1

I had a user ask me yesterday to check on her vpn connection because it was failing every time she used it. I asked how stable her internet connection at home is and she asked why that mattered. It’s working fine at home, but not at the office. She’s trying to connect to the vpn at her desk, on her laptop that is connected to a dock, which is connected to an ethernet cable.

Uh, yeah, that’s not ever going to work. You can’t use the vpn to connect to a network that you are already connected to. I tried to not make her feel dumb, but I don’t think there was much I could do for her at that point.

Let’s hear some of your recent, troubling End User encounters. I need a good laugh today and I haven’t seen one of these threads in a little while.

29 Spice ups
2

Here’s one I got today:

GOOD AFTERNOON

I AM THE NEW BODYSHOP MANAGER AT (removed) (name removed) SETUP MY EMAIL AND I’M HAVING ISSUES COULD YOU PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT IT

It was so tempting to write back “what kind of issues are you having (other than a stuck caps lock)?”

5 Spice ups
3

Gal needs to work from home due to a family illness, cool set her up with a laptop and VPN connection. Put document on the desktop with full on instructions ( twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles And arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was…ala Alice’s Restaurant) and sent her home. Ge t a call the next day

Homegirl: This VPN thing isn’t working!

Me: Do you have a good internet connection"

Homegirl: Yes it is working great. We pay for a really fast connection.

Me: Fine, I will come over in the morning.

She has not connected the laptop to her wifi connection.

Me: What is your wifi password.

Homegirl: How am I supposed to know that? (BTW…we call her pretty princess at work because she has no children, is a spoiled brat at work and has her own polo pony)

Get all the wifi sorted out and I leave and she is working remotely.

99% of the time I can remote to computers so I also have this set up for this eventuality.

Ring…ring

Homegirl: I cannot get this VPN connection to work. It says no server available.

Me: Are you connected to the itnerwebz?

Homegirl: Yes

Me: I will remote in. (Cannot remote in so she is obviously not on the internet.)

Me: Is the wifi even enabled? There is a wifi switch on the front. Is it amber or blue?

Homegirl: Amber

Me: Pleas press that button and try to connect again.

Bingo!!

Ring…ring

Homegirl: Can you connecte the laptop to my home printer?

Me: Sure…(remote in and set it up. Print test page) Did the test page print?

Homegirl: No, it is out of ink, I will call you back after I get more ink installed.

She wins!! I give up.

17 Spice ups
4

I have gotten several tickets for the same exact thing and the same user did it three times. face palm

5

I need to start saving the ones I come across as there have been plenty but my mind isn’t what is used to be. LOL

6

Lol to be honest it happened to me. I configured a user’s laptop for work from home through VPN. Connection failed every time when i tried to connect. After scratching my head for 5 minutes i opened the network connection and see the WiFi connected to the company network instead of the test mobile hot spot.

7

Here is one. I had more than one user, all management come to me and say when they are doing Skype meetings the other party isn’t seeing any video. I troubleshooted the various causes and realized that their laptops were in their docking stations with the lid closed…so of course the video will be black. They were using external monitors.

5 Spice ups
8

Rockn wrote:

twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles And arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was…

Love the Alice’s Restaurant reference

2 Spice ups
9

“Where’s the ‘any’ key?”

'nuff said.

10

Did they try to put there faces really close to the monitors???

11

Summarized from about 8 emails over the course of two days. Literally 4 days ago.

Manager: I can’t see the difference between 's and 's activities in .

Me: Ok, I need to know if they are using the same account. That would explain why they have the same entries.

Manager: How am i supposed to know that?

Me: Do they use the same account when inputting information?

Manager: I don’t even know what that means.

Me: Are they using a single computer to input their information?

Manager: I’m not sure. Where do I see that?

Me: If they are using the same account you can’t see it. That is the problem I’m asking you about.

Manager: Well, you never sent me or credentials. We just use the link on the computer.

Me: Does use 's computer to enter information while is logged on? Like at a PoS counter computer?

Manager: I don’t know.

Me: I need you to confirm whether or not they are using the same account or not. can you definitely tell me if they are using the same account? I can’t troubleshoot unless I know that first.

Manager: How would I find that out?

Me: Can you ask them when they come in?

Manager: Sure. They’re right here.

Me: Excellent. Have they been using the same account?

Manager: But, see, you never sent us any credentials.

Me: You don’t need extra credentials. The software uses your Windows profile to logon.

Manager: So you’re not going to send us credentials?

Me: You don’t NEED credentials. They’re the same as your Windows credentials.

Manager: But we have never put in credentials. So how do we know whose information is who’s?

Me: You don’t need to put in credentials because they are applied when you open the program.

Manager. So, how could they be using the same profile?

Me: If they are using each other’s computers or a communal computer.

Manager: No, they use two different computers, logged into their own accounts.

Me: HEAD->DESK Thank you. That’s what I have been trying to get you to tell me the entire time. Now we can start troubleshooting the problem.

7 Spice ups
12

Why would you try to make her dumb? She’s not an IT pro that knows how your network works.

What if I told you that you could connect to your network trough VPN out of your LAN? It all depends what config you have…

I had users that tried to do that, users that did this all the time, but in the end was the user given a class on how to use that technology? Have you reminded the user that there is a PDF or video that explains the usage and he/she should refresh their knowledge with it?

@jacobreppert

13

I didn’t try to make her feel dumb. I just said ‘oh, you are already connected to our network through ethernet. You don’t need the vpn.’

I did explain it to her, in a way that wasn’t condescending so that she would understand why things weren’t working and doesn’t have the same problem next time.

Our network isn’t configured for that, as far as I know.

14

All I would have said is that it doesn’t work that way. When you are in the office you cannot use the VPN connection.

15

That’s almost word for word what I said.

16

Haha…love that song! Turkey Day classic!

1 Spice up
17

Enjoying the face palming stories. I have not had any yet but it will happen one day :slight_smile:

18

I use “VPN is for connecting to the inside of the office from outside the office. If you’re inside the office, you don’t need it”

I have also in the past created a shortcut on the desktop to VPN software that is called “VPN - Connect to office. Do not use if in the office”

19

Get call for service. Computer will not turn on. Arrive at locale and TS. Find unit has a bad system board.

Tell user I have to take desktop with me and she states “you can’t, I need it”. ???

1 Spice up
20

Quick easy way not to make them feel dumb, for work, just say you can save a step… ANY user that can cut down on work is going to appreciate it, and you get out of the awkward making them feel dumb issue. Just let all that VPN stuff slide past, and tell them they are saving a step and saving time.

1 Spice up