Me: I'm unable to connect through VPN

IT guy at my office: I'll format your system and reinstall OS

Me: heck no!! There should be other effective solution.

IT guy: Yes, I can take backup of your files and then reinstall OS.

Me: Just get out!! F*ckin ididot!!

Reinstall VPN client, check credentials if you have access to server side, match credentials, reset password, there's loads of stuff that can be done!

@inukinator yes.. I'm aware of that. I was just highlighting how some of the IT guys come up with the solution!! 😂

@sbaitmangalkar my IT guy at the school I went to, wanted to remove Linux from my computer..

@inukinator oh! That would have been a blunder mate!!

@lumi For most of the IT guys, that's like one master solution they have for all problems!! 😂

@sbaitmangalkar I know, right?

We actually had a couple users at my old job with a VPN issue that required a reinstall :p. Basically:
- The VPN settings were locked (aka could not be overridden, except my domain admins).
- The users VPN settings got wiped somehow
- When plugging his laptop into the wired network, the VPN network interface fucked with the connection, so he was unable to get an IP
- Finally, uninstalling the client removed the client itself, but network interface persisted.

The user was not an admin, and nobody onsite had the local admin priveliges. Was hilarious listening to him arguing with the Indian tech support. 😂

I do this alot to solve problems lol funny af though

I have maintained a lot of Windows systems. Making a backup and fresh install was often the faster way to fix weird problems and performance issues. It's part of the upbringing of a win sysadmin. This is especially true in a home environment where muggles have admin privileges and chronic denial syndrome or memory loss when asked what they did.

It should never be the first thing on the list though other avenues should be tried first. Your complained is valid.

We used to have the shrewsoft VPN client. Sometimes it just broke down by no error of the user. It authenticates looks fine but established stays 0. I build a fixvpn executable (wrote it in go) that completely removed the installation after killing the running instances. Including all configuration (files in profile and registry) than reinstall and configure using hardcoding config (and current username). This fix executable also simplified deployment as it also worked if it wasn't installed yet and doesn't need any support files.

Tldr comments but I gotta say that sometimes you really need to reinstall that OS otherwise it is taking too long to find root cause both yours and his.

@neriald Well if you read my comment you will realise that is exactly what I said. Be sure to read the entire comment though, it's not like it is too long 🤣

@neriald Ha ha ha sounds like a plan!! 😂

@hjk101 I meant all the comments so far, had 1% battery so I was rushing to write comment 😂

@sbaitmangalkar well, with vpn there are 2 simple steps you reinstall the service and app, check users profile. If that fails most likely it's easier to reinstall the windows(corpo world time is money)

"Heck" ??? Are you from Utah??

@LoyalRayne No mate, I'm in Bangalore, India