Current Events > Nothing like older people messing around with computer settings.

(+) Yeah! (+)

@BlazinBlue88 posted...

That's great man. Hard to find a company that treats it's employees well.
How long are you planning on doing the customer service stuff? Were you looking to continue into the IT field later on?

I'd like to stay with this company if I can, but I think I want to go more into operations of the call center than moving up the tech support/NOC side of things oddly enough.
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Error1355 posted...

SpiralDrift posted...

I've had people refer to the tower as a "modem" as recently as last year. There is no limit to people's stupidity when it comes to computers.

Eh, that's not too bad honestly. Context clues would make it pretty clear what they are actually talking about.

True, but people throw out so many random and invented terms it's easy to lose track of the basics as you're trying to make sense of what they're saying.

THEM: So I open my computer and there's a blank screen and it won't let me do anything. There's nothing, it's just blank. I think it's the email I installed last week.
YOU: Ok, so you press the power button and nothing comes up at all?
THEM: It's just a blank screen and nothing starts.

When really their browser is just overloaded with search bars and won't load their homepage. It could take a while to figure that out if they don't offer any further details.
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Error1355 posted...

CableZL posted...

About 35 minutes later, it was time for him to log in and put his new password in. He forgot what he put for his new password. I told him there was nothing else I could do for him and ended the call.

Yep, it's comical when people immediately forget their password. Well, it'd be comical if it wasn't as frustrating.

"I don't think I have one."
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Can I delete system32?
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E32005 posted...

Can I delete system32?

Of course you can, just right click the folder.
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SpiralDrift posted...

Error1355 posted...

CableZL posted...

About 35 minutes later, it was time for him to log in and put his new password in. He forgot what he put for his new password. I told him there was nothing else I could do for him and ended the call.

Yep, it's comical when people immediately forget their password. Well, it'd be comical if it wasn't as frustrating.

"I don't think I have one."

I love the "My email never had a password! Why do I need one now!"

Also when telling people who had their email compromised and was sending spam email: "What do you mean I have to set a whole new password? I use this one for everything!"
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Error1355 posted...

CableZL posted...

About 35 minutes later, it was time for him to log in and put his new password in. He forgot what he put for his new password. I told him there was nothing else I could do for him and ended the call.

Yep, it's comical when people immediately forget their password. Well, it'd be comical if it wasn't as frustrating.

In fairness, password complexity requirements are stupid as hell.

I want my password to be "bridge". Oh wait. It has to be 8 characters. "dabridge". Oh wait one has to be capital. "daBridge". Oh wait it needs a number. "daBridg3". Oh wait it needs another number. "dabridg34". Oh wait the numbers can't be sequential. "daBridg35". Oh wait now it needs a special character. "daBridg35?".

Finally.

Now, what was it again? It was something to do with a bridge...

It made sense a hundred years ago before they had the equally irritating lockout after like three guesses, but the two of those combined are, like, f*** you for using a computer.
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I like when they are fuming mad they see the no signal message on their tv and blame the stb. I let them know I can poll their stb and nine times out ten they are one source/input button push away from viewing live TV.

Trumpo posted...

I like when they are fuming mad they see the no signal message on their tv and blame the stb. I let them know I can poll their stb and nine times out ten they are one source/input button push away from viewing live TV.

Yeah, I've had to start helping with some cable troubleshooting for the newer Tivo powered boxes we have, and holy shit at how many people have no idea what an input is on a TV.
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Error1355 posted...

SpiralDrift posted...

Error1355 posted...

CableZL posted...

About 35 minutes later, it was time for him to log in and put his new password in. He forgot what he put for his new password. I told him there was nothing else I could do for him and ended the call.

Yep, it's comical when people immediately forget their password. Well, it'd be comical if it wasn't as frustrating.

"I don't think I have one."

I love the "My email never had a password! Why do I need one now!"

Also when telling people who had their email compromised and was sending spam email: "What do you mean I have to set a whole new password? I use this one for everything!"

I've started storing my parents' passwords to things in my personal password manager because invariably I'll get a call from them years down the road saying that they switched to some thing "x" and can't get it working so I go there to their house and I get it working insofar as I get to a login screen and then I turn and go "What's your password?" and they just look at me like they don't even know what a password is.
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This customer right now: "Can I tell you my new password?
Me: No, we do not want to know your password.
Customer: I don't care. *reads out a password that doesn't fit the password requirements that I just told her it needed
Me: ...Use a different password than that now that you've told someone it, but remember it needs both letters and numbers.

.....why do these people exist. lol
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Error1355 posted...

