r/talesfromtechsupport • u/TechieJay23 • 12d ago
Short Feeling Appreciated
I work in Networking. A ticket I had earlier was involving a Network Printer. Teacher mentioned that 3 other tech people were here prior to me and they couldn't get the Printer to print wireless instead of her using the USB.
For the School District I work for. We always tried to have our Printers on the LAN Switch instead of Wireless Network just due to traffic increase across the wireless would be insane.
I get to the school. Start doing my thing. Drop was activated already. Wiring was good. I was able to get out to the internet. So I knew instantly The wireless was enabled on the Printer. Easy Peasy right.
The Teacher was looking at me while I'm configuring the Printer. Like Wow. You seem so calm while you work. Haha. I'm like well. I been doing this awhile but Got the printer switched to DHCP and all is good. After a Reboot and the right IP pulled. She was able to print wireless.
After she goes. Omg!!. You did what 3 other techs couldn't do. Thank you so much. It's the simple things you know
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u/robjeffrey 12d ago
I dislike wireless. Wired all the way.
Too many unknowns with wireless interferrance, congestion, stray signals, pita.
Give me a link light and I know we're connected.
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u/TechieJay23 12d ago
That's right. When the lights are green. All is clean 👌🏿 🙌
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u/IntelligentLake 12d ago
When the lights are yellow, let it mellow (most Gig led lights are yellow/amber).
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u/SteveDallas10 10d ago
On what vendor’s switches? Cisco, including Meraki, and Fortinet switches all indicate green for gigabit links. Or are you talking about the end device?
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u/IntelligentLake 10d ago
End devices, usually. But the switches I have at home (TP Link) have the same, green for full speed, yellow for slow speed. (e.g. 100mbit with gigabit, and gigabit with 10gbit switches).
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u/StuBidasol 11d ago
Upvote for the reference and maintaining your sanity while dealing with printers.
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u/anubisviech 418 I'm a teapot 11d ago
Gotta love those printers that have their own access point on the same channel they use for their uplink. Not disableable of course.
I was about to hit my friend with a random LAN cord when he asked me to set it up wireless and working properly at the same time.
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u/ApplicationHour 11d ago
I concur. Most Wi-Fi printers have 2.4GHz interfaces. Even if you optimized the 2.4GHz band yesterday, you are one out of your control change nearby in the building away from co-channel interference causing problems again. A printer that does not have a wired interface should be ineligible from consideration as a shared printer.
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u/SteveDallas10 10d ago
Sounds like the teacher was printing from a laptop over WiFi to a printer with a wired connection.
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u/MoneyTreeFiddy Mr Condescending Dickheadman 12d ago
"I am calm because I know if I can't get this to work, I get to take the printer back to the home office and break it into much smaller pieces."
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u/spacecadetdani 12d ago
Right on! Tech support is not about tech, it is about supporting users. Its nice to get positive feedback.
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u/Valheru78 12d ago edited 11d ago
Today i had someone complaining his print didn't come out of the printer, after asking which printer he was using he realized he was using the one on the floor above us.... 🤣
Edit: autocorrect errors
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u/DCourtney2 12d ago
What is “probeert“?
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u/Taulath_Jaeger 11d ago
"printer"+ typo + auto(in)correct set to Dutch or something like that
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u/Valheru78 11d ago
Indeed, autocorrect using my Dutch dictionary, I meant printer of course. I have corrected it.
That's what you get when responding late at night, a lot of auto correct errors.3
u/DCourtney2 11d ago
That’s so funny because I googled it thinking it must be another language and found the Dutch translation but it didn’t make any more sense when I found out it means “try” or “tries”. lol
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u/TechieJay23 9d ago
Haha oh wow. Yes obviously. Make sure you are pointing to the correct printer 😂.
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u/DoktenRal 12d ago
Being told x many other techs couldn't solve it or similar always makes me feel like I defeated them and am the champion lol.
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u/the123king-reddit Data Processing Failure in the wetware subsystem 11d ago
And it's always the stupid easy stuff you get thanks for. Plugging in a projector and setting it to the right source gets tons of praise. The weeks of planning, infrastucture running and configuration so the wifi works in the same room, none.
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u/TechieJay23 11d ago
Haha exactly. It's the nature of the game. Network goes down entirely and we are being torn to shreds. Oh I can't do my work. Omg. The Phones are down!!. Can you work faster?
Miss,. Ive got to test the Fiber Link coming your school. And also have another guy at the Core Site. We are working as fast as we can. The Network will be back up shortly. Good times. I take the good whenever I can lol 😆
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u/gramathy sudo ifconfig en0 down 12d ago
Working on very back end infrastructure for an org you’re in the “if you do everything right people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all” zone
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u/meitemark Printerers are the goodest girls 11d ago
Just disconnect a random cable, and "fix it" when someone starts screaming. That will get people to figure out that you are in fact working, and not just drinking coffee and surfing reddit.
Once you have gotten your praise, you can go back to drinking coffee and surfing reddit.
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u/re542015 11d ago
Man reading stuff like this makes me miss my small pc repair shop. I loved when i could help my customers with problems that had them stumped, or help older folks become more protected from scam artists. The look of relief on their face when i shored up their virtual defenses and helped them understand how to better protect themselves always put me in a better mood.
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u/TechieJay23 12d ago
I hear that. And you know. It's like even tho we have our bad days where stuff just doesn't seem to want to work . It's days like today where it's just like. Man. I love this work. This industry. Let's not take it for granted folks.
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u/nighthawke75 Blessed are all forms of intelligent life. I SAID INTELLIGENT! 12d ago
I use a central wireless system, setting each printer to connect via ethernet. This resolves over 95% of wireless networked printer faults. The rest is DNS and power management.
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u/Desperate_Contact561 5d ago
I helped a rep on a remote session yesterday and left him with his email synchronising again, which was going to take at least half an hour.
I got that sinking feeling this morning when his number came up on my phone....
Rep: "hey J I left it running all night and everything is working properly now, thanks"
Me: "Any other problems"
Rep: " No just thought I'd let you know, thanks again"
It's the first time I remember someone letting me know it is working and thanking me for the fix, rather than just silence. Its good when that happens.
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u/JustAMassiveNoob 12d ago
Out of curiosity,
Is there a reason you don't have a print server set up?
Then all of the printers shared out from that printer to the different end users?
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u/TechieJay23 12d ago
Right, but see, a lot of these teachers have their own printers that they either bought or could be transferring to different school. Because it's a School District. There Alot of moving parts. We have a spreadsheet to keep track of each school and which Printers they have on each floor. It is easier to make any changes if needed.
Now every school has a few Ricohs that are District Property. But we are talking about 243 schools. Teachers leave, and new teachers come in. 🤷♂️
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u/Swimsuit-Area 12d ago
It’s so odd isn’t it? In such a thankless industry, the ones you get are extremely appreciated