What a colossal waste of time... device not authorized
Thread poster: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 11:17
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Mar 31, 2021

Hello

So, when an agency sends us work, we take it on faith that they will not waste our time. If the job involves logging in to some online system like XTM, and we agreed to do the work, we put in some effort (and time) to stay available while a problem is being sorted out. But the latest trick that is being pulled by XTM is just nonsense.

The client sent me XTM login details, but when I visited the link and tried to log in, I got this message:

error message 1

...which is stupid, stupid, stupid. Surely, XTM knows that the freelancers who use XTM to do jobs that agencies send them are going to be two, three or four levels down the line, so the translator's "device" is always going to be some other device (and not the device that the original client is on).

So, when I click "Authorize your device", I get this:

error message 2

...and we all know what is meant by "your email". Right, it is not the translator's e-mail, but one of the upstream agencies' project manager's email.

So, upon clicking this option to authorize the device, some other guy gets a message with a link to click. According to my client, it is not sufficient for that guy to just click the link -- no, the link must be clicked on the device that is being authorized, which means that that guy has to forward the link to the next guy, and then he has to forward it to my client, who then has to forward it to me. And apparently this link must be clicked within a minute or two, otherwise the link expires. So we all have to coordinate to ensure that we're all available at the same time, and what are the odds that kind of alignment?

Such idiocy. I (and my client, but they can afford it) have wasted two hours on this. (By "two hours" I mean that I had to stay at my computer and not have the freedom to do something else with my time while we wait for this problem to be sorted out.)

What terrible lapse of judgment it must have been to have resulted in "authorized device" to be programmed into a freelancers' web-based CAT tool.

Samuel


[Edited at 2021-03-31 16:23 GMT]


Dan Lucas
Marina Steinbach
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Jean Dimitriadis
Elena Feriani
Darius Sciuka
Mr. Satan (X)
 
Edward Potter
Edward Potter  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:17
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
XTM Apr 1, 2021

Thanks for the heads up.

I haven't used this platform yet but I agree that there is a major problem if translators downstream can't log in quickly and easily.

Have the software developers been notified?


 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
Wild guess Apr 1, 2021

Did they maybe just skimp on the proper license and pay for something that ISN'T actually supposed to provide access to 3rd party contractors?

 
Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Can you not spoof it? Apr 1, 2021

What does it use to verify a particular device being used is indeed the registered one? Browser user agent is fairly easy to spoof.

Although if it's IP based and the license holder is not using a VPN (i.e. actual IP address assigned by their ISP) then that idea is busted.


 
Inna Borymova
Inna Borymova  Identity Verified
Kyrgyzstan
Member (2013)
English to Russian
+ ...
Strange Apr 1, 2021

I worked in XTM last week (for the first time) and was not asked to pass authorization.
I was provided credentials and could work only in turn with the proofreader and the PM.
Moreover, I logged in from two different devices.
So I think that you had to contact the agency.


 
Miranda Drew
Miranda Drew  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 11:17
Member (2009)
Italian to English
Nothing about XTM has been designed for translators Apr 2, 2021

XTM seems to be basically a PM's file management tool. It lacks so so many basic features for translating that it is really impossible to use....

Darius Sciuka
Angie Garbarino
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 11:17
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@ Apr 2, 2021

Inna Borymova wrote:
I worked in XTM last week (for the first time) and was not asked to pass authorization. ... Moreover, I logged in from two different devices.


Edward Potter wrote:
Thanks for the heads up.


It's not really meant as a heads up, though. I've been using XTM for a number of years, and this is the first time that this problem has occurred. So it's probably just some setting in the tool that some paranoid client confused with 2-factor authentication.

Adieu wrote:
Did they maybe just skimp on the proper license and pay for something that ISN'T actually supposed to provide access to 3rd party contractors?


I've done XTM projects for this agency before, but the error message (obscured in the screenshots) mentions an upstream client that I have not yet worked for via this particular agency. I have done work for that upstream client in the past, via various routes, although I don't think I've ever done any XTM jobs for them yet. They are a major player.

Miranda Drew wrote:
XTM seems to be basically a PM's file management tool. It lacks so so many basic features for translating that it is really impossible to use....


I wouldn't go as far as that. XTM can be quite useful, if set up correctly. Once we were finally able to log in, I was able to use the XLIFF export and do the translation in my own CAT tool. I think the agency just below the upper upstream agency created a mail rule in their own mail program that allowed me to receive the notification mail in my own inbox within seconds after XTM sent it. So, it's easy to circumvent this functionality -- although it is cumbersome for an hour or two if you weren't expecting it.


 
Stepan Konev
Stepan Konev  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 13:17
English to Russian
Seems ok Apr 2, 2021

I just logged into XTM 3 minutes ago using credentials from an intermediary translation agency. No problem detected.

 
XTM Intl
XTM Intl
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:17
Your experience with the device authorization option Apr 7, 2021

Samuel Murray wrote:

...and we all know what is meant by "your email". Right, it is not the translator's e-mail, but one of the upstream agencies' project manager's email.
So, upon clicking this option to authorize the device, some other guy gets a message with a link to click.



[Edited at 2021-03-31 16:23 GMT]


Hi Samuel,

thanks for sharing your experience in this post. I'd like to understand with you what may have happened.
First I'd like to clarify that this is an optional setting that the Administrator can make (on the XTM instance where the PM has assigned the task to you). It can be extended to all users or just apply to specific user roles. This is an option to authorize the device and the browser where you would use XTM Cloud. Once you get the link, you can open it in all browsers where you intend to use with XTM Cloud on your device.
This is a one-time action.
The reason why you haven't seen it in the past is most likely because your client or LSP assigning the tasks to you didn't have this option selected for their users.

What is not supposed to happen is that the email is not sent to you. The only reason for this could be that when your user was created, for some reason it was not linked to your own email address. If that's the case, that would be a process-related matter that you would have to clarify with your PM.

I encourage you to reach out to our Support team in case you should have similar issues in the future and you shouldn't be able to find the root cause with your client. We will be happy to help!

Kind regards,

Sara Basile
Product Manager
XTM International Ltd
www.xtm.cloud


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 11:17
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Sara Apr 7, 2021

XTM Intl wrote:
What is not supposed to happen is that the email is not sent to you. The only reason for this could be that when your user was created, for some reason it was not linked to your own email address.


I'd say 99% of clients for whom I do work in online CAT tools do not make me (or let me) use my own e-mail address or name for the login. They either create a username or e-mail address for me (or: for a particular job) on their system (or: in Gmail) or they make me use a floating e-mail address or username (i.e. one that already exists and which may be tied to one of their PMs). In this particular case, I had to log in with two separate users, and both of them bore the name of one of the PMs.

From your comment I assume that XTM expected most translators who use XTM via an agency to be using it with their own personal e-mail address. Perhaps others here can say whether such a thing is common.


[Edited at 2021-04-07 16:11 GMT]


Kaspars Melkis
 
Kaspars Melkis
Kaspars Melkis  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:17
English to Latvian
+ ...
It happened to me Apr 7, 2021

Samuel Murray wrote:
From your comment I assume that XTM expected most translators who use XTM via an agency to be using it with their own personal e-mail address. Perhaps others here can say whether such a thing is common.


On several occasions I had to wait until the PM approves my device/browser to work in XTM system. It is really very inconvenient because I have 2 devices and switch them for convenience whenever I want (e.g., when working from the library). Instead of finishing my job in timely manner I had unexpected wait until PM wakes up in a different timezone.

I stopped working on XTM projects altogether as it was not worth my time.


 
beronike
beronike
Spain
Local time: 11:17
English to Spanish
+ ...
It won't happen everyday, but it will happen someday Oct 15, 2021

It has happened to me several times, not always.

The agencies have several credentials that are shared among different translators.
One day I use the credentials, and the next day another translator uses the same credentials on a different computer.
The big issue comes if two or more translators are using the same credentials for different jobs.
I was being kicked out of the platform. I asked the PM, and apparently, I was also kicking someone else from it because w
... See more
It has happened to me several times, not always.

The agencies have several credentials that are shared among different translators.
One day I use the credentials, and the next day another translator uses the same credentials on a different computer.
The big issue comes if two or more translators are using the same credentials for different jobs.
I was being kicked out of the platform. I asked the PM, and apparently, I was also kicking someone else from it because we both were trying to work with the same credentials at the same time.
But yes, I believe this "security feature" should be removed because it only causes hassle.
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What a colossal waste of time... device not authorized






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