Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with techsupport

Help me give better technical support

d. z. wang — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:31:11 -0800

When did you have a great interaction with technical support, and what did the technician do to make the experience better? In-person encounters preferred, but call-ins also welcomed. I'd like to improve my tech support "bedside manner" by collecting anecdotes about people doing it right. Try to explain what the technician did and why you appreciated it. Bonus points if you are yourself very knowledgeable or very ignorant, and the technician was able to accommodate that.

Please exclude institutional aspects, because I can't really do anything about that.

If you have a really instructive example of someone doing it wrong in a very common way, and nobody has previously mentioned it, feel free to post that too. I would, however, prefer that this thread focus on the positive.

What will Apple replace my computer with?

pianohands — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:29:25 -0800

Will Apple be replacing my 2 yr old Macbook Pro with a totally new machine? I've had my Macbook Pro for two years at college and had nothing but problems with it. It was fine for a year, and then had a string of hardware problems that resulted in me bringing it in five times to the apple store for various different reasons. The sixth time must've been the charm, because the folks at the Apple store said they would replace my computer with a new one. I won't be getting it for a week because I bought it through school, so I'm getting one configured by school. Does anyone know if Apple will be giving me a new model Macbook or if it'll be a refurbished two year old model?

Is the excuse Verizon just gave me for why we keep losing dial tone plausible?

ook — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:51:43 -0800

Three times this month: we lose dial tone. We call to complain. Their automated system runs an automated "line test," which fixes the problem. Is the excuse Verizon just gave me for why we this keeps happening plausible? Their customer service representative claims this is because "there's a short in one of your telephones that knocks out the line" and recommends we go through a debugging process of removing them one at a time every time the line goes out to see which it is.

I don't know enough about how the phone system works to be able to judge whether this is a reasonable thing to suggest, or if they've sent me on a long goose-chase just to get me off the support line.

Do any of you?

Does Not Compute

owtytrof — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:13:06 -0800

Please help me diagnose this PC issue. Long story inside. I cannot pin down exactly what's wrong with my PC. Here's what I've gone through so far:

The PCI-eX16 slot on my motherboard died. On-board video worked, but my current and previous video cards had no video output. I replaced the motherboard and also the case because my old case was getting pretty busted.

After I got the PC running again, there would be graphic corruption and freezing when running The Sims 3. I noticed an occasional loud click followed by a few seconds of silence when accessing one of my hard drives. Crap. I hastily backed up everything on there that wasn't already, removed the drive from the system, and reinstalled Windows on my other drive.

Since then I'm getting intermittent freezing. No blue screens or restarts, the system just hard locks. Sometimes, but not every time, when this happens, there won't be any video output after restarting. When this happens, un- and re-plugging the power cord restores the video output. No graphic corruption this time. Here are the most common situations where it has locked up:
Playing The Sims 3(other games may produce the same result, I haven't tried)
Burning an audio cd
Reading some video dvds, does not seem title specific - the same DVD may be read one time and freeze the next

Otherwise, I've left the machine up and running for days at a time with no problem, unless I try to do the above actions. Reading data DVDs or audio/data CDs, and burning data DVDs or data CDs works fine.

I ran memtest86+ overnight(about 6.5 hours) on Thursday, which completed 10 full tests and returned no errors. Last night I ran prime95 for about 2 hours, ran The Sims 3 for about 30 - 45 minutes using a save with a large family and a lot going on, rebooted using the Ultimate Boot CD and ran the CPU stress test for about 3 hours before deciding to launch prime95 again and go to bed. This morning when I got up, I turned the monitor back on and the machine had frozen about 15 minutes after I went to bed. I had a temp monitoring program running that showed the CPU temp at 52C when it froze. I also kept an eye on it when running The Sims 3 earlier in the evening and it never exceeded 55C, which is warm but not extreme. The GPU never exceeded 65C, which is well under the 100+C max temp the manufacturer has on the specs.

Specs:
ASUS M3N72-D motherboard
AMD Athlon 64X2 5000+
2 gig Corsair XMS pc6400 RAM
160 IDE Samsun HDD
640 eSATA external storage
IDE TSSCorp DVD burner
eVGA NVidia GeForce 9600GSO 512MB
450W PSU
Viewsonic 19" widescreen LCD
nothing is overclocked

Any suggestions are welcome.

