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Everything of value where I'm at has an asset tag on it and if that poo poo can't be found when audit time comes around, it goes to site security and on up to law enforcement if necessary. This includes former employees! So not much goes missing. Traditionally, DIMMs and hard drives were the biggest things that disappear because the asset tag goes on the case, not the components. But now that we all use laptops with everything soldered to the motherboard even that has died out.
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Feb 17, 2020 15:44
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Grrrr.... So some lovely mail blocklist called MIPSpace apparently has every single IP that Mandrill/Mailchimp uses on one of their blocklists. (as is every single transactional email provider) Said RBL is run by a company that makes a product called MagicSpam. One of our larger customers, the state government, uses this MagicSpam product and apparently changed some configuration with their mail servers and is now blocking anything and everything on this MIPSpace list by default. Yay... Edit: Forgot to add that we use Mandrill to send out invoices, statements, quotes, etc... Now everything bound for their email addresses is bouncing back. stevewm fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Feb 17, 2020 |
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Feb 17, 2020 17:36
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Argh. I think I posted about this in the ticket thread, but it's definitely become STPMO. Meraki and multicast. Not a good combo. Nonprofit client installed Meraki switches on our rec, is now upgrading their AV systems across campus and using Extron. Extron uses multicast which makes a lot of sense for their use case. The Meraki switch stack is running an IGMP querier and it keeps flipping its IP address from the correct one to 0.0.0.0. As soon as that happens, the Extron boxes stop being able to see each other and communicate. I've had a support case open for a week now, and the Meraki guy just keeps coming back with bullshit that as far as I can tell has nothing to do with the actual issue. Part of my annoyance is that I don't know multicast operations very well other than the basic stuff from CCNA, so I'm trying to get back up to speed with it as well, but basically the L1 guy keeps asking for more packet captures and picking out various "issues" like "oh, you did this capture on VLAN <temp VLAN I'd set up to truly isolate everything for testing before flipping it back to the mainly-also-isolated VLAN I set for AV equipment>, can you please retry on the AV VLAN", and then just today, "these two <completely unrelated, one Extron one not> clients are trying to join different IGMP groups". Yeah no poo poo buddy, who cares? Bottom line, the Extron equipment works fine when the querier is broadcasting with its own IP address, and the Extron boxes can't see each other (presumably can't join the same IGMP group?) when the querier IP flips to 0.0.0.0. Sure would be nice to try and troubleshoot that, instead of sitting around with my thumb up my rear end having to tell Extron "oh yes still waiting to hear back and yes we recommended this Meraki gear because it usually works fine". Someone recommended reaching out to the Meraki rep to get this escalated and I've done that so we'll see if this gets any traction, but meanwhile I have to keep telling the Extron guys no progress, which is extremely embarrassing. This is apparently their first experience with Meraki, and I would certainly assume their last if they can help it - it'll probably immediately go on their shitlist, if they haven't put it on there in the past week. And at this point we can't do much about using Meraki, we have to make this work because of the investment involved. Literally sunk costs, but not a fallacy this time. If the AV stuff were all located roughly in the same place we could put in a local switch just to run things at that location, but they need stuff trunked over the campus lines, we'd have to run more fiber between the buildings, and that's all a lot more effort and money to slap a bandaid on something that SHOULDN'T BE A loving PROBLEM. It's not like multicast just dropped off the loving boat - it's been a standard since loving 1986. edit: If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to suggest them. I'm the first one to admit when I don't know something, and in this case I really am not confident on what exactly is happening other than the symptoms I've stated above. I get the basic idea of equipment joining IGMP groups, and I believe I understand at a basic level how the IGMP querier process works, but end of the day I'm a generalist trying my best to have more than inch-deep knowledge so when it comes to in-depth networking I'm happy to listen to any expertise that comes my way. SyNack Sassimov fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Feb 18, 2020 |
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Feb 18, 2020 00:16
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If your router supports it, enable PIM on the layer 3 interface. PIM will run a querier by default and it will likely be far more reliable than running it off a layer 2 switch.
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Feb 18, 2020 03:50
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Raygereio posted:The buggy, shittastic software for a fancy 10.000,- microscope at my job was updated for the first time in 8 years. When the vendor called to inform us of that earlier this year, I assumed they finally decided to support Win10 and maybe fix some bugs so it doesn't need an autohotkey script to prevent it from crashing. Have you tried using your disaster recovery pc? In a pinch using a pci parallel card and running the software in compatibility mode will work. As for the dongles I feel your pain. On a side note I've always thought that serial and parallel devices were not hot swappable. One of our engineers gave me a crazy look when I told them that they needed to shut down the computer before connecting a serial device. What are your thoughts joebuddah fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Feb 18, 2020 |
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Feb 18, 2020 14:32
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joebuddah posted:On a side note I've always thought that serial and parallel devices were not hot swappable. One of our engineers gave me a crazy look when I told them that they needed to shut down the computer before connecting a serial device. What are your thoughts I think you can swap them as long as you don't have a COM port conflict (make sure that only one app is using it at a time). You can buy switchers, too.
