You have to log on first

[Chattonne]

Someone just called because she forgot her password. No biggy, I just reset her password to the default "ABC123" and then she can change it once she logs in (the system won't let us see what their password is, or reset it to whatever they want, it has to be "ABC123"). Of course it's never that simple. To be fair, she had a bit of an accent so it's possible she didn't understand what I was saying, but she spoke english very well, so I suspect she just wasn't listening.

Me: Ok, I've reset your password, so go back to the log on page and log on with your user id and the password "ABC123".

Her: So I type in my user id (typing sounds) and then whatever I want for the password right? And it has to be at least 6 characters?

Me: No, you need to log on with the password "ABC123" and then once you're in, you can change your password to whatever you want.

Her: Ok so I type in whatever I want for the password?

Me: No, please use the password "ABC123".

Her: (tries to log on) I'm getting "Unable to log on. Pleas check your user id and password".

Me: (makes sure she's using all capital letters, that she has the right user id, etc)

Her: Can the password be more than 10 characters? Because the one I'm using has 12.

Me: (dies a little inside) The password you should be using is only 6 charactesr. It's "ABC123".

Her: (sounding irritated) I can't choose my own password?

Me: Yes, but you have to log on with "ABC123" first. Then once you're in you can change it to whatever you want.

At this point she was finally able to log on and change her password. Is it really that complicated to log on with the system default password first and then change it?

[TNT]

I always get these calls:

Caller: I'm trying to change my email password, but no matter what I type in, I get the login screen again.
Me: Okay, let me follow this along... you're on the website...
Caller: I use Outlook Express for email.
Me: You're trying to change your email password through Outlook Express?
Caller: Yes.
Me: It doesn't work quite that way.
Caller: But I get a window that asks me to type in a username and password. I should just be able to type in whatever password I want.
Me: Sorry, but Outlook Express has no way to change the password on our system. Doing it the way you're trying to do it would mean anyone could just type in a random password...
Caller: That doesn't make sense.
Me: Um... try this. Back in ancient times, the Email Fairies had a meeting and...

[BravoOrig]

I get the same thing with people and Outlook Express. Somehow they get the idea that they can just enter the information and it will be valid. Or keep clicking OK after it prompts for the username and password again, which admittedly is a dumb thing for Outlook Express to do as it gives no indication that info is wrong. And my final annoyance with people and OE, entering POP3 and SMTP for their mail servers. Did OE at any point previously in this setup wizard show you the exact information to type in? Then why would you type in what it says now? Outlook Express only knows what you tell it, it's not gonna know that informations wrong. Oh, and that last screen says you've entered it successfully, I don't care if you entered gibberish, you've entered it successfully.

[IlovemyGeek]

Gah I hate password issues. I always love it when customers complain that they didn't pick their password. Sir I can promise you that you wouldn't have been reset by us to bigjohnrocks or something like that. You picked it.

[Kilamon]

Gah I hate password issues. I always love it when customers complain that they didn't pick their password. Sir I can promise you that you wouldn't have been reset by us to bigjohnrocks or something like that. You picked it.

I use http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/ to generate all the passwords I need. You might try the trick I use where every time the enem... er.. .Users .. ask for a new password, you increment the length by 2, 4 or 6. So far, I've issued one password at 16 digits. It's interesting to see how when the password is that long and complicated, they always treat it with care and wouldn't dream of asking for one that'll be even longer.

[IlovemyGeek]

That would just complicate my life even more. 1/2 my user's log in issues are b/c they misspelled their own email addresses to begin with. So say their email address is dumbass@idiot.net. They're logging in with that over and over and over again and it doesn't work. 9/10 its b/c they spelled their email address dumbass@idiot.com or dumbass@idiot.com.net or some variation. Then they get mad at me b/c my system doesn't magically figure out they made a typo. I had one guy sign up 5 times and he misspelled his email address 5 times. Sad Sad Sad

[Kilamon]

I had one guy sign up 5 times and he misspelled his email address 5 times. Sad Sad Sad

My GF had a boss once, a VP, who couldn't figure out the difference between his own email address, someone else's email address and a web site. Yeah, a web site with http:// in it. This guy would compose an email and put in the http://username@localhost.com/www.wtf.com. Figure THAT one out. I guess he was using the shotgun approach. She made post it notes and put it on his monitor so he'd keep it straight.

