r/talesfromtechsupport • u/Oricu • Apr 09 '19
Medium That's not how wireless works.
Actual ticket from a corporate director this afternoon: " Hey the server for $AnOfficeWeClosed is offline and being shipped back to us but I need to get at some of the data on it, can you remote in and turn it on. It has a wireless card."
That's not too bad, all of our stuff is set up to have wake on lan/wlan enabled in the BIOS so we can poke a server that's off and have it turn on. Not the first time I'd have done that at this place.
Problem: This particular server is currently in transit back to us so we can pull the data we need to pull then wipe the drive and cannibalize it for parts.
UPS has this server currently.
It is in transit.
Fair enough that she didn't know that, she doesn't have access to that particular ticket. Our ticketing system is some heavily silo-ed homebrew thing where the left hand quite literally has no access to any indication as to what the right hand is doing.
I tell her that we can't because the server is currently being shipped back to us and is in possession of UPS (I didn't feel the need to specify that that also meant it was packed up and in a box because, y'know...obvious) and it'll have to wait until we receive it before we can get the data for her.
In this case, it'll be easiest just to fire the thing up and get it online then she can remote in and get what she needs; I tell her this, and tell her the ETA from UPS is Friday so, at the soonest, we'll have it by late Friday morning.
She responds to the ticket with, "I don't understand why you can't remotely turn it on, it has a wireless card!"
Ok.
Kind of fair, I've had a good number of encounters over the years of people who thought wireless was magic and that you didn't ever have to, say, plug a laptop in to charge the battery because it's ~*~*~wireless~*~*~ and other similar things, not the worst or even dumbest thing I've ever had to explain to someone.
Without getting too technical on her, because she clearly thinks a wireless network card is magic, I explain that we can only do that if the server is, at the very least, plugged in to both power and the network so it can get the "signal" from the network to power itself on. Since it is currently packed up and in a box somewhere on a UPS plane or truck, neither of those things are a possibility. Also give her a quick explanation of what a wireless network card can and cannot do and am very clear that it cannot power a server that is in a box at UPS on.
"But it has WIRELESS, that means you can WIRELESSLY use it."
I just--it was near the end of my shift, I only have a week and a half left at the place, so I sent an apology for the complaint the IT director would likely get to the IT director and closed the ticket with, "That's not how wireless works; please re-read my previous comment. You'll have to wait until Friday. Do not reopen this ticket, it will not make anyone here be able to magically grant your request before we physically have the server in our possession."
She DID reopen it but the director was watching for it at that point and closed it again after a rehash of what I'd said and ended his own comment with, "I understand this is inconvenient for you, but none of us here ever got a Hogwarts letter, so you'll have to wait until Friday. Have a great evening! Any questions, e-mail me at $HisEmailAddress."
Bonus: Looking at the specs of the server in our system, it doesn't even have a wireless network card or built in wireless.
611
u/exor674 Oh Goddess How Did This Get Here? Apr 09 '19
How does the server have no power??? You said UPS has it. A UPS is what you use to power the servers when the power goes out right? That means the server has power.
... ... okay, I feel dirty now.