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[sysadmins] - International Brotherhood of Neckbeards and Mouthbreathers Local 258

12467100

Posts

  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    We have people for plumbing, electric, and carpentry, so it's not quite the shit show bowen apparently puts up with. I don't have to provide the electricity, just deal with anything that runs on it.

  • Le_GoatLe_Goat Frechified Goat Person BostonRegistered User regular
    bowen wrote: »
    I've found that if it isn't made out of air, I am responsible for it.

    This goes double if it's powered by electricity.

    Honestly? This feels like a form of sexism, but I wouldn't dare utter those words anywhere else but here.

    Plumbing? Get bowen.
    Electrical? Get bowen.
    Computers? Get bowen.
    Phones? Get bowen.
    Printers? Get bowen. (most likely out of paper btw)
    Camera System? Get bowen.
    Carpentry things? Get bowen.

    Hey yeah I have a penis, I must know all about that shit. I mean... I do, but I don't wanna.

    You forgot: Something over 10 lbs? Get bowen

    While I agree that being insensitive is an issue, so is being oversensitive.
  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited May 2014
    bowen wrote: »
    Whoops crashed the phones.

    This is why I shouldn't be a phone tech!

    I have no training and I run our Cisco UCM/UCA deployments. We have a vendor for support but I'm not allowed to contact them.

    I have been turned down repeatedly for request for training. At this point, I just shrug and claim I don't know how to do something and can't get it to work. Then I break something like the corporate directory for 20 minutes and be all like 'oops, guess some training would have let me know not to change setting X during duty hours.

    Bigity on
  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    bowen wrote: »
    I've found that if it isn't made out of air, I am responsible for it.

    This goes double if it's powered by electricity.

    Honestly? This feels like a form of sexism, but I wouldn't dare utter those words anywhere else but here.

    Plumbing? Get bowen.
    Electrical? Get bowen.
    Computers? Get bowen.
    Phones? Get bowen.
    Printers? Get bowen. (most likely out of paper btw)
    Camera System? Get bowen.
    Carpentry things? Get bowen.

    Hey yeah I have a penis, I must know all about that shit. I mean... I do, but I don't wanna.

    I am also a facility manager apparently in charge of solutions for anything ....inside that facility.

    I tell people I'm the guy who deals with anything that turns on, plugs in, broadcasts out, or smells funny when it breaks.

  • Le_GoatLe_Goat Frechified Goat Person BostonRegistered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    We have people for plumbing, electric, and carpentry, so it's not quite the shit show bowen apparently puts up with. I don't have to provide the electricity, just deal with anything that runs on it.
    Consider yourself lucky. While we don't do anything major with plumbing, if the dishwasher, sink, coffee machine, or water purifier has anything wrong with it, they turn to my boss or me first.

    With electric shit, I change all of the bulbs and check breakers because it's insanely cheaper to have me do it than call for building maintenance, who charge $150 an hour. Sad part is that any other person in the office could do it, but because they had me do it while I was a co-op, the job just stuck with me.

    Luckily, I finally made a stance on the paper stacking/loading/sorting thing and my boss backed me up 100%. It's now been passed off to someone else, and I'm done fucking with it. Same goes with heavy shit. I've told people I'm busy to have someone in their department lift the package for them. However, due to my height, I'm still called on to reach high places, but that's something I'm okay with because being short isn't being lazy and you can't help it.

    While I agree that being insensitive is an issue, so is being oversensitive.
  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    uean wrote: »
    Le_Goat wrote: »
    Wait, so am I the only person in here who is also responsible for the phone systems? Fucking anything that plugs into something else is my responsibility. Our recently-replaced Nortel system was definitely one of those crazy ones that at some point in the future, I could see being paid a lot of money to work on. I had memorized most of the codes and menus and could practically do them blindfolded. The new VoIP system is a massive upgrade, but there are a whole lot of things to learn and relearn now.

    No. I manage a slew of avaya setups and an Asterisk. And a few undocumented VLANs.

    The "anything that plugs in" is pretty accurate for us as well. We run the Cisco phones and voicemail system, though the majority of the work falls on other people in my department.

    Man, please tell me you know of a better way to update sidecars for Cisco phones besides, export, edit details for the sidecar buttons by porting the exported text file to Excel, replacing the cells in question, converting back to text file, uploading to UCM server, and running an import on the phones listed in the text file?

