Also, I need some help
My pc has been trying to update again and again every day for weeks, but it always fails
I've tried so many things to fix it already, but nothing seems to work
Wtf do I do #techhelp#windows10#techsupport
Intelligent people, whether or not highly educated, may not have great computer knowledge.
Those of us who work in Tech Support sometimes forget that non-technical users don’t understand some of the concepts that we take for granted. Here are some real-life examples.
Not understanding the difference between an operating system and an application.
Not understanding the difference between the device and the operating system.
Not understanding the difference between memory and storage.
Not knowing that RAM and memory are the same thing.
Not knowing that disk space and storage are the same thing.
Not understanding the difference between the browser and other applications.
Not knowing if an application is being run locally or on an Internet connected server.
Not knowing whether their files are stored locally, in the cloud, or both.
Not knowing how to find a file without opening the application first.
How to save an attachment so they don’t need to open the email every time they want the attachment.
Not knowing what accessibility features are available on their device, or how to enable them.
As a Help Desk professional, you walk a fine line. You don’t want to explain something that will make a sophisticated user feel like you’re talking down to them, but you also don’t want to make the less knowledgeable user feel stupid. Here are some ways to achieve this balance:
Ask relevant knowledge- and skill-based questions.
Example 1: “I see that this file is only available from your cloud storage. Do you want to be able to open it when you’re not connected to the Internet?”
Example 2: “Since you complained that the words are so small on the screen, it makes me wonder: are you aware that Microsoft has a built-in magnifier that you can turn on and off?”
Offer assistance cheerfully without waiting to be asked, because they may not know what to ask.
Example 1: “Would you like me to help you create a folder structure so you can separate the spreadsheets from the proposal documents?”
Example 2: “You had to scroll a long way to find that document. Would you like me to show you how to sort them alphabetically or by date?”
Be on the lookout for knowledge gaps, without assuming them.
Example: A customer says, “I’m out of disk space.” You look and see 78% free space. They may mean they’re seeing “out of memory” errors, but don’t have the terminology to describe it. Ask, “Can you show me the message that you saw on the screen, and when that message appears?”
Some cybercriminals with [presumably] spoofed IPv4's are trying to #pwnat my @pfSense - box whilst also hammering #telnet.
#ISP#TechSupport is either criminally incompetent or refuses to acknowledge the issue...
And this is why you should alyways block known #Military / #Intelligence networks, because even if they don't target you, cybercriminals will #BGP-hack or #spoof their #IP|s.
I just had an interesting #Apple experience; I don’t know if anyone out there can shed light on it.
I left my #Mac running whilst I ducked out to the bathroom, and when I came back, I’d lost #network connectivity. Oddly, my system #date had changed to 05-Aug-2020 and the #time was about 11 hours out.
Resetting the #clock manually fixes the network issue, but switching automatic time sync back on resets the date and time as above, and cuts the network out again.
My work phone died, and I just got a fresh replacement handset. I can't get my most recent Signal messages off the old phone, because it's dead, and also it's not clear that my most recent messages ever made it to the phone, because it's dead. But! I sync Signal to the desktop – that's in fact how I've been using Signal since my phone died, so it has the most up-to-date corpus of messages.
So now I'm trying to get my messages out of my desktop-signal SQLite db.
Needless to say that even beyond the 1440kB size limit having some nifty option that one can use to provide #TechSupport by telling a user to plug-in a drive makes it far easier...
I just got offered a job in basic IT support - basically just the go to person to help people with their personal devices and room to expand in System Admin. The caveat being it will not be strictly under my terms, so trying to move to FOSS alternatives may be a slow process.
Anyone got any recent books to recommend for familiarising particularly with proprietary systems, ie. Microsoft's Azure; Sharepoint
Really dumb #techsupport question but if I want to verbally communicate how people can reach me on Signal app, I assume i give them my mobile number? There’s no other unique ‘username’ assigned to me by Signal as far as I can see?
I have a series of DVD-Rs from my dad. He says he recorded movies to them several years ago. Now they won't play in anything but the DVD player where they were created.
Sure enough, stick it into my laptop, it says it's blank.
What are my options here to extract data from it and into a video file? (Either Mac or Linux tooling available, Linux preferred.)
