Describe the symptom, not the conclusion: "The firewall is blocking my app" No, your application is saying it is unable to communicate with a specified server. We do not know anything else about what's wrong in the chain of dependencies for that error to appear.
Can you resolve with ping and nslookup? Is there bad split tunnelling on VPN? Is the proxy broken, or the PAC misconfigured due to a new VLAN? Is your system not set to use TLS1.2 and it requires that as of yesterday? Are there any other network anomolies? Can you establish TCP?
@SwiftOnSecurity I once asked a mechanic what it means that the “check engine” light is on. He said it means that the “check engine” light is on.
@SwiftOnSecurity It can’t be the firewall Everyone knows it’s always DNS
@SwiftOnSecurity The number of times I've been pulled into an investigation and had to tell people to step back and ask what the customer's actual problem is, because it's probably not the thing I'm being told to look at...
@SwiftOnSecurity Yesterday somebody told me they need more ram because their usb keyboard sometimes didn't work
@SwiftOnSecurity Reminds me of help desk/desktop support techs assuming there is a systemic issue rather than it being limited to just the computer they are working on
@SwiftOnSecurity My network security analysts and engineers became the best application troubleshooters in the shop because everyone blamed firewalls for everything.
@SwiftOnSecurity The flip side, as a user, is when I describe my actual symptom the help desk guy responds with the first thing that pops into his head & closes the ticket. Regardless if I include troubleshooting steps I've already taken that includes his guess.
@SwiftOnSecurity Gotta love modern software. No more annoyingly technical error messages! You just get an idle animation for a while and if you're lucky it times out and says it didn't work. Never any explanation why.
@SwiftOnSecurity Yeah, when troubleshooting a problem based on someone else’s request, sometimes you have to ask questions to get past what they think is the problem to uncover the real issue.
@SwiftOnSecurity Once spent four days trying to track down a connectivity issue we were convinced was some kind of tls mismatch over https. Turns out it wasn't using HTTP at all, it was using AMQP and no one had opened that port on the new network. 🤦
@SwiftOnSecurity “Do my job for me”. Drives me completely mad.
@SwiftOnSecurity Ppl always tell me what they think is wrong not their symptoms & their diagnosis is way off. Then I have to take the time to explain why what they think is happening isn't, on top of telling them what is actually wrong. Pls tell me the symptoms & let me figure out the rest
@SwiftOnSecurity It’s DNS; it’s ALWAYS DNS (except when it’s user error)
@SwiftOnSecurity If I had a dollar for every time a user reported a conclusion rather than a symptom, I wouldn't be looking for work right now, because I'd be rich AF. Or for every time I replied "What are the observable symptoms that led you to that conclusion?"
@SwiftOnSecurity But let’s be real. It’s probably the firewall.
@SwiftOnSecurity Path of least resistance "This isn't working, must be the Firewall" "Nothing to do with us" "Must be DNS then, you guys look after that right?"
@SwiftOnSecurity I saw a post years ago about someone charging $25 each time the users blamed the server when the server may or may not be the actual problem, and that seems like a good motivational tool to get people to accurately report the problem they're having
@SwiftOnSecurity A gripe as old as time. I have been known to look down at my badge and read the word on it, and then point to their badge and compare lol. My wife saw me once do this before we were married, she later said she thought I was a jerk… se la vi.
@SwiftOnSecurity It’s the firewall though, you know, I know it and we know it.
@SwiftOnSecurity This I am both annoyed when this is done to me.... And guilty of doing this to other people If I have a conclusion, I need to start with the symptoms, explain how I arrived at my conclusion AND be humble enough to let the other person review, verify, and possibly find fault
@SwiftOnSecurity Just yesterday a customer blamed a firewallmigration because one of his printers prints in landscape now. *sigh*
@SwiftOnSecurity Flip side. ERP install, request certain ports open. Network team tells me it's done. Connection fails. Raise it again. They assure it was done. Reply with screenshot of telnet failure on said ports. Still baulk, escalate issue to mgr, and "suddenly" it works.
@SwiftOnSecurity Classic user reporting error. Contact support with the supposed solution to a problem, without saying what the problem is. See also: weird user requests for new product features that make no sense.
@SwiftOnSecurity Just make a little hole through the firewall, no problem!
@SwiftOnSecurity The ability to break things down into smaller pieces and troubleshoot starting with the basics is something I see sorely lacking in areas I interact with nowadays.
@SwiftOnSecurity I cannot believe that nobody linked this yet xyproblem.info
@SwiftOnSecurity This soooo much. Don't give me a half-diagnosed problem description. If you've taken a wrong turn at the top then we're already discussing the wrong thing. Someone at work is printing me a shirt saying "context please..." for this reason 😁
@SwiftOnSecurity Ha. All the time. "The API is down." "This endpoint doesn't work." What response are you getting? "IDK. My HTTP library threw an error." No, you are just making the request incorrectly.