Suggestions for Online Support Chat Application

Lord Widebottom — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:56:27 -0800

My company is looking at adding a "chat with tech support online" feature from our support website. I have dug around on the intertubes and found a lot of marketing material, but would like to know if any folks here have experience with implementing that kind of product and are willing to make recommendations.

Our Requirements are fairly simple: It has to be hosted on site (so no external providers), and has to integrate with IIS. Any suggestions?

Digital Immunodeficiency Disorder?

Rhaomi — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:44:21 -0800

My laptop's been infected by something that is interfering with all the usual solutions. Please help! After the recent hacking attempt that brought down Mefi, I scanned my laptop for any problems it may have picked up from it. AVG detected one threat, a trojan, which it promptly deleted. But that wasn't quick enough, apparently.

Now, my Windows XP setup is exhibiting weird behavior all around, and everything I've tried to do to fix it has been blocked. Here are all the symptoms:

Firewall - was originally turned off; I'm not sure for how long. I've since turned it back on.

Security software - AVG isn't detecting anything, but there's obviously something still wrong. Attempting to update the virus database throws an error. Most troubling, I cannot install the newest version of AVG as its website is blocked. Ditto for all the other major antivirus vendors -- trying to access their websites results in a page error.

Tech support sites - Same as above. Something is blocking all attempts to connect to the major tech help sites. I knew enough to check my hosts file, but can see no problems there. At least AskMe still works...

Google search - Searching Google for solutions leads to a standard results page. But when I click on a result, instead of going to the relevant page, it opens up a new tab and goes to a random spam site. This happens on Yahoo and other search sites as well. I can still get to the page I want by copying the URL and pasting, but it's slowing me down. And of course any link that points to a support site won't work.

Other browsers - I'd been using Firefox 3 up to this point, so I tried the other browsers on my system on the off chance they'd work better. No luck -- Google Chrome refuses to connect to *any* website, and Internet Explorer crashes immediately after launching.

System Restore - fed up with all the problems, I tried to roll back my system to a point before the infection. But to my great surprise, all the old system restore points have been deleted.

So to sum up: AV software is borked, security and support sites are blocked, searching is hampered, and I can't go back to an older system configuration. Any ideas?

PS: I know you are not my tech support, but like I said, all the more dedicated help sites I'd normally consult have been disappeared. Thanks for your time and patience!

I like scrambled eggs, not scrambled files.

WidgetAlley — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:45:13 -0800

Through a long series of circumstances, I need to reencode my entire .mp3 music collection. I would like to reencode them at the same bitrate, but am getting very strange results when I do. Please help! I am using Easy CD-DA Extractor for this, and am confused on two points:

First and foremost, when I click to "Properties>Summary>Details" on Windows Explorer, a significant portion of my .mp3s are showing up as in bitrates not supported by Easy CD-DA Extractor, such as "194 kbits/s" rather than 192. Is this some weirdness on the part of my .mp3s, or do I simply need to get a better program than the free trial version of Easy CD-DA?

Secondly, when I reencode at these lower rates, the audio is completely scrambled, or sometimes sped up. I know that reencoding at a lower or higher rate affects quality, but I didn't think it had such drastic effects.

In other words, what am I doing wrong, how do I fix it, and is it even possible to reencode these files at the same bitrate?

Does the Blackberry 8310 curve's browser have a maximum password length?

bofe — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:42:35 -0800

Does the Blackberry 8310 curve's browser have a maximum password length? One of our users has a BB8310 and claims he cannot get into an application we support that has a 12 character password.

He says it stops him at 10 characters. Size for the field is = 10 , but maxlength isn't.

Can't post the HTML to metafilter, there is no maxlength set, but the size="10".

I don't have a BB available to test with, so I figured I'd query the hive mind.

Are there any remote help companies that I could earn residual income for by signing people up for their service?

schindyguy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:38:07 -0800

Are there any remote help companies that I could earn residual income for by signing people up for their service? (not just disguised as a BS affiliate program) I currently have 15-20 clients that are basically computer illiterate and they pay me 80/hr (or sometimes flat rates for certain things) to do on-site stuff like memory upgrades, setting up new computers, backing up to a new hard drive, wireless networking… Of course I also get all the software problems like spyware, viruses, how to crop and reduce redeye in a picture, where did all my email go, etc…

For things that I can get done remotely, I have installed the free version of LogMeIn on their computer and I can fix their problem if they are connected to the internet. Ideally, I would like to not do the problem solving with the remote connection but find some company, resource, or team of techs that I can the farm the job to. I could set my clients up on a monthly plan (somewhere from 30-50 bucks with a limit of the amount of time spent; anything over it would be more) and earn residuals for getting more accounts. I could still do all the onsite stuff, but the spyware, software, configuration, basic computer problems could be solved by others remotely.

