OK here's a weird story from Monday...

[YeOldeStonecat]

So I have this client in 2 locations over by me...they have one main office on an island...I built their network many years ago..an old Compaq Proliant server running NT4. Things been purring on well past it's lifetime, it's a P3 866...so that puts it's age into perspective. They'be been draaaaaging their feet on upgrading it for about 2 years now. It's an architect firm...they've been stuffing it full of archiCAD file and JPGs 'n stuff...it's now gasping for air with its tongue rolled out across the floor in exhaustion.

They have another branch office on the other end of the state near NY, and opening a third office in CA soon because of some high end work they're doing out there.

Anyways...another consultant takes care of their 2nd office...we built a VPN between the 2 sites, had an old trust going on between my old NT 4 server and the 2K3 server he put in place in their 2nd office. They're the type of customers that don't like the consultants managing the network...they want us to build it..and leave it to them for a few years.

So I get out onsite to their island office Monday...setup the new Proliant server I built for them..2K3 server, my plan was to join the directory of their existing 2K3 server in the other office..then dcpromo it. So I get it up on the network..set its DNS as the other servers IP..attempt to join the domain..I knew the netbios name of the domain..tried blahblah.com...nothing..ahh cool he used .local..so I try blahblah.local..nothing. OK..wtf is the full domain suffix..so I RD into the server down yonder...and as the desktop draws in...I see about 5 access sheets open, a half dozen excel sheets, several word docs, about 4-5 Internet Explorer sessions, several Timberline windows, Outlook open for e-mail, and MSN Messenger! WTF...did I RD into someones workstation? Then I get kicked out. I log back in..I verify the welcome screen..yup...2K3 server, I'm logging in as Domain Administrator. I see all the windows still open. I get kicked out again.

"No..it can't be" I say to myself. So I go and call the office down there..."Uhm...is someone working on the server.like..using it as their workstation?"

Sure enough..yeah, they hired some second accounting girl...and the boss down there has her work on the server every day as her own PC.

This is their one and only domain controller. So far.


The consultant who takes care of their end comes back from vacation today...needless to say I have a call into his office and put my project on hold...until he's caught up to speed. I'm not going to touch that server down there to do anything...it's in legacy mode, I need to flip it to native mode..and I'm not even going to breath on it 'n reboot it...for fear of something disastrous.

In case you're wondering..I'm not of the belief that business networks should use their servers as workstations. I mean...e-mail clients, internet use, frigging instant messengers! They're getting NOD32 EE across the sites..but still on old Symantec CE 9 or something...IMO useless for ensure that server is fully protected from internet threats.

Just had to laugh and share my horror story of the week.

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

So I have this client in 2 locations over by me...they have one main office on an island...I built their network many years ago..an old Compaq Proliant server running NT4. Things been purring on well past it's lifetime, it's a P3 866...so that puts it's age into perspective. They'be been draaaaaging their feet on upgrading it for about 2 years now. It's an architect firm...they've been stuffing it full of archiCAD file and JPGs 'n stuff...it's now gasping for air with its tongue rolled out across the floor in exhaustion.

They have another branch office on the other end of the state near NY, and opening a third office in CA soon because of some high end work they're doing out there.

Anyways...another consultant takes care of their 2nd office...we built a VPN between the 2 sites, had an old trust going on between my old NT 4 server and the 2K3 server he put in place in their 2nd office. They're the type of customers that don't like the consultants managing the network...they want us to build it..and leave it to them for a few years.

So I get out onsite to their island office Monday...setup the new Proliant server I built for them..2K3 server, my plan was to join the directory of their existing 2K3 server in the other office..then dcpromo it. So I get it up on the network..set its DNS as the other servers IP..attempt to join the domain..I knew the netbios name of the domain..tried blahblah.com...nothing..ahh cool he used .local..so I try blahblah.local..nothing. OK..wtf is the full domain suffix..so I RD into the server down yonder...and as the desktop draws in...I see about 5 access sheets open, a half dozen excel sheets, several word docs, about 4-5 Internet Explorer sessions, several Timberline windows, Outlook open for e-mail, and MSN Messenger! WTF...did I RD into someones workstation? Then I get kicked out. I log back in..I verify the welcome screen..yup...2K3 server, I'm logging in as Domain Administrator. I see all the windows still open. I get kicked out again.

"No..it can't be" I say to myself. So I go and call the office down there..."Uhm...is someone working on the server.like..using it as their workstation?"

Sure enough..yeah, they hired some second accounting girl...and the boss down there has her work on the server every day as her own PC.

This is their one and only domain controller. So far.


The consultant who takes care of their end comes back from vacation today...needless to say I have a call into his office and put my project on hold...until he's caught up to speed. I'm not going to touch that server down there to do anything...it's in legacy mode, I need to flip it to native mode..and I'm not even going to breath on it 'n reboot it...for fear of something disastrous.

In case you're wondering..I'm not of the belief that business networks should use their servers as workstations. I mean...e-mail clients, internet use, frigging instant messengers! They're getting NOD32 EE across the sites..but still on old Symantec CE 9 or something...IMO useless for ensure that server is fully protected from internet threats.

Just had to laugh and share my horror story of the week.

Great Story, When in my last job working with a local pc shop i ran into the same thing. Company calls us up wanting to do a year contract with us for all their network needs. So we are look cool no problem, we go threw redo their network, run new wiring, new routers the works. They have 4 locations across the area so we put in a server in each office. So workers from the one office can VPN in to the other for their software they used. Everything was working great for a few months than one day i was just checking logs and RD into the server and i noticed the CPU was locked at 100% all 4 processor's, and there was tuns of window's open, msn, ect. I was WTF!!!!. I called them and asked them who had been using server and tell me they hired a girl and she had been using the server as a workstation saying she has done it before and it was fine to do. Some people i swear.... And the remote sites call me asking why their vpn connectons are dragging ass, and i tell them to tell the dumb **** to stop using the server as a desktop! Needless to say after 5 months of this crap we cut ties with them and eneded the contract, we were sick of them taking up our day with bs and hey would not listen to us in the first place, they had a older bitchey boss who thought she knew it all and she did not. Gotta love those

 

[AMD[H]unter]

Wow.... Great read, YeOlde. I had a scare like that a while back when I RDP'ed into a server and I saw the same thing...

That little problem stopped that day; I sold them a new computer for the user that was using the server.

 

[valve1138]

The cheapness stemming from ignorance never ceases to amaze me.

One of the many reasons I dont do IT work anymore!

 

[ThreeDee]

need to write in a little clause in your contracts covering such a travestie , lol.