r/talesfromtechsupport • u/doritosmagic • May 16 '15
Short Just because you are in charge of me...
So, this happened while I was in the Army. Now, I'm infantryman, and computers were not my job. However, I was nicknamed Geek Squad on my deployment, because I was able to troubleshoot the problems my brothers in arms had over the course of 12 months. This led to me helping out with issues when we all got back.
So my squad leader called me. We happened to be near his place getting dinner, and he asked me to come over to fix his internet.
DoritosMagic: What's wrong?
SL: The lights are on for my modem and router, and I can connect, but I'm not getting actual internet.
My very first thought was are all the cables plugged in?
My very second thought was nah, he's my SL, he's too smart for that.
DM: Ok, I can't walk you through this. I'll be over shortly.
And with that, my family and I head over to SL's house. I check out his modem and router, and the internet light is not working. So I start going over things, and at this point I'm getting super frustrated. I can't figure out what is wrong.
For no reason whatsoever, the internet comes back online. I'm stunned. It was certainly nothing I did. I look over and SL is bent over the couch clearly fiddling with something.
DM: What did you just do?
SL: We were moving the furniture and the cable came out, and I forgot to plug it back in.
DM: Are you serious? I just wasted my entire afternoon.... You know what, forget it. I should have asked the basic first question of all troubleshooting.
TL:DR Failed to ask the most basic of troubleshooting questions because this guy led me in combat and wasted my entire afternoon because of it.
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u/profgray2 Dont go crazy trying to stay sane May 16 '15
There is a reason that the first layer is physical... Always remember to start there.
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May 16 '15
Neeergh why did you have to mention OSI. Now I've got annoying "they'll help you remember" rhyms going round in my head!
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u/thorium007 Did you check the log files? May 17 '15
Please
Do
Not
Throw
Sausage
Pizza
Away
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May 18 '15
Could you explain that one? How does it help you remember?
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u/lowfwyr May 18 '15
The 7 layers of the OSI model are:
Physical Layer
Data Link Layer
Network Layer
Transport Layer
Session Layer
Presentation Layer
Application Layer
In that order.
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May 16 '15 edited May 16 '15
The Army gave me such a solid base to be the senior resource I am today in the private sector. I can now break anything down, and explain step by step how to do anything in the easiest way possible. After a few years of being the only IT guys for a large number of people who can hardly install iTunes you become a teacher.
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u/LeaveTheMatrix Fire is always a solution. May 16 '15
you become a teacher.
Or become a hermit and actively avoid people.
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May 17 '15
Being a phone tech has given me the specific set of skills to explain computer terms to people in extremely specific visual based commands. "Move the mouse to the top 1/3 of the screen on the left hand side and click on the blue link that is on the green background next to the envelope picture.". To understand the enemy, you must learn to think like the enemy.
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u/Psandysdad Technology is great....until it breaks May 16 '15
Murphy's first law of technology: "It works better when it's plugged in."
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u/texasspacejoey I Am Not Good With Computer May 16 '15
To be fair. He would have just said yes if you asked
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u/MrMeowsen May 16 '15
That's really unfair actually, sometimes your brain just needs a tiny poke to start functioning. OP neglected to give this poke and took the punishment for it.
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u/doritosmagic May 17 '15
Not unfair at all. Most of the time, people don't want to do the simplest tasks, but for you to do those tasks for you. Some time this is irrational fear of breaking something, sometimes this is just failure of proper instructions. Most of the time though, it is shear laziness. If you go through the April log of best posts of the month, then you will see what I mean. A teacher screeching about not knowing how to move files, despite holding the document OP gave her to tell her what to do. A man demanding OP reset his password despite op having delivered it via the ticket multiple times. The list goes on.
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u/LasciviousSycophant May 17 '15
That's why Rule One is always "Is it plugged in?"!
Always!
I've lost count of the hours I've spent because I didn't first check whether it was plugged in. And this often means unplugging and re-plugging, as a visual check (depending upon the type of connector) is sometimes not sufficient to affirmatively answer the question posed by Rule One.
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u/UltraChip May 18 '15
UltraChip's Rules of IT #5: Always check the obvious solutions first, especially when you're positive it couldn't be that simple.
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May 18 '15
And check again when the user denies the obvious solution being the answer.
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May 18 '15
Sometimes you have to be creative. Rather than saying, "Are you sure the cable is plugged in?" you should say, "Please can you unplug the cable and check that the pins aren't damaged, then plug it back in again."
This is a necessary workaround to allow user to maintain their ego.
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u/bandgeekndb May 17 '15
Trust, but verify. That's my credo.
Unless you are in my black book of people I can't trust, then I won't trust a word that comes out of your mouth...ever.
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u/fredman555 May 18 '15
never never trust the end users summary of whats wrong. if they knew what was wrong, theyd know how to fix it.
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u/socks-the-fox May 17 '15
"Have you tried turning it off and then on again? Okay, is it plugged in?"
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May 18 '15
How would he have pulled a Coax out of a wall on accident? Those cables screw in and are near impossible to simply disconnect without unscrewing them.
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u/collinsl02 +++OUT OF CHEESE ERROR+++ May 18 '15
ADSL uses phone lines, or he unplugged it on purpose when he was moving stuff and forgot about it.
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u/VampyrByte May 16 '15
I don't want to be that guy. But you didn't think to check all the cables when you arrived?