I have looked into LogMeIn’s Rescue program that allows someone like myself to create an IT helpdesk with “instant remote support to customers and employees.” It costs 99/month if I pay for a year and 129/month if I go month to month. I have found this company who is actually using Rescue to be doing what I want to do, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be willing to give me residuals for sending people their way (I have contacted them with no response yet).

There is also the competing GoToAssist Beta which is currently free and would only cost $48 a month or $462 a year once it launches. But once again, these are just the software backbones of how the network would work, not the people/techs to power it. This link gives some more good ideas on the backbone. Also BigLankyBastard’s answer on this askmefi was pretty insightful, but doesn’t answer my questions.

I have also researched companies like Zolved, Crossloop, MyComputerWorks, SupportSpace and PlumChoice. There are problems with each, however. For example, MyComputerWorks affiliate program gives you $100 for each person you refer, no residuals at all. In any case, I would basically need to create a team on one of these networks (available 24/7) that service my client base if they ever needed help. Then I could pay them (maybe on a retainer) or by the amount of time they worked. Most of these networks have “helpers” that could solve these common problems that my clients have, I just don’t know a way to make it work. I have even thought about contacting some of the top “helpers” on the network and asking them this same question I am asking you guys. I am stuck…

Of course there are issues of reliability (someone being available at all times), privacy (making sure they don’t snoop thru files), and possible screwing up the computer worse than it was to start. Although I don’t really think I would have these problems if I went with one of those companies that have helpers because they have a feedback system that rates the helpers (or in other cases large companies have their reputation/name on the line as well).

Thanks for the hives time…

Mojave's just another word for BSOD

catlet — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:52:54 -0800

VistaFilter: Since installing Service Pack 1, I have had multiple crashes, many of which generate the message "Host process for Windows services has stopped working," cause a BlueScreen error, and reboot. When I attempted to uninstall SP1, Stage 1 got to 98% and then I got the message "Service Pack did not uninstall. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer." This stayed up for about 30 minutes; after it rebooted itself, things appear to be OK (for now, anyway). HP Pavilion desktop dual-core system (model a6120n), 2GB memory, Vista Home Premium. Until SP1, this system was a reliable little gem, but now it crashes a couple times a day. I'd love to know what's keeping SP1 from uninstalling (is it the other service updates that Windows Update pushes? is it a corrupted block somewhere?) and whether I can get it uninstalled at all, or if it is something else that's causing these host process failures. Please, hivemind Vista gurus, help a girl out.

I will defrag again and do some disk cleanup while awaiting assistance from the green. Thanks in advance!

What does someone who wants to be an entrepreneur do after college?

schindyguy — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:59:18 -0800

I am trying to figure out what do with my life after college for money and in general. I have a couple ideas like remote tech support and web development, please give me your wise advice (very long explanation) After reading lifehacker.com’s “ask metafilter roundup” several times over the last year, I decided last week to actually become a part of this great community (or aka as the hive, right?). I spent my $5 to get on here and want to introduce myself and ask for a little guidance from those wiser than me. After just graduating summa cum laude from the U of Arizona with a marketing/business degree in May, I am now in limbo between partying and real life. I used to be able to drink, get high, drink some more and stay up until 7 AM doing nothing, but now I feel my life should start. I have now moved back in with my two wonderful roommates (mom and dad) to my hometown in Los Angeles (Calabasas… if your unfamiliar with the area: known for Incubus, the Menendez brothers, Will Smith, Howie Mandel, reality shows like Jessica Simpson’s, Denise Richard’s, and the Kardashians). There are a lot more celebrities and powerful people that live and have lived here, but I won’t dwell on that because I don’t think you really care . As I digress, my point is that everyone I live around is very successful (in terms of money).