This customer right now: "Can I tell you my new password?
Me: No, we do not want to know your password.
Customer: I don't care. *reads out a password that doesn't fit the password requirements that I just told her it needed
Me: ...Use a different password than that now that you've told someone it, but remember it needs both letters and numbers.

.....why do these people exist. lol

why do you require such confusing password requirements
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Philoktetes posted...

why do you require such confusing password requirements

Well it took you an hour to figure out someone didn't even have a computer so I'm not shocked you find 'using letters and numbers' confusing.
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Error1355 posted...

This customer right now: "Can I tell you my new password?
Me: No, we do not want to know your password.
Customer: I don't care. *reads out a password that doesn't fit the password requirements that I just told her it needed
Me: ...Use a different password than that now that you've told someone it, but remember it needs both letters and numbers.

.....why do these people exist. lol

She just tried again, It failed.

"New password and confirm new password must match."

Her: OH POOPYCOCK

Me: O_O
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Now you understand why Linux is better for old people.
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Philoktetes posted...

why do you require such confusing password requirements

The delusion that 'P4$$w0rD' is somehow secure, and not something that can be brute forced in about half a second but high-impossible for humans to remember or even really write down.

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

Error1355 posted...

Philoktetes posted...

why do you require such confusing password requirements

Well it took you an hour to figure out someone didn't even have a computer so I'm not shocked you find 'using letters and numbers' confusing.

Me neither.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

People will do what I do..
password123456789012..there, that's 20
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stone posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

People will do what I do..
password123456789012..there, that's 20

lol, speaking of that... I once had a call where this guy needed help setting up wifi. He got to the modem's firmware just fine and then he had to put in the WPA2 password he wanted to use.

Me: The password has to be at least 8 characters.
Him: OK, I'm going to use.... a... 1... b... 2... c... 3... d... 4... e... 5... f... 6... g... 7... h... 8... i... 9... j... 10... k... 11... l... 12... m... 13... n... 14. I hope that's 8 characters.
Me: O_O uhh... yeah, that's... that's plenty.
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stone posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

People will do what I do..
password123456789012..there, that's 20

...and a brute force attack will take most of forever to crack that, unless the hacker assumes you're an idiot from the get-go.
https://www.netmux.com/blog/cracking-12-character-above-passwords

This same email lady from my last few posts: How do I do a lowercase Q? Just use a g?

.............what
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Philoktetes posted...

why do you require such confusing password requirements

The delusion that 'P4$$w0rD' is somehow secure, and not something that can be brute forced in about half a second but high-impossible for humans to remember or even really write down.

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

Minimum lengths of 20 are better than allowing Pa$$w0rd but it's actually shown to be more secure to have a minimum length of around 10 or so.

There's some weird sociological things regarding people that are counter intuitive. The two biggest ones are excessively long password requirements and being forced to regularly change passwords.

It turns out that when you add these restrictions, people begin to behave in predictable ways. An experiment was conducted that when given someone's previous password, hackers were able to guess the new password for about 80% of passwords with 50% or so being guessed on the first four tries, because people do things like DisIsMyPassword1!twentycharacters / DisIsMyPassword2!twentycharacters / DisIsMyPassword3!twentycharacters etc.

Let people set reasonably secure passwords that they're comfortable with.
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CableZL posted...

stone posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

People will do what I do..
password123456789012..there, that's 20

lol, speaking of that... I once had a call where this guy needed help setting up wifi. He got to the modem's firmware just fine and then he had to put in the WPA2 password he wanted to use.

Me: The password has to be at least 8 characters.
Him: OK, I'm going to use.... a... 1... b... 2... c... 3... d... 4... e... 5... f... 6... g... 7... h... 8... i... 9... j... 10... k... 11... l... 12... m... 13... n... 14. I hope that's 8 characters.
Me: O_O uhh... yeah, that's... that's plenty.

Haha wow
Actually my password when there's length requirements is password1111 and if somehow it requires a cap, or it to end with a letter, then it's Password111a.. Fuck coming up with new passwords for everything
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I work helpdesk and I can confirm that old and young folks don't know their way around a computer.

Me: I'll need you to go to a website for me.
Them: Where do I do that?

:|
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Security questions are worse than passwords. I've started just putting my password in for those. And if some system admin was so stupid to not allow for that, I use some random outcome of bashing my fingers across the keyboard.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Usually:
A tiny fuse has blown inside that's near-impossible to get to, even harder to replace, and hasn't been manufactured since roughly 1987.

