This one is going to come back and bite, again and again...

[Eric the Grey]

Remote user (works from home and uses VPN to connect to our corporate network using a company computer) calls in and informs me his password seems to be expired. He cannot connect to VPN.

I check and sure enough his password expired today. The down side of this setup is that the end user does not get any notification of the impending password expiration, since they are already logged into windows, and enter their pass again for the VPN connection.

Me: Yup, your expired. What do you want me to change your password to?
SC: Just keep it at "stupidly-simple-to-guess password".
Me: I'm sorry, we need to change it to something different.
SC: They haven't made me change it in the past year.
Me: Well, someone is not doing their jobs. What would you like it to be changed to?
SC: Ok, just make it "even-stupider-and-easier-to-guess-regularly-used-word"
Me: *sighing inwardly, changes password* Ok, your set. Give it a try.
SC: Ok, I've got to reboot. I'll call you back if I have any problems.
Me: Ok.

The end, surely you jest?

SC calls back.
SC: I was able to log in and do my expense report but now I'm trying to get into Microsoft and it's asking me for my password. I've tried "stupidly-simple-to-guess password" and "even-stupider-and-easier-to-guess-regularly-used-word" both and neither work.
Me: *knowing what he's after, but deciding to be an ass...* By Microsoft, do you mean Outlook?
SC: Yes.
Me: Ok, *checks account, it's still good* Did you change the password on your computer? *admittedly, this was my fault, I should have had him do it earlier*
SC: No.
Me: Ok, it's a quick fix. I need to you do a control-alt-delete
SC: *interrupting me* I don't have time to do this.
Me: Well, this will only take a minute to fix, and you will not be able to get into your email until it's done.
SC: It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm not going to spend any more time on this.
Me: *WTF? It's 5AM Sunday MORNING, what are you smoking?* It'll only take a moment to correct this.
SC: I don't want to bother with it right now. They just won't get my expense reoprt. *click*
Me: Thinking: "and you won't get reimburesed either."

How much you want to bet, he calls back later today and raises hell about it? He can log into his Windows PC all he wants with his old password, but once he connects to the corporate network, he's screwed. He won't be able to get into his email, and his personal drive because his PC is sending the wrong credentials.

So, yea, this is gonna bite someone in the rear. Hopefully not me. He's not big enough to do too much damage...


Eric the Grey

[Captain Trips]

Document, document, document. And possibly report him as "unwilling to troubleshoot" before he reports you as "unwilling to fix issue."

[Der Cute]

That's one thing I hate about VPN. Because it's also AD credentials, any other stuff you need to connect to within the network is bork, if you change pw outside of the work network!

I would tell users that the computer needs to talk to the mothership. (AD had a rule of no local login 30 days, gets deleted). Once a month, bring the lappy into the workplace, and let it talk to the mothership.

As for your remote worker...HOW can a person living in..oh..Phoenix, get a legit password change if the work network is in NYC? If the Phoenix person only sees NYC 2x a year, how can the passwords/credentials work?

Cutenoob

[technical.angel]

It's not fun, it's possible, but not fun.

[bsaana]

I guess you could say that my company is setup pretty good then, or I am extremely lucky. I am a remote user (and by remote I mean I have never in my nearly 3 years working for them, set foot in a corporate office) and have always get notified that the password will expire, and to change it I have to log into our VPN and it then gets changed for eveything. Oh, and I am around 1000 miles from any major corportate office.

[Eric the Grey]

Document, document, document. And possibly report him as "unwilling to troubleshoot" before he reports you as "unwilling to fix issue."

Yea, I did up to a point, but since with our new ticketing system, everything is viewable by the end user, we have to be careful.

So far, there has been no new tickets for him, and no change to the one I had closed. That doesn't mean that he didn't call back, just that if he did, no ticket was created. While learning the new system, it tends to be easier to skip that part.


Eric the Grey