  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    Bigity wrote: »
    We have a vendor for support but I'm not allowed to contact them.

    .... wha..... what?

  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    Bigity wrote: »
    We have a vendor for support but I'm not allowed to contact them.

    .... wha..... what?

    They charge 175 an hour. So we just monkey around with stuff that cost waaaaaaaaaaaaay more to buy.

  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    Bigity wrote: »
    Cog wrote: »
    uean wrote: »
    Le_Goat wrote: »
    Wait, so am I the only person in here who is also responsible for the phone systems? Fucking anything that plugs into something else is my responsibility. Our recently-replaced Nortel system was definitely one of those crazy ones that at some point in the future, I could see being paid a lot of money to work on. I had memorized most of the codes and menus and could practically do them blindfolded. The new VoIP system is a massive upgrade, but there are a whole lot of things to learn and relearn now.

    No. I manage a slew of avaya setups and an Asterisk. And a few undocumented VLANs.

    The "anything that plugs in" is pretty accurate for us as well. We run the Cisco phones and voicemail system, though the majority of the work falls on other people in my department.

    Man, please tell me you know of a better way to update sidecars for Cisco phones besides, export, edit details for the sidecar buttons by porting the exported text file to Excel, replacing the cells in question, converting back to text file, uploading to UCM server, and running an import on the phones listed in the text file?

  • chamberlainchamberlain Registered User regular
    jaziek wrote: »
    DNS is a goddamn mystery at times.

    I mean that with all sincerity.

    Edit: Can the domain controller resolve their own names to IP addresses?

    yes.

    the servers affected by the issues can also resolve their own names, the names of the domain controllers and the names of other servers in the network fine.
    Le_Goat wrote: »
    Cog wrote: »
    We have people for plumbing, electric, and carpentry, so it's not quite the shit show bowen apparently puts up with. I don't have to provide the electricity, just deal with anything that runs on it.
    Consider yourself lucky. While we don't do anything major with plumbing, if the dishwasher, sink, coffee machine, or water purifier has anything wrong with it, they turn to my boss or me first.

    With electric shit, I change all of the bulbs and check breakers because it's insanely cheaper to have me do it than call for building maintenance, who charge $150 an hour. Sad part is that any other person in the office could do it, but because they had me do it while I was a co-op, the job just stuck with me.

    Luckily, I finally made a stance on the paper stacking/loading/sorting thing and my boss backed me up 100%. It's now been passed off to someone else, and I'm done fucking with it. Same goes with heavy shit. I've told people I'm busy to have someone in their department lift the package for them. However, due to my height, I'm still called on to reach high places, but that's something I'm okay with because being short isn't being lazy and you can't help it.

    I had to figure out how to get a bunch of baby raccoons out of a dumpster once.

    IT is a weird field.

  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited May 2014
    New hate for the day. People who swap mouse click buttons on their mouse and don't tell me when I sit down to start doing stuff on their machine.

    You'd think the third time I unplugged and replugged the mouse would have given them the idea that maybe it would be good info to have.


    EDIT: This was a right handed person.

    Bigity on
  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    Swap mouse buttons? Why would a sane human do that?

  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    Swap mouse buttons? Why would a sane human do that?

    No one, most left handed people still use their right hand for PCs.

    So ones that swap or use it left handed are non-humans.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    But yeah our generator pretty much arced and fused some wires at one point.

    So they asked me to look at it.

    I opened it up, saw the scorch marks, and laughed because I thought it maybe just threw a breaker or something.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    I'm left handed, but that means I use a Bamboo on my left and a mouse on my right.

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    I don't do electricity because I'm not an electrician and don't feel like electrocuting myself for my employer. I'll do it at home, thanks very much.

  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    Yeah I'll flip breakers, anything more than that, lolnope.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • jaziekjaziek Bad at everything And mad about it.Registered User regular
    It would be like Highlander, with us killing each other to absorb the victims knowledge.
    jaziek wrote: »
    DNS is a goddamn mystery at times.

    I mean that with all sincerity.

    Edit: Can the domain controller resolve their own names to IP addresses?

    yes.

    the servers affected by the issues can also resolve their own names, the names of the domain controllers and the names of other servers in the network fine.

    Are you using roaming profiles?

    Nope.