Or, someone ran it empty and screwed up the magnetron somehow. Don't bother even trying to repair it, as bits of it are made of beryllium oxide (which is essentially super-asbestos).

While that is an interesting bit of knowledge, it's not my job as an IT person to fix a damn microwave and you're a moron(not you, my coworkers) if you think that falls under my job responsibilities of fixing computers.

Error1355 posted...

I'd like to stay with this company if I can, but I think I want to go more into operations of the call center than moving up the tech support/NOC side of things oddly enough.

That's fair. Not everyone cares for the tech side of it all. Moving into management operations is fun as well.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Security questions are worse than passwords. I've started just putting my password in for those. And if some system admin was so stupid to not allow for that, I use some random outcome of bashing my fingers across the keyboard.

Yep, I fucking hate security questions. Anything that can be socially engineered with ease like that is bad. I also don't put real answers in for mine.
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Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.
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pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

50 years from now everything will have 2FA restricted to a non interchangeable physical device and passwords may not even exist.
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pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

People will just create "clever" workarounds for seven-factor authentication, which will render it mostly useless.

"I got a plastic eyeball copy made, so I don't have to stick my face in the iris scanner all the damn time."

Tyranthraxus posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Philoktetes posted...

why do you require such confusing password requirements

The delusion that 'P4$$w0rD' is somehow secure, and not something that can be brute forced in about half a second but high-impossible for humans to remember or even really write down.

Stop with the upper/lower/number/symbol requirements, and just have a minimum length of twenty.

Minimum lengths of 20 are better than allowing Pa$$w0rd but it's actually shown to be more secure to have a minimum length of around 10 or so.

There's some weird sociological things regarding people that are counter intuitive. The two biggest ones are excessively long password requirements and being forced to regularly change passwords.

It turns out that when you add these restrictions, people begin to behave in predictable ways. An experiment was conducted that when given someone's previous password, hackers were able to guess the new password for about 80% of passwords with 50% or so being guessed on the first four tries, because people do things like DisIsMyPassword1!twentycharacters / DisIsMyPassword2!twentycharacters / DisIsMyPassword3!twentycharacters etc.

Let people set reasonably secure passwords that they're comfortable with.

One of the programs I use at work makes you change passwords every month. However, it's not just a password - it's an eight character string of letters or numbers that functions as both the username AND password to log into the software. Not only that, but only the first four characters can be specified by the user - the last four are always randomly generated and you have to write it down or memorize it immediately (or else go through HR to reset it). AND those first four characters that you CAN choose cannot be the same sequence for 12 months. There is also no lockout for repeated attempts, and they can only tie failed login attempts to an individual workstation rather than a username that someone is trying to access (since there IS no username).

It's genuinely awful.

treewojima posted...

It's genuinely awful.

At that point, "hacking" becomes as easy as flipping the keyboard over to look at the post-it stuck to the bottom.

Questionmarktarius posted...

pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

People will just create "clever" workarounds for seven-factor authentication, which will render it mostly useless.

"I got a plastic eyeball copy made, so I don't have to stick my face in the iris scanner all the damn time."

"and uploaded it to the Internet so I can 3d print it from anywhere instead of carrying it sound with me "
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stone posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

People will just create "clever" workarounds for seven-factor authentication, which will render it mostly useless.

"I got a plastic eyeball copy made, so I don't have to stick my face in the iris scanner all the damn time."

"and uploaded it to the Internet so I can 3d print it from anywhere instead of carrying it sound with me "

"Hey Ted, can I borrow your rubber finger to log into your eye?"

Questionmarktarius posted...

treewojima posted...

It's genuinely awful.

At that point, "hacking" becomes as easy as flipping the keyboard over to look at the post-it stuck to the bottom.

I only write down the last four randomly generated characters and put it on a sticky note somewhere on my desk, or store it in my phone. The first four characters I only change the last letter from month to month. It's insecure as fuck, but I'm not exactly dealing with sensitive information.

My coworker in accounting, however, writes her whole password on a sticky and leaves it on her monitor every month. She's one of the people responsible for maintaining all of our ledgers and accounts. That's terrifying >_>

treewojima posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

treewojima posted...

It's genuinely awful.

At that point, "hacking" becomes as easy as flipping the keyboard over to look at the post-it stuck to the bottom.

I only write down the last four randomly generated characters and put it on a sticky note somewhere on my desk, or store it in my phone. The first four characters I only change the last letter from month to month. It's insecure as fuck, but I'm not exactly dealing with sensitive information.