I have always been motivated by making money (especially on the internet); when I was 12 I first opened up a website selling turbo antenna boosters for FREE (with 4.95 shipping and handling—hope none of you fell for that). It was a great little scheme until the popularity of those things died out (making 5k when I was 12 was amazing). Then I moved on to selling U.S. car flags on eBay immediately following 9/11 (made some nice cash there too). I can relate a lot to another’s post (which I can’t find right now) about having everyone around me think that I was going to cure cancer or start the next Google by the age of 21. My family and friends all still believe that I am going to be the next Bill Gates and its hard for those thoughts to escape my head because I have been so brainwashed by them.

Anyway, my main business has been credit card processing for last year. It earns me some good residual income, nothing that I am proud of, but it covers some very minimal expenses. I plan on working very little on that, just supporting the service for current clients and adding others from WOM. It’s a side thing for me.

So after reading through this post I realized I could really benefit from setting up a similar service myself. I do computer support for about 15-20 family and other clients (they are always asking me if they can recommend me to others, but I say no because I am too busy with other things). I usually install the free LogMeIn on their computer and they call me up when they have a problem. I get $80/hour which seems very high in comparison to the poster’s proposed rates. However, unlike the poster, I would rather get a virtual team together that could log into my client’s computers and fix whatever basic computer problem they have (they should be shifts that will allow 24/7 support). I haven’t worked out the pricing, but somewhere around 20 bucks/month for a certain amount of time spent for help (spyware, MS word problem, printing pictures, installing drivers; anything over that specific amount of time would be more money hourly). I know “LogMeIn’s Rescue” could allow my clients to click on & be able to connect with someone on my team that can solve basic computer problems (the problem is that Rescue is expensive at $200/month which might be nothing in the future but is significant now). Crossloop has what’s called helpers in their network but I don’t know how it would be configured to work properly. There is also GoToAssist (Express Beta) which is currently free and does what I would want it to do, but will eventually cost money. If I went with LogMeIn or GoToAssist, I don’t know where to find qualified techs to be online and available 24/7. This post gives a lot more examples of software to use, but I dont know how I could get that team together. Eventually and down the road,
I would like to do 0% of the actual computer fixing
Oversee customer service/acquisition of new contracts/handle accounting
Have my virtual team be available 24/7 for 100% of my client base.

I have also been making money doing web development off and on for the last 10 years (since turbo antenna). No programming or writing code but using Dreamweaver and templates. I am at the point now where I would like to just be able to middle man the situation and get competent and qualified people together into teams to get these projects done when people ask me. For instance, I have this hotel owner in New York that needs a redesign of his site to include virtual tours, videos, a reservations system, and clone the look and feel of delano-hotel.com website. So if I charge the owner $4000 for the site, I would like to get it done for around $2500 (35% profit). In essence, my profit could be attributed to acquiring the client (finders fee), figuring out the scope of the project and its requirements (alongside developer), drawing up a proposal, handling correspondence/updates with client and team, and payments. I even posted a job on metafilter for this a couple days ago but no hits yet.

Mainly I am looking to put together a team(s) that can get any type of web programming done (web 2.0 design, CSS standards /compatibility testing, backend programming, flash programming…everything) Like if they aren’t the best at doing it, they know the best or a very qualified person to get that part of it done. I have talked to several startup owners like popdeck.com, rocknclothing.com, branders.com and they all told me about Indian development (which may fit my needs or may not). I have looked to online freelance sites (getafreelancer, guru, odesk, elance). Im not sure if Im too critical, but the quality of work and logic doesn’t seem to be there (common sense stuff). I am thinking of a project team that has maybe a manager, designer, variety of programmers, and tester that I can just give a task to and they will complete it. Maybe I should have a couple different teams that could accomplish different aspects; like one team for design, one for programming, and one for testing. Or maybe it needs to be divided along programming types. Most of those Indian guys act like they are one-stop shop solution for web development; they are the best at programming flash and the best at developing a iPhone app and they are also the best designers (and then they show me a mock of their site built in frames/tables). But at the same time I am open to having it programmed overseas if the quality is good and the client will be happy. I am sure that someone in the U.S. knows of good developers overseas and has good enough logic/communication skills to take my input and turn it into something good.

So to wrap this long rambling post about my current life situation:

What path do you think I should take? Should I try putting together the remote support team, the web development team, or stick with the credit card thing? I clearly can’t put 100% into everything.

