I also ask “what have you tried so far” mostly because too many times I get into troubleshooting and then discover that they’ve created a new problem while doing their own troubleshooting. (Like one time they plugged in a second cable between two switches - good god was that hard to troubleshoot remotely)
Teach a child to fish, basically.
If we keep making it easy for them… Ask and I’ll give you all the answers… They’ll never learn.
My first response these days is, “What have you tried so far?” And, “What are you searching for in ‘Google’?”
I also ask “what have you tried so far” mostly because too many times I get into troubleshooting and then discover that they’ve created a new problem while doing their own troubleshooting. (Like one time they plugged in a second cable between two switches - good god was that hard to troubleshoot remotely)