[jb17kx]

So far, I've issued one password at 16 digits. It's interesting to see how when the password is that long and complicated, they always treat it with care and wouldn't dream of asking for one that'll be even longer.

Passwords like

p?u5#7e=uwepeh8s

?

An admin I used to knew did that for school kids. Every time he had to a password reset, he upped the size of the one he reset it to.
Biggest password so far?
22 characters.

[MacPrince]

Every time he had to a password reset, he upped the size of the one he reset it to.

"We upped our password size, so now..."

...nevermind.

[technical.angel]

This guy would compose an email and put in the http://username@localhost.com/www.wtf.com. Figure THAT one out.

Sadly enough, I've seen that more often then I'd like....

But since you mentioned stick-it notes... that reminded me of the network admin and my Stickies. Stickies is a program that gives you virtual stick-it notes for PC. When I was at the front Helpdesk computer, I had stickies down the right hand side of the screen. These included 1-800#s equipment support, the 1-800# for the uni, contact numbers for our remote sites, and some other important information that was not easy to track back down. Because I was the only one who used the machine, I wasn't that worried about saving copies of them.

Well, one day, the Network admin needed to reboot the machine. Looking at the stickies, and probably NOT thinking, he went and closed each and every stickie, thus deleting them from the system.... so he could close the machine.

I FREAKED!!! Then had to figure out how to find all the info again..

Sigh... nothings ever safe.

[Andara Bledin]

My password for here is 14 characters long.

I like using punctuation, if the site will let me.

I hate random character passwords I can't choose. They're about a half-step above a simple 4-letter word for security, 'cause everyone is going to have a post-it or something similar with the password on it.

^-.-^

[Shabo]

I have 2 password gripes.

Gripe 1: You set the password for them, then set the password to ask them to change it the first time they log in. You give them the password to log in, explain that they are going to have to change it right away and what the rules are for setting a new password, and they do log in.
When it tells them they need to change their password: "Um, it's asking me to change my password."
*Yes, I just told you you would need to do that, and you acknowledged that fact.*
"So what do I do?"
* Change your password.*
"To what?"
* (Insert password rules here)*


Gripe 2: Our student self management system that allows people to go in and view grades, sign up for classes, take care of financial aid and payments, etc. requires everyone to change their password every 6 months for security reasons. They have very strict rules about what you must have in your password, like minimum number of characters, capital, lowercase, etc., and won't let you use any of your previous passwords. This is all fine and dandy, excepting that the password reset tool is run by an outside company rather than the one that manages the software for the site, and the tool is pretty much always broken. No one can ever seem to successfully change their password. And they have our office number as the one to contact, and all we can do is verify that they were doing everything correctly and transfer them to the people who actually have the power to reset it.

[technical.angel]

Shabo, I feel your pain.

Except, my office is the only one that can give/change those passwords. But, of course, we don't seem to believe in security, and don't force them to change it.

[Andara Bledin]

There is nothing like making people change their passwords regularly and having a whole slew of arcane rules about what the new passord must be to force people to write their passwords down, rendering them partially useless.

^-.-^

[DannyboyO1]

I think one of my favorite password snafus was when I attempted college for the 2nd time. My old login was still in the server. The password was two characters shorter than the new minimum and lacked the now required arcane symbols (really, does that make it more secure? Brute force password cracking is preventable. Trivially.)

System let me log in with the ancient password, once the account was revised. And I grinned. I had the most secure password on campus. It wasn't possible to choose it anymore, but I was grandfathered.