Just-Legal
Goth Flufflet
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2001
- Posts
- 4,075
Been reading through Computer Stupidities today and it reminded me of an incident a few weeks ago.
A little background - my mum does IT for the NHS Blood and Tissues Service (BTS). She helps code and debug the donor database and other things, along with the program company (who shall remain nameless). She does a lot of work from home, where our story begins.
I have therapy group on Tuesdays, and if mum is working from home I always pop over for a cuppa and a chat. This particular week, she rings and says she can't meet me, she's having to take the laptop in to the NHS IT office, because she can get into Citrix, then the connection craps out and kicks her out.
Thinking nothing of it, I go about my day as normal. Thursday rolls around, and mum calls me in a flat panic. She's taken her laptop in to NHS IT another two times, and it just will NOT stop kicking her out of Citrix, but only at home. She's starting to worry she's missing something obvious. So, I agree to go over and have a poke around - bear in mind I have no formal IT qualifications, only that I've picked up along the way.
Get to my mothers, do the usual checks - laptop's charged, has access to the network, internet's working etc. Ask her to try and access Citrix through Firefox as it might be an IE issue, it still kicks her off. By this point, IT helpdesk has called back and I agree to take the call. Have a chat with a woman I've met a few times before who jokingly reminds me I'm not supposed to have access to the system I'm trying to fix. We both run through some troubleshooting steps, nothing works. I tell her I'll call back later, I'm gonna have something to eat and have a think.
Nip upstairs to check if the router is in a stupid place which would cause low signal strength or something. As I pick it up, I drop it in shock - its STUPIDLY hot. A thought occurs to me.
"Mum, when was the last time you restarted the router?"
"Uhm, I haven't, why?"
*lightbulb*
"Did IT reccomend restarting it?"
"No?"
I restart the router, trot back downstairs and tell her to retry connecting. It works! Much rejoicing. By this point, the Helpdesk calls back, unfortunately its a rather shitty superior I've had dealings with before. I sit quietly while he reams me out for even TOUCHING NHS property (which is actually not true - the laptop they gave my mother to work with was so knackered she now uses her own and everyone in IT knows this), how I'll never fix the problem because I'm just some silly girl who doesn't know what she's talking about.
"Okay," I say politely, "Can you think of anything we haven't tried yet?"
He starts listing long and stupid proceudres that even I know have NOTHING to do with Citrix. Eventually, I lose my patience with his rambling.
"So you wouldn't reccomend restarting the router then?"
"Well no," He snaps, "If her internet works, why would she need to do that?"
"Because that was the problem. I fixed it. Have a nice day!"
Couple of hours later the original woman I was speaking to calls back in a fit of giggles because word has got out the unqualified 24 year old managed to outfox the head of NHS IT at the helpdesk centre.
A little background - my mum does IT for the NHS Blood and Tissues Service (BTS). She helps code and debug the donor database and other things, along with the program company (who shall remain nameless). She does a lot of work from home, where our story begins.
I have therapy group on Tuesdays, and if mum is working from home I always pop over for a cuppa and a chat. This particular week, she rings and says she can't meet me, she's having to take the laptop in to the NHS IT office, because she can get into Citrix, then the connection craps out and kicks her out.
Thinking nothing of it, I go about my day as normal. Thursday rolls around, and mum calls me in a flat panic. She's taken her laptop in to NHS IT another two times, and it just will NOT stop kicking her out of Citrix, but only at home. She's starting to worry she's missing something obvious. So, I agree to go over and have a poke around - bear in mind I have no formal IT qualifications, only that I've picked up along the way.
Get to my mothers, do the usual checks - laptop's charged, has access to the network, internet's working etc. Ask her to try and access Citrix through Firefox as it might be an IE issue, it still kicks her off. By this point, IT helpdesk has called back and I agree to take the call. Have a chat with a woman I've met a few times before who jokingly reminds me I'm not supposed to have access to the system I'm trying to fix. We both run through some troubleshooting steps, nothing works. I tell her I'll call back later, I'm gonna have something to eat and have a think.
Nip upstairs to check if the router is in a stupid place which would cause low signal strength or something. As I pick it up, I drop it in shock - its STUPIDLY hot. A thought occurs to me.
"Mum, when was the last time you restarted the router?"
"Uhm, I haven't, why?"
*lightbulb*
"Did IT reccomend restarting it?"
"No?"
I restart the router, trot back downstairs and tell her to retry connecting. It works! Much rejoicing. By this point, the Helpdesk calls back, unfortunately its a rather shitty superior I've had dealings with before. I sit quietly while he reams me out for even TOUCHING NHS property (which is actually not true - the laptop they gave my mother to work with was so knackered she now uses her own and everyone in IT knows this), how I'll never fix the problem because I'm just some silly girl who doesn't know what she's talking about.
"Okay," I say politely, "Can you think of anything we haven't tried yet?"
He starts listing long and stupid proceudres that even I know have NOTHING to do with Citrix. Eventually, I lose my patience with his rambling.
"So you wouldn't reccomend restarting the router then?"
"Well no," He snaps, "If her internet works, why would she need to do that?"
"Because that was the problem. I fixed it. Have a nice day!"
Couple of hours later the original woman I was speaking to calls back in a fit of giggles because word has got out the unqualified 24 year old managed to outfox the head of NHS IT at the helpdesk centre.