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Feb 18, 2020 17:11
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Hot swapping serial cables creating a surge that could fry stuff on the motherboard was supposedly a thing that could happen in the bad old days but anything worth using today is going to have sufficient protections to avoid that. I've cheerfully yanked and plugged in serial devices my whole career and not once let any magic smoke out.
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Feb 18, 2020 17:30
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Serial connections are not designed for hot plugging, but you can get away with it mostly.
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Feb 18, 2020 18:30
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A PM and upper management types requested from me comprehensive information about stuff for an audit. I spend a week compiling this information and submit it last month. PMs, managers, and auditors all confirm they received it and thank me profusely. Sure enough audit time comes around and everyone is asking me for individual pieces of information I already provided according to the requirements. So I proved the link to the info again and they thank me profusely again and compliment me on how complete and clear it is. Apparently it’s too much to ask people who make double my salary to do their freaking homework, especially on such a high profile business critical project. The joys of working for a giant corporation!
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Feb 18, 2020 19:02
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The computer touchers at my company who have the proper pattern of finger swirlies have yet to replace the dying fan in one of our servers after procuring a replacement a couple of weeks ago. It may or may not be driving the HR dude who sits next to the server closet mad. Doesn't bother me - I'm already going crazy from the white noise machine they installed above my desk.
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Feb 18, 2020 20:27
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Hey, please submit your PTO requests, for the entire year, within the next 10 days. We totally won't hold you to it. It's just a placeholder so we can plan! Really! Kthnx, Your Corporate Overlords
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Feb 18, 2020 20:27
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ConfusedUs posted:Hey, please submit your PTO requests, for the entire year, within the next 10 days. I only ever get these requests in November when boss is like "if you want Christmas time off you should prob start figuring that out now". I couldn't imagine needing to book all my vacation days for shits and giggles.
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Feb 18, 2020 20:58
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My company does that. Start of March, a calendar goes up, you request what weeks you want off for the next year. If you don't request all your days you can ask to use them later but you have 0 priority on those days. If you use the calendar your priority is based on your seniority.
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Feb 18, 2020 21:20
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JackSplater posted:If you use the calendar your priority is based on your seniority. Which inevitably results in the managers having the month of December off while the peons continue working except for Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
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Feb 18, 2020 21:40
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Lord Dudeguy posted:I think you can swap them as long as you don't have a COM port conflict (make sure that only one app is using it at a time). You can buy switchers, too. Thanks for the info. For multiple devices we use flexport. My point was it's a measurement device that costs a lot of money. We can spend the extra 2 min, and shut down the computer before messaging with the cables
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Feb 18, 2020 22:08
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Kickstarter voted to unionize: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/technology/kickstarter-union.html Doomed experiment or first domino to fall? It's a pretty small company so it's hard for me to make a guess.
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Feb 18, 2020 22:11
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xzzy posted:Kickstarter voted to unionize: The fact that it was in no-small-part caused by a kickstarter comic book about Always Punching Nazis, whichever way it goes will be real interesting to see. At this point, can't kickstarter still just go 'great, you're all fired, pack your poo poo, you leave in 15 minutes'?
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Feb 18, 2020 22:55
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Sociopathic supervisor is at it again. I worked out a deal with him. He takes this new promotion, and I'll support him and the new team being formed if he supports me for a smaller promotion. I wanted autonomy over my part of the larger team. And I wanted a seat at the table when team-wide decisions were being made, even if the meetings were organized by higher up management calling down to our group. I wanted to be sure he wasn't going to continue controlling my job. He agreed to this on Friday. Today he starts micromanaging people who would be part of my new team. He is ensuring they don't organize, so they all get steamrolled by the larger group. He's trying to take the power out of my part of the team so I'm left with nothing and he maintains total control. Dude is about to feel what it's like to not have my support. Three people have already mentioned job hunting. Supervisor is going to single handedly ruin one of the best teams in the company because he thinks he's untouchable.
