Sorry Wrong Number!

In my capacity as a Systems Administrator I have also been blessed with the duty of supporting our telephone systems. For the most part this is the easiest aspect of my job. We have an old PBX system that typically runs quite well and really all that has to be done is swap a phone now and then or change a name. The problems arise when people begin thinking that I, the SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR can fix anything. This afternoon I was paged while assisting a person with a computer issue. A number of minutes pass while I finish explaining the complicated concept of copy and paste and another page follows for, the SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR!

I return to my office and call the operator to see what the emergency is. As she begins to laugh I know that it cannot be good for me. She tells me that I need to call so and so, that she is having a problem with her phone. I ask her if she could fill me in before I begin the painful task of assisting this known ignoramus with their problem. The user in question was given a phone number for an individual that she was supposed to call. When she dialed the number a man answered, this of course was odd since there should not be a male voice answering. She assumes that she dialed the prefix of the number incorrectly because we have two local prefixes that are similar to each other. She attempts to dial again but uses the different prefix and the man answers once more. She asks the individual on the other end if this was 555-1234 and he replies no, it is 554-1234. Now the user "knows" that she dialed the number correctly the second time and that her phone must be dialing something different. When she told the internal operator of the issue, the operator had the good sense to try both numbers and did not reach the man for both. Now the operator knows that the user has just misdialed, but it is insisted that they page me, the SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR!

I sit there listening to this story and begin pondering what in the hell am I supposed to do? If I tell the user that she just dialed incorrectly she will be offended and declare that she is not stupid and that she did not dial the numbers incorrectly. Should I swap her phone knowing that phones connected to a PBX do not actually dial but transfer its tones to the main system and it dials and therefore swapping phones would make no difference? I decided to tell the operator that she should contact the user and explain to them that all of the 555 and 554 prefixes are being redirected to sex lines and that she should not call them again. Sorry, I just cannot fix stupid.

Hello, how may I help you?

The next time any of you have to contact tech support for a piece of hardware or software please keep in mind the following scenario and understand that the person on the other end of the line has probably had to deal with issues like this one all day long. Even though my title is Computer Systems Administrator it really means nothing. For me and for many others in the working world it is only a title and we all carry a number of other titles that we would rather not maintain. One such title is tech support engineer, pretty fancy uh. This week has been one of those weeks where I wish I had catalogued all the lovely questions that I have been asked while in the capacity of tech support engineer. This case is just the one that takes the cake:

A user called and relayed to me that she was having a problem with our email system. This is a new user so I began by asking the simplest questions.

Me: “Have you ever used email on this computer before?”
User: “No”
Me: “ok, then I will need for you to click the icon beside the Start button labeled email.”
User: “I have already done that.”
Me: “Ok, but I need to go through and make sure that the error is program not computer specific.” (really wanted to say user specific but did not want to offend quite yet.)
User: “Oh, but I usually use the little picture on the desktop to open email.”
Me: “On this computer?”
User: “Yes.”
Me: “But you just said you had not used email on this computer.”
User: “I didn’t think you meant this computer.”
Me: “Reboot then call me back.”

From there I hung up the phone and began my chant to console myself: I love my job! I love my job! I love my job!
At least I still have a job right?

Windows 7 Rocks!

It has been less than 24 hours since I installed Windows 7 on my HP Pavilion Laptop and so far I am in love. The laptop was purchased with Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit, 4 GB RAM, AMD Turion X2, ATI Radeon HD 3200 and 250 GB hard drive. Vista ran like a dead dog! With this type of computing power there should be little or no delays when running simple applications such as Word 2003, but everything wanted to drag. Because of this, I was forced to disable all of the Aero functions, the sidebar gadgets and anything else that made Vista... well Vista. Clean install of Windows 7 fixed all those issues. I feel like I have just purchased a brand new computer! With the default install of IE 8, surfing the web is lightning fast for sites that would take minutes to render before. Switching between open applications with Aero running is completely painless. This computer is fun again! Only drivers that were needed were for the integrated SD card reader, and I updated the ATI video driver to the latest edition, everything else was installed by default, even the integrated multimedia touchpad worked. The HP Quickplay software is not compatible, but with Windows Media Player 12 it is really unnecessary.

