Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 54041	2005-02-02 20:57:00	Is this now a standard response for Helpdesks? You must have.....	Chilling_Silence (9)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
320883	2005-02-02 20:57:00	"Oh, you must have a Virus, or even worse, Spyware!" Thats what the tech tried to tell me when I called Xtra on behalf of a mate who's getting speed issues with his Jetstream Plus. No diagnostics or anything, no asking me if Ive checked, no asking my OS, nothing.... Just a straight up: It must be..... My prompt reply was: "Well, considering he just reformatted using a Slipstreamed copy of SP2 WinXP Home with Firewall enabled, Xandros Linux, and we've tried it booting a Knoppix LiveCD which is practically immune to what you have just told me, I think not" What really baked my noodle was he said: Oh but you can get it by only being online for a few seconds I wonder sometimes.... I kinda just bluntly told him my mate was running WinXP SP2 (Fresh install, firewalled), so throw that theory out the window, then I tell him my mates running Xandros in the same sentance. As if thats not enough, I immediately after also mentioned we'd run Knoppix. Putting aside my frustration I said "But I just told you we were running Linux and we're immune" I could tell he wasnt impressed with my 'insolence' and he replied "Nothing is immune!" very sternly. I told him that I was and he dropped it. Now admittedly a lot of people now have Spyware, and sure it can cause problems, but from what Ive seen (Ive heard of others calling up and getting similar responses) are ISP's just using this as an excuse to get customers off their backs? I could see how easy it would be to simply say "Well it looks like the spyware has infected your system so much you'll need to take it to a PC Repair shop and reformat it". Sure, that'll solve the problem if its a software issue..... Of course thats only speculation - Last time I called the helpdesk for myself was about two years ago running Win98, and in the end they told me to Reformat. Admittedly if I was the ISP, servicing 250,000 clueless n00bs, I'd probably want them off my back asap too :p Anybody else had similar experiences or have I just got the odd bad person who's not as fully clued up as I would like? Chill.	Chilling_Silence (9)
320884	2005-02-02 21:10:00	Similar experience - Jetstream login reports invalid username/password (at some random point during a day when my router was already logged in) so I call the helpdesk. HD Jockey: I can't ping your machine Me: Well that would be my firewall doing what I pay it to do. I can ping your dns and dhcp servers fine so two way traffic isn't an issue. HD Jockey: Well you'll have to turn off your firewall so I can ping you Me: {incredulous silence} HD Jockey: If you don't turn it off we won't support you Me: {click... dialtone} Service miraculously re-appears 1/2 hour later	Koenig (7105)
320885	2005-02-02 21:15:00	Expect little from the Xtra helpdesk. Expect less from the first tier or two. Pretty much their entire staff are running off scripted cheat sheets.	ninja (1671)
320886	2005-02-02 21:19:00	What percentage of people who call up complaining about connection speed do you think actually do have a system full of spyware?	pixeldust (6619)
320887	2005-02-02 21:21:00	I know that, but when somebody like myself wants to talk to somebody like yourself who has a solid head on their shoulders, its frustrating.. Is there no magic word we can whisper into the phone that'll make us get somebody with years of experience who knows how to fault diagnose? Working at EDS, I understand the perspective of the Service Provider, still doesnt make me feel better about calling a Technical Helpdesk and getting non-technical people on the line :(	Chilling_Silence (9)
320888	2005-02-02 21:37:00	I know that, but when somebody like myself wants to talk to somebody like yourself who has a solid head on their shouldersHa! I had to ring our own helpdesk the other night when I got home from work. Was testing some new scripts that run the backend of our website and running them against my account and changed it into a time limited one, not cool when you're on ADSL :lol:	ninja (1671)
320889	2005-02-02 22:00:00	LOL sounds familiar with Ihug's helpdesk It was to do with the Bla Bla Trojan the firewall picked up. This day, as soon as I connected to Ihug an alert popped up about this Trojan. Sent the log to Ihug (abuse), asking whats it mean. And also telling them, this trojan wasnt on my system, and according to the Symantec site, the files related to this trojan, weren't on my system A week later, they replied (Ihug help). Saying I have a trojan horse (I already told them I didnt have it)! So, really they told me NOTHING, I already knew.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
320890	2005-02-02 22:16:00	lol, at least the xtra helpdesk didn't try and tell you to turn of all firewalls and anti virus software as that could be causing the problem . . . . . I had slow connection speeds . . . . . after I pointed out that would leave my PC open to anything nasty on the net and would they take all responsability including financial for anything that arises from deactivating my protection they refered me to what seemed like the only guy in the place who knew anything . Turns out whole system was suffering from DOS attacks at the time . Another time Zonealarm was reporting multiple pings from an Xtra address for several days so I copied the log and fired it off to the complaints service . I then got an email back stating that I was attempting to "hack" into a customers computer and if I did not cease this at ONCE I would be disconnected from Xtra permanently . Funny thing is I never heard back from them after I emailed and told them they were reading the log backwards somehow and I was the one complaining .	dipstick01 (445)
320891	2005-02-02 22:29:00	It was to do with the Bla Bla Trojan the firewall picked up. This day, as soon as I connected to Ihug an alert popped up about this Trojan. Sent the log to Ihug (abuse), asking whats it mean. And also telling them, this trojan wasnt on my system, and according to the Symantec site, the files related to this trojan, weren't on my system That said, if you are reporting Trojan scans etc you should report them to the ISP that the probe originated from, not your own.	ninja (1671)
320892	2005-02-02 22:31:00	That's why HD is bottom of the IT foodchain "Pay peanuts, get monkeys" Not all are like that though, I maintain 9 sites with my hoster & being as thick as I am I contact them on a regular basis (20 times in the last 2 yrs I suppose) & everytime the response has been immediate & problems solved quickly	bartsdadhomer (80)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7