    Steam ||| SC2 - Jaziek.377 on EU & NA. ||| Twitch Stream
  • donavannjdonavannj Registered User regular
    We do so little compared to some of you.

    We're the phone admins, the SQL admins, the ERP admins, the help desk, the gatekeepers to the toner supply, the Exchange admins, the file server admins, the PC deployment crew, and the software license managers. Plus we do the cabling for the offices we're normally at (maintenance does the cabling for the plants, at our direction for the layout planning). All kitchen appliances fall under the jurisdiction of maintenance or whoever broke the appliance, and all toilets are the jurisdiction of maintenance.

    Though my role is more PC Lan tech in style rather than full sysadmin, so I do less of the SQL administration and I do less of the purchasing duties as well.

    steam_sig.png
  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    I have grown to perfrom SQL admin much more than I ever intended and mind it less than I ever anticipated.

    I find this worrying.

  • ueanuean Registered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    uean wrote: »
    Cog wrote: »
    Blows my mind how bad everyone else is at GPO here.

    Got me thinking it would be fun to spin up a PA sysadmin competition server and environment with red vs blue teams... Take turns screwing things up and fixing them and reporting back to the thread. Leaderboards and points.... Hmmmm! I might set this up!

    You know this would really just be a "who's best at googling" competition.

    I think this would be a valid competition. <chestpuff> I am very good at googling </chestpuff>

    Guys? Hay guys?
    PSN - sumowot
  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    I will wreck you with my google-fu.

  • StraygatsbyStraygatsby Registered User regular

    It would be like Highlander, with us killing each other to absorb the victims knowledge.


    Great, now the mental image of beheading my co-worker in the server room and having all the optical drives on all the machines open in unison while the various patch cables and cords explode away from their connections (with sparks, for some inexplicable reason), will haunt me for at least the next 7 to 8 minutes.

    Side note: Iron Mountain customer support suckkkkkkkkkkkkkkks soooooo badddddd (he said, on hold with them).

  • ueanuean Registered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    I will wreck you with my google-fu.

    No you won't, Greg

    (Kidding... I'm not going there, we can keep the creep factor out of this thread for now)

    Guys? Hay guys?
    PSN - sumowot
  • AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    If there's one good thing about working in a giant bureaucracy, it's having a department for everything.

    I'm responsible for the machines in my labs and that's it.

    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
  • AbracadanielAbracadaniel Registered User regular
    I've been asked to repair an electric stapler

    and a vending machine

    It's not sexism, it's because people are stupid and think we truly are wizards and can wizard up a fix for that gosh darn Star Trek Food Computer™ that stole their dollar.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Bigity wrote: »
    I didn't include a picture of my Windows 3.11 for Dummies book.
    I read DOS for Dummies several times for fun.
    Cog wrote: »
    Also, I think the worst thing I did was back in the DOS days, I made a windows.bat file on my friends C drive that contained:

    @ echo off
    deltree /y c:\windows
    And then I decided I would upgrade our version of DOS on my family's computer by copying the command.com and config.sys from a friend's computer that was on a newer one.


    It didn't go so well.

    steam_sig.png
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    donavannj wrote: »
    It takes a special kind of person to be a phone tech. Most of the few I've met are more than a bit crazy.
    I met one of ours for the first time a couple months ago. I commented on how busy it was lately.

    He said they kept him going so much he didn't have time to wipe after shitting.

    :|

    steam_sig.png
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    donavannj wrote: »
    It takes a special kind of person to be a phone tech. Most of the few I've met are more than a bit crazy.
    I met one of ours for the first time a couple months ago. I commented on how busy it was lately.

    He said they kept him going so much he didn't have time to wipe after shitting.

    :|

    I'll thank you not to discuss our private conversations!

  • Mei HikariMei Hikari Registered User regular
    I do a bit of phone support, but I only support modern voip systems: lync, cisco, avaya, shoretel
    A client had their phone system break while I was onsite so I took a look, saw NORTEL MERIDIAN and laughed so hard the CEO came over. He wasn't laughing when I explained I could count on my hand the number of people in California able to service this thing.
    Le_Goat wrote: »
    Cog wrote: »
    Blows my mind how bad everyone else is at GPO here.
    As for GPOs, I understand the concept and have done a little bit, but I've never been presented with the opportunity to do much with them, which kind of sucks.
    Here, have the two guides I've found most useful to start your own dictatorship:
    http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/win2k/Application_Whitelisting_Using_SRP.pdf
    http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/app/Deploying_and_Securing_Google_Chrome_in_a_Windows_Enterprise.pdf

  • edited May 2014
    This content has been removed.

