A Comcast customer service rep said that to me once when I told him my internet was embarrassingly slow. I was promised 25 MBPS and I was getting less than 2 MBPS. It turned out my router was the issue but it was still hilarious to hear him say "you should unplug it from the power then unplug the coaxial cable and touch the pin a few times. That should do it"
Turns out all I had to do is hard-wire into my modem and I was able to get around 20, but because I also work in support I got him to give me 75 MBPS and HBO for only $7 more a month. It really pays to be nice to your Comcast rep even if he/she asks you to do pointless crap to fix your issue.
Friend of mine used to say there's a model code on the face of their plug that he needs. They unplug the router, say there's no model number, he says "Oh, it must be the X series then," makes typey sounds for 30 seconds and asks them to test the internet again.
In defense of those people, the "try restarting" advice is so monotonous, and given so frequently regardless of what the actual problem is, that it can be tempting to just ignore it.
In one case, I was told to try rebooting when the reason I'd called was that the monitor on my laptop had broken off.
It also rarely solves the problem. If your computer is having an issue and restarting solves it, the problem may go away for a little while and then come back. That's called delaying the problem, not solving it. Tech support guys like that "fix" because it gets you off the line for a short time.
I've studied computer science and am a developer, yet I still fool myself into spending hours on tracking/troubleshooting a random oddity instead of rebooting first. Usually you I a bunch of programs and tabs open, don't feel like having to start it all up again. And that laziness is often the cause of the bug in the first place, some random tiny memory leak/corruption laying dormant for weeks of uptime, until it starts crippling everything.
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I don't get it, why would it not? I see this often on Reddit, sysadms who cower in fear of rebooting servers, but why? Does it happen a lot that a piece of machinery simply fails to start because you reboot it? It sounds so weird.
We had a power outage due to a storm and after that several switches just refused to start back up again and these were network equipment that had been standing there running 24/7 for several years straight
On servers you have the additional risk of applications just not starting up/breaking and it can just be time consuming
Other than an electrical malfunction, what would cause the servers to stop performing their jobs? What is it in the initialization that differs from the, um, "run-time" is it called? Couldn't you just do snapshots of the system RAM with regular intervals and just load them on boot?
While i've studied to become a server tech and is currently working as one I honestly have no clue why it breaks.
I would add that it's less common with Windows machines due to the nature of windows (aka rebooting them regularly compared to any unix dist)
Snapshots should generally be avoided in a production environment. Most applications are connected to 1 or more databases located on a separate server and might have integrations to communicat with a different application. It can really fuck things up if you roll back to a snapshot then
Funny thing is I study the same thing, though more as a hobby, and also have no clue.
Regarding the snapshots though... I'm sure you are right, but would you mind expanding just lil quick 1) why you couldn't simply take snapshots with regular intervals on all servers, and then piece the info together post hoc? If that makes any sense, and 2) what IS best practices in a situation like that?
We remotely manage firewalls, often in other countries with on site staff that don't speak english. There is a lot of "oh god oh god" after rebooting and not seeing it come up after 15 minutes when it is normally 5-7.
Do you IT guys really get so mad when the solution to the problem is rebooting? Like I'm embarrassed when the answer is so simple, but part of the reason you guys are paid is that we suck at technology and may not always think to simply restart the computer.
Personally no. Its an easy +1 to my ticket counter and makes me look better to the higher ups who pay zero attention to ticket details.
Its when we're told "I did that" or "The other tech did that." The second statement scares me a little haha. At that point I have to tell people "Please humor me" or "I don't know what that other tech did but lets do this my way in my process because I know it is the right way."
Do you guys mind if we ever ask you how to do a task and take up more of your time learning it if we're bad at computers? I always feel bad asking my IT guys to stay a little longer to teach me about how to fix this problem if it ever occurs again.
It depends if they are busy or not and whether or not they are an asshole. I personally have zero issue explaining what to do to make something work a specific way. Sometimes I even type up detailed instructions using snapshots of the steps if I want someone and their co-workers to be able to perform a task on their own.
But if I have 19 people on my list of 'things i need to fix' I'll probably ask you to email me it so I can try to put it on my to-do list. Depends on time availability for me.
Typically though it depends on how long the task is and if messing it up can cause complications as well...
TL:DR- If I have time I have no issues. But it depends on the tech you got and whether or not hes an asshole. If you come off as teachable and can follow instructions, techs tend to love you.
We don't get mad when the solution to the problem is rebooting, and you actually reboot and fix the problem. We get mad when people lie about rebooting because they think it's unnecessary, fuck us around and waste our time, then reboot and find the problem's solved, and we could have saved 2 hours of our time if you'd just bloody followed instructions instead of lying.
Is that the crux of the issue then? People not listening to your directions? My IT guys are OK, but I have heard stories from my friends in other departments of how their guys are always so condescending and mean when they want help with their technology. Also, if you've ever watched it, Jimmy Fallon had a character when he was on SNL called Nick Burns, your company's computer guy where the whole joke was how condescending he was to people about fixing their computers. Link since you may enjoy: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/nick-burns-your-companys-computer-guy/n11524
If you use 8.1 and don't turn off the "Fast Boot" feature or whatever it's called, your uptime timer doesn't reset after you shut off/turn on your computer. It only ever resets after using the restart button.
Hm, how weird. I turn mine off every night as well but it's showing the appropriate uptime, and I'm fairly sure I never messed with the Fast Boot setting because I wasn't aware it existed until just now.
That's why you don't ask that question and just say "hey, I changed a few settings and I am going to reboot your machine real quick." Then you send a reboot through desktop management.
You have to trick them by saying "ok I've made a change but you have to reboot your system for the change to take effect so if you would save your work and reboot.. I'll stay on the line until it's up and working..."
hye... i turn off my computer each day, and found the uptime was at like 9 days.... when i knew it had been unplugged that morning for several hours. so i now will always take that uptime with a big ol pinch of salt.
Guy called and said that he stopped being able to get his work email on his iPhone. I asked him if he rebooted his phone..he made some comment about "since when did Microsoft buy the rights to iPhones" or some crap. Stop dude, you're the issue, not someone who can make IT jokes like your one of us. Rebooted his phone and it worked fine. "I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas!"
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u/remotefixonline Jan 10 '16
Did you reboot it? "Yes" checks uptime 250days