack he was posting it in because the only thing going in there were his TILTs.

On a completely different note, we use LastPass as a company. It's ******* slick as hell when you're in my role. We do end to end tech support for something like 70 companies. I put the app on my phone, and I can page through every company at my finger tips. If you couple it with 2FA it gets rid of pretty much every security flaw as well. I was hesitant at first, but now I absolutely love it.
Click to expand...
I believe you. Like I said, I use LastPass myself and I'd love to be able to have it on my work machine. But even if we did have it across the enterprise, there would be people who wouldn't use it because they have entirely the wrong idea about how IT security works.
 
arthwollipot said:
I believe you. Like I said, I use LastPass myself and I'd love to be able to have it on my work machine. But even if we did have it across the enterprise, there would be people who wouldn't use it because they have entirely the wrong idea about how IT security works.
Click to expand...

Truer words have not been spoken.

Yeah, doing it across an enterprise would be a nightmare. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50ish employees, 40 of them that probably regularly use LastPass, so it was an easy switch. We use it for almost everything too. Network infrastructure notes, domain creds, pretty much anything relevant.
 
I use KeePass because it appears to be utterly platform independent.

(i.e. same software on linux, windows, etc.)

I watch my team fumbling with passwords etc. every day, and I just can't persuade them to use it. Even though it is a supported app on our SOE.
 
novaphile said:
I use KeePass ....

I watch my team fumbling with passwords etc. every day, and I just can't persuade them to use it. Even though it is a supported app on our SOE.
Click to expand...




I have the same problem with family and friends: Explain KeePass, set it up for them, add a couple of entries, show them the auto-type feature (which is usually but not always wonderful).


Then later find that they're still (a) ignoring KeePass and (b) complaining about having to remember sooo many passwords.
 
Dear Users.

Working for a VIP does not make you a VIP.

Doing a job for a VIP does not make you a VIP.

Our SLA with your company has a number of VIP clients; doctors and higher level executives, who pay more for faster service. That's literally what the SLA does.

You don't automatically get faster service you aren't paying for because you're "doing a job for a VIP."

Your company has a hierarchical structure. Everybody is doing their job for a VIP.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Dear Users.

Working for a VIP does not make you a VIP.

Doing a job for a VIP does not make you a VIP.

Our SLA with your company has a number of VIP clients; doctors and higher level executives, who pay more for faster service. That's literally what the SLA does.

You don't automatically get faster service you aren't paying for because you're "doing a job for a VIP."

Your company has a hierarchical structure. Everybody is doing their job for a VIP.
Click to expand...

Ha ha ha,
Too true, however people who work for Director, Assistant Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, Superintendent or Executive Director are more VIP than others!
 
Yup. We have people who are specifically marked for VIP service, and if you don't have the mark, I don't care who you are. We do jobs in the order in which they are received.
 
Dear Helpdesk:

Southside, Southpoint, and Baptist South are not the same location. I have clients at all three of these. Saying there's a problem "At the South location" isn't overly useful information to put in a ticket.
 
Caller: Is a police records check necessary for building and IT access for contractors? I have someone starting tomorrow who doesn't have one.

Me: Yes, a police records check is necessary.

Caller: But they're starting tomorrow!

Me: No, they're not.
 
USER: I need you to provide me with X, via your Service.

ME: As you know from administering your own instance of Service, I can't provide X until you give me the details for Y and Z which are contained in X. And as you also know, I can't provide Z until you give me the details for A, B, and C, which are contained in Z.

[time passes]

USER: I'm still waiting on Z.

Contrast with:

UNICORN: I know from my own time as a Service admin that the following information will ensure you provide me with X via your Service:
- A, B, and C contained in Z
- Y and Z contained in X
Thanks in advance!

ME: Done and done!
 
Last edited:
We've been having an interesting series of calls over the last week that has destroyed one of our standard narratives.

Caller: Hi, I'm getting [x problem]. Is it Russian hackers?
Agent: *sigh* No, it's not Russian hackers.

Well, we've been having a problem where some people are seeing their Intranet home page firewalled, displaying a Cyrillic address.

It's totally Russian hackers.
 
arthwollipot said:
We've been having an interesting series of calls over the last week that has destroyed one of our standard narratives.

Caller: Hi, I'm getting [x problem]. Is it Russian hackers?
Agent: *sigh* No, it's not Russian hackers.

Well, we've been having a problem where some people are seeing their Intranet home page firewalled, displaying a Cyrillic address.

It's totally Russian hackers.
Click to expand...
Nah. It's more likely hackers from any other country who can post in Cyrillic. That is, all the rest of the world.
 
Norman Alexander said:
Nah. It's more likely hackers from any other country who can post in Cyrillic. That is, all the rest of the world.
Click to expand...
Tell that to the person who is convinced that every computer problem is the fault of Russian hackers.

It used to be viruses. I still get the occasional call from someone who says "I can't get into Outlook. Have I got a virus?"

/me goes into Task Manager, ends the stray process, restarts Outlook.

"No, you don't have a virus. First, viruses don't do this. Second, we're protected against them by multiple layers of security. This was just a crash."
 
arthwollipot said:
Tell that to the person who is convinced that every computer problem is the fault of Russian hackers.
Click to expand...
You can always say "Yes, it's Russian hackers. And remember, 1000 Russian rubles is only AUS$20. So the easiest way to fix this is for you to send me the ransom money and I will pay them to take the hack off."

It used to be viruses. I still get the occasional call from someone who says "I can't get into Outlook. Have I got a virus?"

* arthwollipot;12511537 goes into Task Manager, ends the stray process, restarts Outlook.

"No, you don't have a virus. First, viruses don't do this. Second, we're protected against them by multiple layers of security. This was just a crash."
Click to expand...
Ditto stray Firefox processes stopping the browser restarting properly.
 
novaphile said:
May I point out that "all of them" seem to be Microsoft products, which they recently bought and apparently broke.
Click to expand...

Nope, three are Microsoft originals, one was bought 20 years ago and the other 7 years ago.

Word written by Microsoft 1983.
Excel written by Microsoft 1987.
Powerpoint purchased in 1987.
IE written by Microsoft 1994. (some code licensed from Spyglass Mosaic.)
Skype purchased in 2011.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom