Google Is Your Best Friend

A lot of the time in the TryHackMe discord people will come in and ask questions. They’re not stupid, or bad questions by any means – but they are Google-able questions, asking these kinds of questions are a waste of your time and my time and that’s whats leading me to write this blog post.

My thought process when I see a question:

• I see the Question

• I evaluate the question (Is this an easy or advanced topic? is this a room question? and the most important, can I google this question)

• Lastly I Process and Inform (Send the user to the correct channel, answer the question, or Google damn thing)

A lot of the time, it’s going to be a Google-able question, and nothing can really stop those questions from being asked, but it is frusterating.

A Guide on When to Ask your Question in the Discord

• Ask yourself, “Am I asking a question”

If the answer is yes, continue!

• Ask yourself, “Do I think that someone has had the same question as me before?”

If the answer is yes, stop. Google your question. Look through the first page of Google, try the first, second, third, or fourth link and see if it answer your question. If it doesn’t, continue.

• Ask yourself, “Is there another way to word my question?”

If the answer is yes, stop. Try to word your question in a different way – For example, if your question was originally: How can I connect my Wireless Card to my VM? and you couldn’t find the answer by Googling that, try rephrashing it like so: <Hypervisor Name> Wireless Card Passthrough Sometimes asking in the form of a question doesn’t always help. Googling a phrase may yeild better search results that can help answer your question.

Below are the search results for each asked question and how different they vary. 

The first question very generic. It’s not very descriptive, it’s vague, and it applies to all the Hypervisors out there.

This one on the otherhand is a lot precise, and I can tell you it’ll be more tailored to you and what you want, and I can tell you for a fact, if you ask the question on the Discord, I will Google that exact phrase and send you the first link.

• If you still can’t find the answer, keep searching for 3-5 minutes. I know it may be frusturating, but after you try searching for a total of 10 minutes, you can/should then ask the question in the Discord server, and we’ll do our best to help you.

Again, this is trying to be mean, it’s trying be educational. This biggest thing you can do is try to help yourself. The Internet (specifically Google) has an insane amount resources that will help you find the answer to your question. You just need to know how to use it.

Some resources that may help you find the answer to your question:

Live Overflow’s Video - How (not) to ask a technical question

Muirland Oracle’s Room - Introductory to Research: https://tryhackme.com/room/introtoresearch

CMNatic’s Room - Google Dorking:
https://tryhackme.com/room/googledorking

Now, here comes the harsh bit – If you can’t Google a simple question you will not survive in Information Security, or Technology. This is a sad truth. I Google things on a daily basis. It could Hashcat’s examples Wikipage because I cant seem to remember NTLM’s hash mode is 1000, and that LM’s in 3000, or it could be advanced things like Methods to Dump Credentials in Windows. It’s a common misconception that we know know everything. That’s 100% not true. You wouldn’t be asking your question if you did. We just know how to Google really well and find the answer to our questions effectively.

Let this post be your guide to helping yourself.