  • MyiagrosMyiagros Registered User regular
    Would a faulty NIC somehow cause problems with a printer? Still dealing with this plotter from earlier in the week. Two identical workstations, one can print, the other prints show as processing on the plotter then they don't print, maybe some data is getting lost during the transfer from the computer that can't print?

    iRevert wrote: »
    Because if you're going to attempt to squeeze that big black monster into your slot you will need to be able to take at least 12 inches or else you're going to have a bad time...
    Steam: MyiagrosX27
  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    Hey guys.

    Guys.

    Fuck citrix.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    Sysadmins... Tell me why there's a password history of > 2 previous passwords? Why does my company remember the last 15 passwords and why do they think it's more secure that way?

  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    urahonky wrote: »
    Sysadmins... Tell me why there's a password history of > 2 previous passwords? Why does my company remember the last 15 passwords and why do they think it's more secure that way?

    Typically when a system is breached, those password hashes remain on the net forever. So, if you reuse a password (this was common back in the day), someone would be able to get into the system because they banked on people recycling their passwords. So they'd wait 90-120 days and try again.

    In a perfect world, you'd never reuse the same password.

    In the real world, you use 2-factor authentication (token device like RSA keyfobs or google authenticator), and a password. Rotating the password is insignificant at that point, it means nothing.

    The next best thing is to remove remote access to the system entirely and keep your system up to date so any exploits are squashed quickly.

    15 password changes? That's a lazy system administrator. An ineffective one too. I usually see shit like that, RDP to the main server is wide open, and the administrator password is something like 12345abcD!

    Because you gotta have a special character, number, different cases for the password to be effective.

    And then it's written down on everyone's monitors anyways.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    bowen wrote: »
    Hey guys.

    Guys.

    Fuck citrix.

    Eh, we use Citrix VDI and XenApp, and I like it well enough. The latest versions don't even need a connector, just an HTML5 compliant browser. I can have a win7 machine, or RDP to any server in the company or launch pretty much any of the management tools (ADUC, vSphere, Exchange, SSMS, BE, CommVault, etc) from any computer without a vpn or any installs.

    It's convenient, and it works well enough if you have a Citrix guy who knows what he's doing.

  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    Citrix's non virtualizing stuff is still a god damned mess.

    I'm looking at you, citrix receiver who crashed my server.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    edited May 2014
    Myiagros wrote: »
    Would a faulty NIC somehow cause problems with a printer? Still dealing with this plotter from earlier in the week. Two identical workstations, one can print, the other prints show as processing on the plotter then they don't print, maybe some data is getting lost during the transfer from the computer that can't print?

    This sounds more like drivers or some kind of permissions issue. Is it two different user accounts logged into these computers? If so, swap logins and try again. Compare the driver files they're using, assuming it's a local install.

    I mean, I guess in theory yes it's possible it could be a faulty NIC, but I find that to be really really unlikely if everything else is working normally.

    How is this plotter networked again? Shared from a server? Or just plugged in and installed on each workstation?

    Cog on
  • Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    Because the sysadmins aren't the ones setting password policy, most likely.

    ...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
    Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
    DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
  • bowenbowen Sup? Registered User regular
    Cog wrote: »
    Myiagros wrote: »
    Would a faulty NIC somehow cause problems with a printer? Still dealing with this plotter from earlier in the week. Two identical workstations, one can print, the other prints show as processing on the plotter then they don't print, maybe some data is getting lost during the transfer from the computer that can't print?

    This sounds more like drivers or some kind of permissions issue. Is it two different user accounts logged into these computers? If so, swap logins and try again. Compare the driver files they're using, assuming it's a local install.

    I mean, I guess in theory yes it's possible it could be a faulty NIC, but I find that to be really really unlikely if everything else is working normally.

    How is this plotter networked again? Shared from a server? Or just plugged in and installed on each workstation?

    I've run into situations where for some reason the 32 bit driver was being used on a 64 bit machine.

    Or the printer was shared from a 32 bit machine, and the 64 bit machine got mapped through that, and that caused weird funky things to happen.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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