IT Support Mishaps

Our new domain just went live. Users come in on Monday morning this week. Letters were sent last week with new usernames and passwords (not on the same letter).

I come in, sit at my desk. A queue of people. oh oh.. What's going on I thought to myself.... happens that the letters were far to complex for people to understand... cheers management!!!

Complex passwords, what's this? Work only gone and changed the policy to 8 chars, 1 number or symbol, a number a capital letter and a kitchen sink.

You are talking around 6000 users.
 
mrbell1984 said:
Complex passwords, what's this? Work only gone and changed the policy to 8 chars, 1 number or symbol, a number a capital letter and a kitchen sink.

You are talking around 6000 users.
Click to expand...

Thats normal where I work :p

Windows: Above 8 chars, Capital and Number
Lotus notes (yes we still use this..): Above 8 chars, Capital, Number, Special Character.
Sesame: Same as windows
Internet: Needs a capital

Its kind of the same, but then they add secure mail which is completly different and can only be: lower case and a number

But we now have smart cards! So no-one remembers passwords and forgets their PIN instead :rolleyes:
 
8 chars is a pretty common standard so not unacceptable really.

As for notes I feel your pain, where I work uses it and there's no chance ever of that changing ;)
 
BOBPegasus said:
Thats normal where I work :p

Windows: Above 8 chars, Capital and Number
Lotus notes (yes we still use this..): Above 8 chars, Capital, Number, Special Character.
Sesame: Same as windows
Internet: Needs a capital

Its kind of the same, but then they add secure mail which is completly different and can only be: lower case and a number

But we now have smart cards! So no-one remembers passwords and forgets their PIN instead :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

and of course you can't reset smartcards remotely so everyone has to come in!
 
mrbell1984 said:
Our new domain just went live. Users come in on Monday morning this week. Letters were sent last week with new usernames and passwords (not on the same letter).

I come in, sit at my desk. A queue of people. oh oh.. What's going on I thought to myself.... happens that the letters were far to complex for people to understand... cheers management!!!

Complex passwords, what's this? Work only gone and changed the policy to 8 chars, 1 number or symbol, a number a capital letter and a kitchen sink.

You are talking around 6000 users.
Click to expand...

Pass.123 :D
 
They'll get used to it. Complex passwords were implemented overnight and without prior warning at one place I worked at and they had probably 12000 users. Everyone got an expiry message next morning. Couple of days of pain and that'll be it.
 
mrbell1984 said:
The thing is, one day I asked a user to give me a 5 character password.

CAT

I burst out laughing. Now users can't handle that never mind 8 and complex.

oh dear, this isn't going to be fun.
Click to expand...

Far better to tell them to use a phrase of a couple of words. Much more secure and easier to remember than 8JxqYf@! :eek:
 
I think the best one I had was when we moved a site over to a new domain. Couple of users had problems with their passwords but this one sticks in my head.

When she was entering her new password it wasn't been accepted. So I asked what she was typing and it met the requirements; upper and lower case characters with a number. After about 5 minutes I asked her to type it in the username field so I can see what she was typing. Sure enough, it contained upper and lower case characters and a number, but the number wasn't actually a number. Her password was something like Harryone :p
 
hamesy said:
I think the best one I had was when we moved a site over to a new domain. Couple of users had problems with their passwords but this one sticks in my head.

When she was entering her new password it wasn't been accepted. So I asked what she was typing and it met the requirements; upper and lower case characters with a number. After about 5 minutes I asked her to type it in the username field so I can see what she was typing. Sure enough, it contained upper and lower case characters and a number, but the number wasn't actually a number. Her password was something like Harryone :p
Click to expand...

I always say 'Numerical character' to avoid that one :p
 
Muffin` said:
There's no excuse for not remembering it IMO, it's just a part of employment.
Click to expand...

Your right, there are no excuses but users will be users! Besides if the domain is set up securely enough. The weak spots are not passwords. They give a false sense of security imo.

I can see the point with Admin accounts but for end users its little more than a nuisance.
 
I fixed a laptop for no power by swaping the mainboard and placed it on the side to fill in the paperwork. I had my headphones on at full blast, only to look up to be surrounded by my collages..

Yeah it came out of hibernation to show male on male action at full volume..
 
Was in work a couple of weeks back and the NAS drive was slowly failing. Luckily my boss brought in his NAS drive. I moved all the files from the dying drive to the new drive all okay. Once I was finished, I thought I'd move the NAS drives to the network cabinet which we have mounted on the wall.. big mistake.

The cabinet was fitted to a plasterboard wall - the cabinet broke off the wall, pulling down on about 50 network cables, ripping straight from the back of the RJ45 front plates all around the office. I manger to catch it and put some stuff underneath it! Could have risked killing the following:

2 x NAS Drives
2 x 16 port switches
2 x modems
2 x patch panels
1 x Firewall
1 x PFSense Box

Luckily, my boss and I managed to re-wire the office over the weekend. We ended up replacing the cabinet with a 6ft freestanding network cabinet.. Phew.
 
After a nightmare last weekend, I now check the config register setting before doing an IOS upgrade. :mad: Cisco have decided to ship some of the newer kit with an odd setting recently. NOT cool, especially if getting a remote console on there is difficult. :(
 
Here's one from my first job in IT a few years back.

User : I'll be working at home from now on, can you arrange the Internet line install and equipment setup for me please?

Me : Sure, no problem. I'll have everything sorted.

**about a week passed**

Me : Hi user, your new line has been installed and I've pre-configured this router for you. All you have to do is plug it in and you're good to go.

User : Excellent. Thanks.

**Next Day**

User : Hi David, I plugged the router in but I couldn't get a Internet connection. Can you check it again? *Hands over router*

Me:All the configuration is correct and valid. Sorry for asking a silly question but did you plug the phone cable and power in?

User : Oh you have to plug the power in? You said it was wireless.


And one of my own mishaps

Our servers had a naming convention of LXXXSvrXXX. LXXX = location code. SvrXXX = server number

I was asked to reboot a bunch of local servers, our area code being L165. I ended up rebooting a load of servers in South Africa, area code L065. I ended up rebooting half their Citrix farm.
 
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