How can I help this person?

[Und3ertak3r]

the story has 3 fools.. ..

you think i did anything? hell no. i just told the guy "looks like they fixed it" and left.

so how will you explain to the AW.. when the chick takes her toy home.. why he now has no WLAN?

You have left this guy thinking that the WLAN is part of the Schools network..
.. you have infered that the AP is part of the schools network..

The Terms of use should have been thrown at him at this point and YOU should have explained that what he was useing was not a part of the schools network, and as such could risk problems with the owner of the AP WHEN discovered..

there is no difference between your job and your responsability..

But WE need to realise that there may be a difference between the LAWS and attitudes of your region and Ours.. so in wihich case there are more fools here..(including Me)

[Tiger Shark]

I have to say that I have met some utter idiots in my years in this business. But I have never met anyone as foolish and as ignorant as you Jebu.

I have one really silly question.....

How on earth does the user think he's on your network when he isn't and how does he get to his files?

See, you fail either way here. If he can attach to your network and see his files then you have a rogue computer connected through a rogue WAP accessing your network. In my profession that is considered very bad.

If he isn't attaching to your network where is he storing the files he generated over those six months. On his own HD? Er, you are responsible for the security and integrity of his data yet you leave it on his HD. That's not even close to best practice with regard to integrity. But then, he's storing the data that you are ultimately responsible for on a wireless networked laptop that is connected to a wireless network you have no control over that is clearly wide open or the user wouldn't have got onto it. That's real secure.....

I was right... The more I think about it you are an ignorant fool......

[foxyloxley]

just because the equpment or app was brought into the office premises, does not mean it automiticallly becomes part of our job to look after it.

I worked as maintenance electrical tech for the previous 12 years, and here [UK] ANYTHING that is brought into your area of responsibility IS your responsibility [for us, that meant that anything that came onto site, that had an electrical plug attached, through which said equipment was powered]

We had to find it, log it in, check it over, add to the equipment D/B AND test it to comply with the 16th edition electrical regulations.

Your answer is a cop out.
It would have been better all round if you had kept that snippet of info about your work ethic to yourself.
Here on AO, it is your posts that are used to build up an image of each person here, and suffice to say, your image is 'tarnished' at the very least.

Pax.

[i2c]

Im not sure whether i agree entirely with anyone that has posted,

Surely if it is a university, it will ultimatly be the universities IT department that provides internet access, so there is no issues with the ISP chucking them off for have 2 IP's on the account.

I know at my uni that the user agreement says we arent alloud to bring in hubs, routers or switches and connect them to our highspeed - maybe its the same at urs?

as for the wiring regulations, well none of our own personnal equipment in our halls is tested. with thousands of students in halls it would take for ever.

We were given instructions on how to wire a plug with our room contracts, and having not come directly to uni I noted that the instructions stated that the wires in a plug must be twisted instead of left straight and folded as of 16th wiring regs sue to the potential fire hazard.

I emailed the health and safety people who had provided this "information" (misinformation?) sheet and told them of the error - I then got a snotty email back pretty much suggesting I shut up...I was very disapointed about this to say the least, most notably becuase he probably thought i was just another student without an ounce of common sense, ohh well let them burn...

i2c

[Jebo Majku]

Originally posted here by Tiger Shark


How on earth does the user think he's on your network when he isn't and how does he get to his files?

no network access. all he had is WWW & his email and he though he was on the network.

and from what i remember of the incident, this particular brand of business "asswipe" was of the type that believed that he does not need to worry about his files being backed up by us - because *he* has never had a drive die on him. he worried about his own backup using the CD burner. he also went around and kept trying to get other staff to do the same because according to him - the tech guys are a bunch of idiots and are wasting their time and dept $$$ with silly things such as backup exec and SDLT tapes - hard drive technology has come a long way!


i also seem to remember that the guy sold himself as a tech savvy CIO to upper mgtm and went around claiming he was a NT sys admin at his old job but was not able to get 2 windows machines to see each other without a local tech guy doing it for him.

so careful who you call idiot.

