Calling all System Administrators!!
We are excited for SysAdmin Day on July 28th! To celebrate, we are compiling the best SysAdmin stories from our community. We would love the opportunity to showcase your heroic tales of crazy problems you solved to keep the tech world going in our upcoming blog piece.
Comment below or message us before Friday July 21st at 12pm PST to have your story included.
We are excited for SysAdmin Day on July 28th! To celebrate, we are compiling the best SysAdmin stories from our community. We would love the opportunity to showcase your heroic tales of crazy problems you solved to keep the tech world going in our upcoming blog piece.
Comment below or message us before Friday July 21st at 12pm PST to have your story included.
5 Comments
Had a user complain that their PC just stopped working. Checked the usual suspects like power lead & plug fuse. Opened up the case to find a fried mouse!
Active today
I once had a call from a receptionist of a small accounting firm I looked after, complaining that their Internet stopped working. After taking almost 5 minutes to get her to open a command prompt and type "ping google.com" , I went the next step and talked her through doing the following;
After about 10 more minutes on the phone, she begged I visit their office and get the problem fixed because "the boss was getting cranky".. No problem says I, so I jumped in my car and drove the 20 minutes or so to their suites. Upon arriving at their suites, I headed straight for her desk and jumped underneath to investigate while she trotted off to make me a nice hot cuppa.
Doing my best to ignore the smell of feet and pushing aside all the spare shoes cluttering the space under her desk, what did I find? The power plug for the modem had been kicked out of course! I plugged it back in, accepted the praise about what an IT genius I was, finished drinking my cuppa and headed back to my own office.
Upon returning, I raised the following invoice.
I was expecting the owner to query me on that bill, but it got paid without a single complaint. Go figure :)
Yes, this is a true story!
- Make sure the modem was on (they kept it and their server under her desk of all places, where it was easy to accidentally kick out the plugs) - Yep, it's on!
- Reboot the modem by turning it off, waiting 30 seconds and turning it back on - Nope, that didn't help!
- Verifying which lights on the modem were on with her - Yes, all the lights that should be on are on!
After about 10 more minutes on the phone, she begged I visit their office and get the problem fixed because "the boss was getting cranky".. No problem says I, so I jumped in my car and drove the 20 minutes or so to their suites. Upon arriving at their suites, I headed straight for her desk and jumped underneath to investigate while she trotted off to make me a nice hot cuppa.
Doing my best to ignore the smell of feet and pushing aside all the spare shoes cluttering the space under her desk, what did I find? The power plug for the modem had been kicked out of course! I plugged it back in, accepted the praise about what an IT genius I was, finished drinking my cuppa and headed back to my own office.
Upon returning, I raised the following invoice.
- Emergency call out to repair Internet connection. Resolved by plugging modem back into power point.
I was expecting the owner to query me on that bill, but it got paid without a single complaint. Go figure :)
Yes, this is a true story!
Active today
There are also lots of admin stories here:
http://www.computerworld.com/blog/shark-tank/
http://www.computerworld.com/blog/shark-tank/
Active 5 days ago
Not sure if this really counts, because I wasn't the SysAdmin in this scenario; instead, I was the problematic user! But here goes: back when I was a student at CalPoly, we had access to the school's UNIX system for things like our email. I had taken the C and UNIX class, so I knew my way around the command line enough to do more than just use PINE to check my email. I also really liked the SETI @ Home project, so I got the UNIX version of the client and installed it on my account on the school's system and would just let it run.
I think maybe I had it going for a month and I have no idea what sort of resources it was taking up. I imagine it wasn't really all that bad, but eventually, a SysAdmin did shut it down and told me not to do that again...
I imagine college SysAdmins have to deal with a lot of shenanigans like that! :-D
I think maybe I had it going for a month and I have no idea what sort of resources it was taking up. I imagine it wasn't really all that bad, but eventually, a SysAdmin did shut it down and told me not to do that again...