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Feb 19, 2020 00:47
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Methylethylaldehyde posted:The fact that it was in no-small-part caused by a kickstarter comic book about Always Punching Nazis, whichever way it goes will be real interesting to see. Firing someone specifically for attempting to organize is illegal. Normally companies get around this by "I'm not touching you"-ing employees into quitting or firing them over minor infractions. The problem is that once you're associated with a union, you've got union lawyers, who have spent most of their careers watching employers use all the same moves that they're sure they are the first ones ever to try. Employers get away with abusing their employees because the employees can't afford lawyer for any significant amount of hours, not because their legal fig leaves hold up under scrutiny. Here's an example of a real lawyer explaining what happened with a court case where union organizers were fired for sleeping on the job (they were overnight nursing home employees, allowed to nap while on break). "Why were you so specifically watching how long these particular people were supposedly sleeping so close to a union vote" came up, IIRC. https://youtu.be/R9KybXHTpSE His videos can be kind of dry sometimes but he also obviously has a lot of knowledge because unlike most of the internet, he is a lawyer, and he's very careful to admit when he doesn't know something.
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Feb 19, 2020 01:36
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Firing someone specifically for attempting to organize is illegal. Normally companies get around this by "I'm not touching you"-ing employees into quitting or firing them over minor infractions. If union membership isn't mandatory, I wonder how much trouble you'd have to go through make the union benefits unattractive enough to new hires to prevent them from joining, while firing 10% of the workforce per year for 'bad haircuts' or 'poor performance'.
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Feb 19, 2020 03:03
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Unrelated to the union stuff, pissing me off: people who are apparently using WW2-era radios as phones while also mumbling. The latency must also be godawful because they keep talking over other people constantly. They also forgot their password to our servers, causing a multiple hour outage for a customer because they were sure something was wrong with our server when they couldn't log in. Our Unix guy gets online, their account wasn't locked, he reset the incorrect password counter, two minutes later they are locked out. After protesting very loudly that they definitely knew the password and didn't need it reset. One password reset later (automated resets can be done through a webpage) and all of a sudden their account is working fine. 
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Feb 19, 2020 04:06
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dragonshardz posted:Which inevitably results in the managers having the month of December off while the peons continue working except for Christmas Day and New Year's Day. "working"
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Feb 19, 2020 04:19
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One of Telstra's contractors has apparently "damaged a cable" near where I live, presumably while they're laying out NBN fibre, and my internet connection's gone to poo poo as a result (about 300Kbps download  ). Their ETR for what's almost certainly a five-minute fix? Two. Goddamn. Weeks.
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Feb 19, 2020 06:44
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Neddy Seagoon posted:One of Telstra's contractors has apparently "damaged a cable" near where I live, presumably while they're laying out NBN fibre, and my internet connection's gone to poo poo as a result (about 300Kbps download I thought that had all gone up into flames anyways? 
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Feb 19, 2020 06:47
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Dude is about to feel what it's like to not have my support. Three people have already mentioned job hunting. Supervisor is going to single handedly ruin one of the best teams in the company because he thinks he's untouchable. Hate to derail the narrative but He doesn’t care that he doesn’t have your support. He has the support of those above him, which is the only support that matters. Your whole team could disintegrate and it would be his fault, yes, but he will be telling a different tale to the powers-that-be. They’ll believe him and he’ll be fine. If you are waiting for the “this will show them” moment when you and your team all quit, don’t count on it. Productivity will stumble for a while, sure. But then they’ll recover and life will go on. People like this are absolutely toxic. But the only way out is to switch jobs and get away from him.
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Feb 19, 2020 07:31
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n/m too tired to articulate what I want to say
NeuralSpark fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Feb 19, 2020 |
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Feb 19, 2020 08:28
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22 Eargesplitten posted:... people who are apparently using WW2-era radios as phones while also mumbling. The latency must also be godawful because they keep talking over other people constantly. Oh, I see that you work with our overseas development contractors. VOIP softphones on a laggy connection. Apparently no headset, just the speaker and mic on their ancient laptop. And the laptop, for some reason, is on the other side of the room. Oh, and there are a dozen other people in the room. All using VOIP softphones on ancient laptops, which are also on the other side of the room.
