Extreme "shut up and reboot"

[Dria]

My small IT department recently took over the support of several branch offices that had previously had no real support. It's always an adventure -- rarely, an office has someone who's good enough to handle most IT matters with a little guidance, but mostly we're talking about people who don't know anything about computers. The one mostly beneficial effect of being without IT services for so long is that people do learn to try rebooting first. However, this is CS, so I emphasize the "mostly" in "mostly beneficial"...

The office has requested help with a file share on their local network. They mention that they think that the computer they are having difficulty with is on a different network. When I connect remotely to that particular client, I discover an elderly Linksys router -- you know the kind, only supports 802.11b, comes out of the box with "admin" for the password and an insecure wireless network broadcasting by default. Aaaand... it's got its out-of-the-box settings. The client says someone else from IT had previously configured it but the settings disappeared. They sometimes have network problems, and will power-cycle the router when they happen.

I begin to tell the client that there are two things that could have happened: either the hard reset button was pushed, or this aging router is just senile and sometimes drops its config. I get as far as mentioning the little reset button in the back that you have to hold down with a paperclip...

Client: Oh, yeah, that gets pushed. [Receptionist] resets it when we have network problems.
Me (thinking: that "gets pushed? those little reset buttons don't just "get pushed" on accident!): Uh... don't do that any more. When you do that, it wipes out all of your network security.
Client: Oh, really?
Me: *facepalm*

Resolution: Permissions adjusted on file shares. Client advised not to press the hard reset button on router.

They didn't even seem to have put two and two together to realize that the hard reset button does, you know, a hard reset.

[Exaspera]

"Everyone's an idiot, just on different subjects." Will Rogers

One of my credos.

[Geek King]

They didn't even seem to have put two and two together to realize that the hard reset button does, you know, a hard reset.

Um, you know most people don't actually know the difference when you say "hard reset" and "power off" right? That's one of the terms that you don't really run accross causually. I find most people's ideas about computing is mainly shaped by movies and media, and have very little to do with real life.

[bsaana]

The people I support think logoff - shutdown - restart are all the same thing . You ask them to do one thing and they will ask do I need to shutdown, then a second time oh so I need to reboot?

The only good thing is that they have been pretty much trained to call or email in about a problem before it really gets screwed up.

[casey13]

I've never seen the restart button on my old Linksys router. I always just pulled the power cord to turn it off.

[Dria]

This was the first time I'd ever talked to them -- I'm pretty sure they'd never heard the term "hard reset". I didn't tell them to power it off in the call. My astonishment was at the fact that pressing the little hard reset button was common practice, something they'd figured out on their own somehow, and that nobody could quite figure out why "the network disappeared" after this. I'd just never had that happen before

[Ben_Who]

My roommate keeps doing this on our home router. He'll be downloading something stupid, like every Justice League episode ever, and if it isn't moving fast enough for him, he'll hit the reset-to-default button on the router. Speeds things right up. Of course, it also strips away all the configuring I put on it, including the security, which means that Ben's Free WiFi Porn Emporium is now open for business and we have about six hours before cars start clustering in the parking lot outside the window where the router is, and they REALLY put a drag on download speeds.

I find networks, including their security, to be something of a divine mystery, and I always have to page through chapters of some Grimoire to find the right spell combination to lock them down again. Hauling out the instruction manual for the forty-seventh time because Roommate didn't want to just watch Archer on Hulu is MADE of annoying.

Love, Who?

[Geek King]

My roommate keeps doing this on our home router. He'll be downloading something stupid, like every Justice League episode ever, and if it isn't moving fast enough for him, he'll hit the reset-to-default button on the router. Speeds things right up. .

Might I suggest a locked plastic cage to protect the reset button from the roommate? Or perhaps the cheaper-yet-more-satisfying option of beating your roomie with a bat when he does that?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Ben's Free WiFi Porn Emporium is now open for business

May I suggest a slogan for this business?

"Purveyors of Fine Perversions."

(Thanks Puck, wherever you may be)

[It's me]

Might I suggest a locked plastic cage to protect the reset button from the roommate? Or perhaps the cheaper-yet-more-satisfying option of beating your roomie with a bat when he does that?

Drop of superglue into the little hole where the reset button lives. If you absolutely need to do a hard reset you can always pull the router apart to jumper the switch.

[EricKei]

If you absolutely need to do a hard reset you can always pull the router apart to jumper the switch.

Oh, is that all? Piffle! I mere trifle I prefer the bat option, myself. Sooner or later, the roomie will either get the message or forget where the button is due to the drain bamage >_>

As for the "default admin pw" -- that's pretty common even today, from pretty much every manufacturer. They simply assume that the very first thing any competent tech will do is change it.