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This is going here rather than Unsupportable because this guy made a problem take much longer to resolve than it should have.
Important Terminology
SecNet - Secure network A, the primary network we deal with
MainDom - network domain that 90% of our users are on
OtherDom - network domain, which is the one overseas users tend to use
SecClient - network client that users use in order to access SecNet
Dramatis Personae
J2K - Yours Truly
User - Affected user
Caller - The Brain Burper
Admin - Person that Caller is speaking with on IM.
I take a call from Caller in The Client's "crisis room", because User is unable to log on to SecNet. Although the phrase he uses is "locked out of SecClient."
Now, I've never encountered that turn of phrase, and I assume that Caller means that User is locked out of SecNet. But when I check, User does not turn up in the directory. Neither the Active Directory nor the MainDom Directory. And this latter bit takes a couple of minutes to determine because it can take a while to search the MainDom Directory.
But then I realized that User is overseas (Caller had neglected to mention this), so I check OtherDom. Sure enough, there's User's account. But it's not showing up as locked. When I relay this to Caller, I can hear him typing away, telling me he's communicating with User's Admin via IM.
J2K: "I'm not showing that User's account is locked."
Caller: "You checked SecClient?"
J2K: "I'm not sure what they mean by SecClient. I'm assuming they mean SecNet, but let me see if he's got concurrent sessions running on SecClient."
So I log into SecClient, which is running slow during login, and check this. User is not showing up there either. I relay this, and we have the following conversation.
J2K: "I'm not sure if they're accurately describing the problem. I don't know what they mean by 'locked out of SecClient.'"
Caller: "That's what they're telling me."
But finally Caller gives me Admin's name so I can IM them instead. Once I'm sure that Admin is responding, I let Caller go.
And that's when I find out the problem is not what Caller was describing. User wasn't "locked out," he could log in, but when he did, all he got was a blank screen.
This, naturally, is not what Caller was describing. Admin agreed, and said that they weren't sure that Caller was explaining it properly.
I speak with Admin over the IM for a bit, checking their servers-- as Admin explained that this sort of situation usually happens if a server goes down or similar-- and wasn't seeing any issues.
Eventually, User was able to log in without any assistance on my end. But we could have gotten to an understanding a lot sooner if Caller had accurately relayed the problem. Seriously, he was communicating with Admin via IM, how difficult can it be to just read the screen?
Sigh.
Important Terminology
SecNet - Secure network A, the primary network we deal with
MainDom - network domain that 90% of our users are on
OtherDom - network domain, which is the one overseas users tend to use
SecClient - network client that users use in order to access SecNet
Dramatis Personae
J2K - Yours Truly
User - Affected user
Caller - The Brain Burper
Admin - Person that Caller is speaking with on IM.
I take a call from Caller in The Client's "crisis room", because User is unable to log on to SecNet. Although the phrase he uses is "locked out of SecClient."
Now, I've never encountered that turn of phrase, and I assume that Caller means that User is locked out of SecNet. But when I check, User does not turn up in the directory. Neither the Active Directory nor the MainDom Directory. And this latter bit takes a couple of minutes to determine because it can take a while to search the MainDom Directory.
But then I realized that User is overseas (Caller had neglected to mention this), so I check OtherDom. Sure enough, there's User's account. But it's not showing up as locked. When I relay this to Caller, I can hear him typing away, telling me he's communicating with User's Admin via IM.
J2K: "I'm not showing that User's account is locked."
Caller: "You checked SecClient?"
J2K: "I'm not sure what they mean by SecClient. I'm assuming they mean SecNet, but let me see if he's got concurrent sessions running on SecClient."
So I log into SecClient, which is running slow during login, and check this. User is not showing up there either. I relay this, and we have the following conversation.
J2K: "I'm not sure if they're accurately describing the problem. I don't know what they mean by 'locked out of SecClient.'"
Caller: "That's what they're telling me."
But finally Caller gives me Admin's name so I can IM them instead. Once I'm sure that Admin is responding, I let Caller go.
And that's when I find out the problem is not what Caller was describing. User wasn't "locked out," he could log in, but when he did, all he got was a blank screen.
This, naturally, is not what Caller was describing. Admin agreed, and said that they weren't sure that Caller was explaining it properly.
I speak with Admin over the IM for a bit, checking their servers-- as Admin explained that this sort of situation usually happens if a server goes down or similar-- and wasn't seeing any issues.
Eventually, User was able to log in without any assistance on my end. But we could have gotten to an understanding a lot sooner if Caller had accurately relayed the problem. Seriously, he was communicating with Admin via IM, how difficult can it be to just read the screen?
Sigh.