I managed to bring an entire network to a screeching halt with an 8.
We had been having issues with increased log on times. After a few investigative look sees I found that some settings were old. We had some confusion from the great and wondrous white tower of I.S. So, I set out to make a few global swipes and correct it. Be the hero.
Here is where the 8 comes in and I become the fool. Neglecting the advice of trying it out on a few machines I partied on. In defense I had been trying other settings and bits and pieces of this one in the appropriate manner. I plopped the new settings out and let them go. Went home and slept like a baby.
I didn’t make into the car the next morning before the phone calls started. Jim, IS buddy extraordinaire, quizzed me on a magic number containing the mysterious 8. I didn’t recognize it. Of course not, it was a damned typo. By the time I finished the drive the whole kit and caboodle was crapped out in extraordinary way. I didn’t know it yet.
After a few puzzled head scratches it donned on me. I quickly checked the settings I applied I so cavalierly applied the afternoon before. I’ll be damned. Instead of a friggin 1 I typed an 8. How the hell? I use the number pad for that stuff and the stupid numbers are nowhere near each other. Dammit.
Despite our best efforts, the rest of the day was lost. Windows conspired against me. It seems that it likes these kinds of screw-ups and simply resetting the GPO (I messed with the group policy) didn’t fix it. By the end we found a miserable solution that worked but was incredibly time consuming. My time saved by messing with the idiot settings has now become an Enron type investment.
Registry sucks. Turns out it stored it and sucked the bastard 8 in. Held it like it was gold. But once the afore mentioned Jim found the key, we fixed it then I penned a handy dandy script to fix it. Passed it out with curiously vague directions.
End of the story, I managed bring entire staff and network to its knees by use of the evil number eight and I have now established a personal policy of proofing all changes first. And if you haven’t figured out that making new friends is a little sarcastic.
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