My coworker in accounting, however, writes her whole password on a sticky and leaves it on her monitor every month. She's one of the people responsible for maintaining all of our ledgers and accounts. That's terrifying >_>

Might as well not require passwords at all, it'd be as "secure"
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People bad at computers with incorrect autofilling passwords in their browsers are going to be the death of me.
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pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

Brute forcing a password is always going to be the kiddie pool cyberattack.

I mean, why even bother spending 200 trillion computational hours brute forcing one password when you can spend half a second dumping all the passwords in the database?
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stone posted...

Might as well not require passwords at all, it'd be as "secure"

Honestly, the developer of the software suite in question is more concerned about us trying to "pull one over" on them rather than anyone guessing our passwords and gaining access to various things. The program does shit like call home with all keystrokes and certain mouse inputs to make sure that we're not using an "unofficial" third-party application to access the backend database. If you want to do that, you have to either spend an obscene amount of money on their approved plug-ins (which aren't kept up to date with whatever other software they're designed to interface with), or just copy over anything you need by hand. No AutoHotKey or helper apps allowed

DevsBro posted...

pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

Brute forcing a password is always going to be the kiddie pool cyberattack.

I mean, why even bother spending 200 trillion computational hours brute forcing one password when you can spend half a second dumping all the passwords in the database?

Hopefully your passwords aren't stored in plain text. And it wouldn't surprise me if 20 years from now passwords are still the best authentication we can think of.

Rexdragon125 posted...

DevsBro posted...

pikachupwnage posted...

Imagine 50 years from now when computers are so strong you gotta have like 300 character passwords to not be an easy target for a brute force attack.

Brute forcing a password is always going to be the kiddie pool cyberattack.

I mean, why even bother spending 200 trillion computational hours brute forcing one password when you can spend half a second dumping all the passwords in the database?

Hopefully your passwords aren't stored in plain text. And it wouldn't surprise me if 20 years from now passwords are still the best authentication we can think of.

Hopefully.

Also hopefully your encryption is one-way but
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too bad my "Old people are no good at everything" topic purged

but that was mostly work/politics related
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Customer: I dont want this better free AV that comes with my support plan. I want McAfee

Me: You know that AV is a scam right and its the free version so it really does nothing for you?

Customer: I dont care I dont know that other AV you put on. Fix it or Ill do a chargeback.

*uninstalls Webroot to reinstall McAfee*
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Peter_Griffin33 posted...

Customer: I dont want this better free AV that comes with my support plan. I want McAfee

Me: You know that AV is a scam right and its the free version so it really does nothing for you?

Customer: I dont care I dont know that other AV you put on. Fix it or Ill do a chargeback.

*uninstalls Webroot to reinstall McAfee*

Windows Defender + not being an idiot, seems to be decent enough.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Peter_Griffin33 posted...

Customer: I dont want this better free AV that comes with my support plan. I want McAfee

Me: You know that AV is a scam right and its the free version so it really does nothing for you?

Customer: I dont care I dont know that other AV you put on. Fix it or Ill do a chargeback.

*uninstalls Webroot to reinstall McAfee*

Windows Defender + not being an idiot, seems to be decent enough.

Yeah but when they are 60+ and pay for a service that gets them a premium AV for free, youd think they would take it.
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Customer: I just got service installed, all my devices are connecting to the wifi except my Windows XP laptop
Me: You'll likely have extreme difficulty using an XP laptop on the internet at that point with how out of date every browser is.
Customer: Well lets try

*tries, it's not even seeing any wifi network as avail*

Customer: I should probably get a new laptop shouldn't I.
Me: Yeah.
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The real story is that these type of peoples are very easily scammed by robocalls/Indian tech scammers

which is the real problem
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Sexypwnstar posted...

The real story is that these type of peoples are very easily scammed by robocalls/Indian tech scammers

which is the real problem

gotta send all your money to that Nigerian prince, yo
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Sexypwnstar posted...

The real story is that these type of peoples are very easily scammed by robocalls/Indian tech scammers

which is the real problem

I had a lady a week or so ago saying she paid TWO THOUSAND dollars in iTunes gift cards to some tech company. I told her that is 100% a scam. She started getting very nervous and scared sounding.

These scammers are human trash. I've been watching some guy on YouTube recently waste time of scammers by prank calling them. It's quality.
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Error1355 posted...

I'd like to stay with this company if I can, but I think I want to go more into operations of the call center than moving up the tech support/NOC side of things oddly enough.

I've worked in call center management before, and its unrewarding. Even here at my new company the call center area gets the short end of the stick as far as the corporate environment goes. You'll want to snoop around what the management is like, how they work as a team, what their reputations are like, how easy they are to work with.
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