Positive feedback from a customer on Square! For several years now, I’ve been using Square for processing credit card transactions. Yesterday I provided remote tech support for a residential computer problem in another state. It was a brand new customer, first-time service. She paid on the spot for a half-hour support call. Then she did something that’s never happened before – she left me a review! Apparently there’s a feedback link on Square’s email receipt. I didn’t even know about it. I don’t know if it’s a new feature, or if it’s always been there. Square sent me an email notifying me of the review. So I’ve never gotten a negative review, or they would’ve sent an email about that, too. Winning! Score is 1-0.
I can't wake my desktop from Remote Desktop no matter what I do.
I've tried everything on Google to solve it, nothing works. Every Magic Packet wake option is on in Windows and BIOS.
It works when it's asleep not powered off, talking about a full power off. My Motherboard has a bios option for it but starting to think the board doesn't support it after all??
There’s a 50GB limit on the Outlook Online Archive. A client maxed it out with emails going back to 2014. It’s an interesting weekend project for me. While he’s out of the office, I’m getting paid to remote in, dissect the archive, and save it in smaller chunks without losing anything important (he set the parameters for what I could remove). In the process I discovered one more layer of deletion, and this is the reason for my post. Here’s what happens:
When you delete thousands of items in Outlook, they go into the Deleted Items folder.
When you delete those same items from the Deleted Items folder – they’re not gone yet.
It turns out there’s a safety net. At the top of the Deleted Items folder is a hyperlink notice that says, “Recover items recently removed from this folder.”
This user had so many emails that I got to a point where I could no longer delete from the Deleted Items folder, until I first purged that Recovery folder.
SUMMARY
The real deletion process goes like this:
Step 1: Delete from any folder, for example, the Inbox.
Step 2: Delete from the Deleted Items folder.
Step 3: Go to “Recover items recently removed” and choose Purge.
Oh, and any computer forensics specialist will tell you that they’re still not gone, not really. Totally true. But you have to use other tools at that point; you can no longer retrieve them from within the application.
Hiding from the IDS/IPS: covert PING
When you’re doing remote maintenance, the command “ping -t” can be useful. Instead of the ping command sending four echo requests (the default), it pings continuously until you press CTRL + C to stop it.
The problem is that in some higher security environments, continuous pings may be flagged as malicious activity. This detection may occur in the Intrusion Detection System (IDS), the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), or in the device itself.
I wrote a batch file that I use on Windows machines that’s a little more discreet, and sometimes flies under the radar. It won’t fool next gen detection systems that look for systematic repetitive activity, but you’ll be surprised how many firewalls and malicious activity detection systems don’t pay any attention to this script if you set the time interval to ten seconds or more.
HOW IT WORKS
You’re prompted to enter the IP address you want to ping, and the time interval between pings. Then, it pings one time – not the default four times – waits your specified interval, and pings again. It keeps going like that until you press CTRL + C or close the CLI window.
EXAMPLE USE
I use it, for example, when rebooting a server at a remote location over a VPN. This way I know when the server is back online.
The picture below shows a sample screenshot, and the entire text of the batch file. If you know how to create Windows batch files, that’s all the information you need.
Some of you have already written your own script like this, but for some readers, this will be new. Add it to your toolbox flash drive.
My MacOS Time Machine backups are really really slow (1 hour+), using a USB 3.0 5Gbps interface and spinning rust hard drive (8TB, full), even with very small backup deltas from day to day. Sometimes I need to unplug my Mac and interrupt it. Any advice out there? How much would a faster drive help?
We use iPads for scoring our domestic basketball games. We access the scoring webpage with our main log-in password, which is saved and autofilled.
But once within the scoring system, we must set a 4-digit pin for the session.
Every time it asks to save the new password (ie the pin, which is not the password). When people are in a rush, they don't read the message and they just press OK, which means they save the session pin over the log-in password.
(And then they can't close out the system at the end of the night because the saved password is wrong, and then we get a phone call.)
Is there to turn off that update-password message without also having to turn off the autofill function?
(We didn't have this problem last season and I'm not sure what changed).
User: "My #computer is frozen and I'm not even able to turn it off with a hard button press."
Me: "Well sometimes computer's are more willing to work when #techsupport is on the line. They're magic like that if you'd be willing to try holding the power button again for say 30 seconds?"
User: "Well okay I'll tr- OH! It went right off! Okay its rebooting. Thank you so much!"
Wait, you can't add links in the Gmail mobile app? What madness is this? What's the best workaround for that?
Update: To be clear, I'm talking about typing some text, selecting it, then attaching a link to that selected text. Not just pasting in the URL as text.
[Request] Screen Garbled with DosBox
Fellow nerds I'm reaching out for some help....