techrecovery | I love days like these.

You know, there are very few things more satisfying than this sort of support call:

Me: Hi, how can I help you?

User: I can't connect to my shared folders via VPN. The icon is green but it's telling me something about ip-win32 dynamic [full error message here]
(We use OpenVPN)
(Awesome start! A user that can read error logs and pass them along without commentary!)

-Start Remote Support Session-

User: So, I was up in the mountains this weekend and I had trouble getting online so my brother-in-law "fixed" my computer for me. I told him not to change anything and he said he put it back.
(My first thought was something along the lines of "this is gonna suck, she's managed to turn her computer inside out somehow" but then you guys and gals should have heard the way she said 'fixed'! Someone's getting an earful very soon!)

Me: "No worries, let's take a look and find out what's up."
(Check the OpenVPN logs just to make sure there's no mitigating factors here. Sure enough, OpenVPN doesn't like using DHCP when the adapter is set to static.) "Oh yeah, he 'fixed' it alright."

User: (Laughing) Ugh, I knew he would do something like that!

(I checked the virtual adapter settings. The knob had set it to 192.168.0.1/24, no gateway. Something tells me TAP-Win32 V8 doesn't look like Intel Wireless, but that's just me. I'm going to make an assumption here, but this brother-in-law probably left the router at .1 (if it was even on the same subnet! I know I've seen at least a few routers that use 192.168.1.1/24 instead. (Also, nested parenthesis for the win)), probably doesn't even understand what he did wrong, and probably thinks he did everything the right way.)

I forgot to ask if she ever got online this weekend or if he just botched it all to hell and just gave up. Honestly, I'm not even angry at him because my user is probably going to call her sister and make fun of him after work today. Nothing like knowing an idiot is going to get his nose rubbed in his own mess to start the day.