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Feb 19, 2020 14:34
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Methylethylaldehyde posted:If union membership isn't mandatory, I wonder how much trouble you'd have to go through make the union benefits unattractive enough to new hires to prevent them from joining, while firing 10% of the workforce per year for 'bad haircuts' or 'poor performance'. In "right to work" states its illegal to offer different benefits to union / nonunion
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Feb 19, 2020 15:43
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Agrikk posted:Hate to derail the narrative but Hard to disagree with any of this
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Feb 19, 2020 16:30
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Printer vendor checking in. One of the departments has had trouble specifically printing from the Mayo Access application. It is printing light, while printing from other applications it is of acceptable darkness. They have a black and white and a color machine. I was able to turn up the LED print head exposure time on the black and white to give them a workaround. The color machine has no such option. I got them to save a result as a PDF and print, then set the darkness up in the driver. It prints fine then, but Mayo Access itself does not give a prompt to select the printer or change any driver settings, so that wasn't an option for that application. I thought that Mayo Access was somehow bypassing the driver itself. I put in a ticket with internal IT since it obviously is not an issue with the printer and I have no access to drivers or applications. The ticket was closed citing Mayo Access "prints light by design". At this point I had set up a workflow for them that entailed saving results from Mayo Access as a PDF, then changing the driver settings for each and every print. They were understandably frustrated. I walked down to the IT offices and asked one of the people to change the driver default simply to remove that step from their workflow. After walking him through how to do that (in a system I don't even have access to) I went back up and verified that the change had stuck in the server and had them verify that they could print PDF's without changing the driver settings. It worked. For shits and giggles I had them print from Mayo Access. It was fine. On one hand I'm embarrassed because I was sure Mayo Access was bypassing the driver entirely when instead it was just bypassing the prompt, on the other hand my responsibility ends at the printer hardware and yet I'm the one to fix this poo poo. Taking the CCNA tomorrow.
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Feb 19, 2020 16:54
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If you're printing mayo, it's reasonable that the printout would be a bit light. I should be sorry for this post but I'm not.
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Feb 19, 2020 17:44
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Oyster posted:Printer vendor checking in. You'll never escape printers never. Take it from me a guy with his CCNA that works exclusively as a network engineer.
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Feb 19, 2020 19:30
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Hello. Still hating license servers. Thank you for being my captive audience.
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Feb 20, 2020 09:20
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Antigravitas posted:Hello. "Hey guys, why is [server] at 100% CPU?"
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Feb 20, 2020 15:32
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Anyone have a Brava licensing server? "I can't open Brava." Hrm...it's down. Let me restart the service. Try it now! "Thanks. Why does it crash all the loving time?" Who knows! We won't even look into it! 
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Feb 20, 2020 16:01
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Are you at your new job yet?
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Feb 20, 2020 16:06
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Super Slash posted:Could be worse, our primary one also doubles as a 3D rendering node. Oh, I know this one. Our storage nodes double as number crunching nodes because they hold the data being crunched and we only have gigabit in the building. (And 100Mbit in another…) We've had fun with people who insist on using Matlab to do this and instead of piping logs to /dev/null they just run a periodic delete on the log file. Except Matlab still holds a handle on the file and keeps writing to it, so we have invisible files growing until they hit the storage quota…
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Feb 20, 2020 16:30
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Got a project that is hammering the companies bandwidth. A manager rang me to complain that the problem is rather severe (I didnt know it was that bad but it was a fair point) He complained that his users were constantly ringing saying 'this is a problem rah rah rah' and I said have you sent an email to your users saying something generic like 'we know this is a problem we are working on it, expect a fix soon, in the mean time try this workaround' - no - do you think if you sent that email then there would be less calls complaining? - yes - so why havent you sent it? - it should come from a higher level than me - but its your site - what if i say the wrong thing? - all you are saying is a courtesy 'bear with me' you can't get it wrong?!?! I guess I am surprised at managers not managing their users and expecting higher managers to do it for them. edit: I should probably clarify a bit further, the issue he is complaining about is in a project report that went to C Levels, so, whilst no one really reads the reports, you can stand by the report and say "this issue has been reported to managment and we are working on it" and when the people complain you can say whatever is in that report without fear of getting it wrong because the C Levels have already been told. That does rely on everyone reading the report. Oops! angry armadillo fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Feb 20, 2020 |
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Feb 20, 2020 17:39
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Ahh telecom equipment vendors, making printer vendors look like IT geniuses by comparison. One of my customers has a Valcom VoIP door phone that he's having issues with it not triggering the latch relay for long enough. In theory this should be simple enough, just SSH to the PBX and open a tunnel to get to the device's web interface to change the setting. Nope, there is no web interface. Nor SSH, not even telnet. The only way to control or access this device in any way is through a special Windows-only application. Of course the only devices on the voice LAN are the PBX itself (running Linux) and the phones (running some RTOS). The voice LAN is physically separate from the data LAN at this site so I can't even remote to a PC on site and do it that way. I'm going to have to drive out to the site and boot up a Windows VM on my laptop to even be able to start troubleshooting a problem that in all likelihood would have taken 30 seconds to fix remotely if the vendor had been less poo poo.
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Feb 20, 2020 18:10
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BaseballPCHiker posted:You'll never escape printers never. I'm essentially a tier 3 hardware tech but do a lot of what should be done by the internal IT as well. Getting out of the printer hardware game will be an upgrade regardless. Got the CCNA. Hoping it helps with that.
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Feb 20, 2020 21:43
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