So yes, I am giving M$ a big pat on the back with this operating system. It is highly functional, fun, easy to use, feature rich and attractive, everything they wanted for Vista but was not able to deliver. I will check back later to let you know what I have learned.

Click the image to see a fullsize view of my Windows 7 desktop demonstrating the cool new features of the Taskbar.

New Training Module

Project for the day was creating a new training video for users at the satellite office. Not sure if it is worth all the work I had to put into it though. Anyway, it was fun and allowed me to learn a few things about recording, video editing and narrating. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Interesting Read

Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network

Publish at Scribd or explore others: School Work malware cyber war

It's only lunch time.

Yes, it is Monday morning. Again the user base has left their brains at home in bed. Amazing how much simple everyday tasks can be forgotten over the weekend. Let us recap the morning so far.

First thing, thanks to the ever so faithful Micro$oft updates the DHCP server did not fully start after Saturday night. Not a real big deal except for the fact that the Directors PC relies on an IP reservation for the computer to work and he was in before 6 am. Of course I don't show up until 7:45 am which is fine since I am only supposed to be from 8 to 5, but the Diretor was unable to access what he needed until then. Great start!

Next, we have the user that could not find her files. There they were, right on the server where she left them on Friday, but she could not find them.

I mentioned earlier about updates being installed over the weekend right, well one update placed a icon on the desktop of a few PCs. The icon did not really do anything, and was not causing a problem but low and behold this user could not function until she new what the icon was for. I mean, she did not even attempt to work until I came down and said that it was ok to work.

And the best is the user that turned off their computer before going to lunch and when they returned could not turn it back on because they were holding the button in. Not just pressing the button to turn on the computer but pressing it in and holding it. This of course would cause the computer to turn on and after about 6 seconds turn right back off.

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job!

A True "Personal" Computer

So I am a little grumpier than usual this evening. Seems a larger number of people decided to leave their brains at home in their iPhone charges this morning (there is my reference to iPhone). Password issues have got to be the number one pet peeve for any Systems Administrator, no matter which platform they work with. Since this blog is dedicated to all the foolish issues Sys Admins have to deal with I might as well start with the password word issue from today.

If you are a computer user on an administered network you probably have to change your password every 60 to 90 days. This is a most important step in password security although not very complicated, well for most. Take today for example; user calls in a panic telling me that she has been locked out because she did not change their password in the time allotted. My system here forces you to change your password every 90 days, at which time you are given 6 grace logins to do so. After said logins you are then locked out and have to contact the Grumpy Ole Admin.

I access the interface needed to reset the users grace logins so that she can change her password yet she still has 4 grace logins left. Understand, this is on a Tuesday and the user logged in yesterday. I call back and tell here she still has logins left and she then tells me, “I know, but it is not working.”

Now I am utterly befuddled. I reply to the user, “You told me that your grace logins had been used and that you could not login.”

“Well maybe it was a different error, I can’t remember. All I know is that I am putting in my password and it is not letting me in”, the user replies.

So now computers are taking it personal and not letting people in. I take a deep breath and tell the user, “All you have to do is use the password that you used yesterday and you can get in.”

“I already have,” utters the user, “I know I am using the right password, but the computer is not letting me in.”

I now begin counting to ten before I try explaining, in vain, to this user that the computer is not against her and that she needs to just slow down so that she can remember the correct password. I then realize that it would be a waste of time when the user tries to tell me that she has been using the same password for years. It is at this point I know I have lost this battle and will never get these ten minutes of life back. So I reset her password to, you guessed it “password”, and gave her one grace login to change it. Knowing she has won she mutters a thank you and hangs up.

So you want to be a Systems Administrator? The above story, and more such as these will outline the standard ID10T errors that make up your job.

Good Night!