[Jebo Majku]

Originally posted here by foxyloxley
[B]I worked as maintenance electrical tech for the previous 12 years, and here [UK] ANYTHING that is brought into your area of responsibility IS your responsibility [for us, that meant that anything that came onto site, that had an electrical plug attached, through which said equipment was powered]

well that would never fly as a sys admin in my realm. you would never get any work done - because ever tom, dick and harry would keep bringing in their own (or their wifes, or their husbands) messed up laptops from home into work and try to make you fix & support it for free.

so at your place i can bring in my furnace, washing machine, dryer and stereo and you will fix it for me free of change? cool, i like the place you work.

[Jebo Majku]

can we please end the flame. (thanx for the negs - i'll live!) we differ in opinion. and we also definatly work in very different environments. thats that. back to the OP and his dilema.

FMPOV, what he is gonna do is use a network trick to send a message to someone who has not secured a AP. I personally don't think it's wise and I think the OP just wants to show off and be cool. but thats just my opinion based on not meeting the OP and interpreting his actions based on my own personal bias.

the outcome can come back both ways. the person may be very grateful. or the person may get very scared and panic because a "hacker has entered their system". imagine if someone jumped in during your cell phone conversation with your girlfriend and said, "hi, you should change phones I can hear everything". would you start talking to them about other phone models? would you get mad? or would you hang up and get the hell out of the area - maybe even call a your phone company or a cop?

a lot of n00b users are constantly being bombarded by IT security issues in the media - identirty theft, spyware, virus ...e.t.c.. - they haven't a clue how to identify or distinguish one from another and I see it making them a little paranoid and jump the gun all the time. (how many here have gotten support calls about a virus but it turns out to just be windows update notifying of new patches!)

thats why i suggest "in person" communication.

[foxyloxley]

so at your place i can bring in my furnace, washing machine, dryer and stereo and you will fix it for me free of change? cool, i like the place you work.

I forgot the kicker :

We had the authority to remove / DESTROY as required ANY equipment that was not official company kit.
Although we DID repair items for people [cost to them = jar of coffee, the lubricant of the working class ]

It was all about attitude:
If you do not like your job / workplace, do as I did: LEAVE.

[Jebo Majku]

Originally posted here by foxyloxley
I forgot the kicker :

We had the authority to remove / DESTROY as required ANY equipment that was not official company kit.
Although we DID repair items for people [cost to them = jar of coffee, the lubricant of the working class ]

It was all about attitude:
If you do not like your job / workplace, do as I did: LEAVE.

do you know what would happen to me if my work found out that i was charging users/making a personal profit & gain by fixing their computers in the network room during work hours?

let me tell you something. we used to do that many eons ago. we even used to sell old comp's to staff. you know what would always happen?

a major dispute over the selling price - because what the rest of the world thinks is fair market value and what the accountants think is fair market value are two totally different things! and it's a major red tape to sell company equipment below the accountants "market value". but that still doesn't deter luse users from poking their head into the network room and asking, "do you have any old computers for sale?"

but thats not the worst of it. the worst part of it was, that when the staff purchased the equipment - they assumed that they get free tech support forever. they kept bringing it in - years after they purchased it - to get it fixed, upgraded, maintained. and if you didn't - they complained to the managers.

now-a-days, when i get rid of equipment - i find a half decent not for profit agency and donate it to them. much less hassle and headache.

[foxyloxley]

but thats not the worst of it. the worst part of it was, that when the staff purchased the equipment - they assumed that they get free tech support forever. they kept bringing it in - years after they purchased it - to get it fixed, upgraded, maintained. and if you didn't - they complained to the managers.

Amen to that :
Been there, left .............

but we were fairly autonomous in our decision making, what we said went. Although, remember, in the job I'm describing, we were ELEC TECHS, not IT. They got it easy.
Everytime kit was declared outdated [1999 + Y2K crisis was a doosie] a skip was ordered, and the offending items were consigned to it. [HDD integrity / security was not a consideration for business critical data, everything went out, they even threw out printers [HP690C's] when the ink ran out, as it was cheaper to replace, than to renew the cartridges ???]