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.
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.
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