I imagine college SysAdmins have to deal with a lot of shenanigans like that! :-D
Recommended Posts
Exchange 2019 preview released. Exchange Server 2019 Public Preview.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2018/07/24/exchange-server-2019-public-preview/
Please get ready for next challenges with Exchange 2019 and answer the questions in EE .
Thanks
MAS
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2018/07/24/exchange-server-2019-public-preview/
Please get ready for next challenges with Exchange 2019 and answer the questions in EE .
Thanks
MAS
MAC vs Windows
I've been using my MacBook Air laptop on and off for a couple of weeks now and I must say I'm suitably impressed with the Mac OS. It's turning out to be a surprisingly no-nonsense little workhorse. Though an avid Windows user for many years, I'm now finding myself wanting to reach for my MAC laptop far more often than my Windows laptop whenever I just want to just get some work done. The only thing I dislike about it is the built-in keyboard. A standard USB PC mouse (as opposed to an overpriced Apple mouse) seems to work fine for my limited needs as well.
It's not the first time I've used a MAC, but it's the first time I've actually seriously tried to use one productively. Frankly, I don't what the fuss is about with people who dislike this OS.
I've been using my MacBook Air laptop on and off for a couple of weeks now and I must say I'm suitably impressed with the Mac OS. It's turning out to be a surprisingly no-nonsense little workhorse. Though an avid Windows user for many years, I'm now finding myself wanting to reach for my MAC laptop far more often than my Windows laptop whenever I just want to just get some work done. The only thing I dislike about it is the built-in keyboard. A standard USB PC mouse (as opposed to an overpriced Apple mouse) seems to work fine for my limited needs as well.
It's not the first time I've used a MAC, but it's the first time I've actually seriously tried to use one productively. Frankly, I don't what the fuss is about with people who dislike this OS.
Active today
software is relatively easy to install and manageI've noticed that too. Rather than having to concern yourself with how many files are dropped here and there, to remove a program is just dragging the thing to the bin and you're done. I've yet to need to restart the machine unless I've applied an OS update.
Coming from Windows, installations I didn't find particularly intuitive and it was a small learning curve to figure out when a program was actually installed as opposed to installing or sitting on my desktop ready to be installed, but the system prompts helped overcome that until I did a little googling and the penny dropped. The process is certainly different, but compared to Windows, I would have to say considerably easier as well.
The cons tend to show themselves anytime you want to do something that Apple doesn't want you to do.Indeed. That's something I've definitely noticed. I'm used to being able to configure everything to my own personal tastes and have struck walls a couple of times. As I always suspected, an Apple OS is an "our way or the highway" type of deal, which as a power user I don't particularly like, but I suspect that is one of the core reasons the OS seems to be so stable too.
I doubt I'll ever move away from Windows completely and I'm typing this on one of my Windows boxes right now, but anyone who can't acknowledge the value of the Apple OS for giving you a platform which allows you to do most things with a minimum of fuss, is in my view, and as "serialband" mentioned earlier, overly biased and simply not willing to give it a serious go.
On the flip side, I've been an Apple iPhone user since way back and always shied away from Android devices. Fed up with not being able to get decent apps to do what I wanted to do, I eventually tried an Android device with the Samsung Galaxy S9+ phone and am now able to do things like effortlessly record my phone calls, something I'd been trying to do on my iPhones for years without success. App support seems to be so much better.
Different strokes for different folks - but my recent experiences with both the Apple OSX and iPhone vs Android supports that it always pays to keep an open mind :-)
Active today
Think I may have just found the solution to my keyboard issues on my MacBook Air. Anyone using a Windows keyboard with a MAC?
https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/17/how-to-remap-windows-keyboard-buttons-match-mac-layout/
The above article shows how to remap the modifier keys only. What are some other good resources you know about?
https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/17/how-to-remap-windows-keyboard-buttons-match-mac-layout/
The above article shows how to remap the modifier keys only. What are some other good resources you know about?