How should I go about putting together these teams?

What suggestions do you have for current situation I am in?

Thanks for your time and once again sorry for the long post.

Help my father troubleshoot a pesky virus.

micawber — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:37:54 -0800

ParentTechSupportFilter: My father has a virus. *sigh* before I send him to Geek Squad, what else should I tell him to do that he hasn't done already? I don't know how this virus arrived. A sibling suggested blame being cast in the direction of my mother, who probably downloaded something she shouldn't have. Note that my father uninstalled his virus software because he felt it slowed his machine down. *sigh again* He is running XP.

That said, my father has done pretty well: he booted up in safe mode, he removed the offending program. He tried to install the Yahoo (i guess there's Yahoo internet now? heck if i know) antivirus, but his computer tells him he already has virus software installed. He called Norton tech support and they talked him through various uninstall scenarios, and ultimately said what my first response was - it's in the registry.

My father went into the registry and 1) found the virus there and 2) couldn't see anything from Norton or McAfee.

Now it's in my hands.

I am not far from him but really don't want to waste a saturday on this, mostly because my father is extremely unpleasant in these situations. plus i don't know that i can actually help him any more. what else should i be looking for or asking? what else can i tell him to do - besides wipe the machine and start over, which he will absolutely NOT do?

I feel like an Apple in a pigs mouth!

Xurando — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:35:21 -0800

How can I get Apple to REALLY fix my computer? (Previously) A week ago today I was uograding my Macbook Pro to OSX 10.5.4 and it wouldn't boot up. Since then the following has happened and my computer is still very borked.

1. Called Applecare, used leopard install disk to reinstall, following Applecare e-mail, drag files from previous system to user. Restart, screen goes grey won't reboot.
2. call Applecare again, 2 techs tell me my hard drive is borked and it will cost me several $1000 to retrieve my data.
3. Go to Applestore. Genius cowboy works on computer for an hour, restores desktop. While waiting for trash to empty tells me he is going to lunch. His coworker gets me out of root user but doesn't reboot computer
4. On train to NYC, boot up computer, doesn't boot, get grey screen with flashing folder and ? Call Applecare. techs tell me my hard drive is borked will cost me several thousand dollars to retrieve data. Do repair hard drive fix permissions. Computer doesn't boot
5.Back to Apple store. Told by phone they will back-up data for $50 and that computer needs new hard drive.
6. Back to Apple store. Told computer is fixed, no charge.
7. Take computer home boot up. It looks like a burglar has trashed my house. My leopard is gone, I'm back in Tiger, Safari won't work. Half my dock items have ? and are missing. Half my pictures in lightroom are missing along with a catalogue. Mozilla won't download. Trash won't work.
8. Reinstall Leopard but nothing really works. Apple says they will give me one free hour of tech support at my local dealer, not store.

Help, I want to make these jokers fix my computer right. What should I be doing?

How to Run A Business Providing Freelance Home Tech Support?

kandinski — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:36:01 -0800

How to Run A Business Providing Freelance Home Tech Support? I am a freelance writer working from home (my schedule is my own) starting to get cabin fever. Having recently arrived in Melbourne, Australia, I mostly work for my old contacts in Spain. The downside to this is some social isolation and odd working hours.

So I am considering opening a sideline in home tech support that will give me an excuse to get out of the house and meet people professionally, as well as a way to diversify/increase my income and work during the daytime. And to do something that I enjoy.

Yes, I enjoy home tech support. True, so far I have only done it for friends and family members, but I have done everything and anything your home user and SOHO worker needs: data recovery, network installation, whitebox PC hardware troubleshooting, spyware delousing... I am a happy Debian/Ubuntu user, but I still remember enough of Windows (my last data recovery being only two months ago, and still using Windows for gaming), and I would not mind to have an excuse to buy at least a Mac Mini and learn about Mac OSX.

But... I don't know anything about doing Home/SOHO Tech Support as a business. I am guessing the tech side is like for family, only charging money. But how much, and what for, and to whom, and how to manage it?

Please add more questions you think I am missing if you have a good answer to them:

Rates: How much should I charge? Should I charge per incident? Per visit? A flat hourly rate? A retainer so I have a fixed income?

Services: Should I post a detailed list of services, or just say "I do tech"? Most importantly, how could I as a single guy working from home differentiate myself from the competition?

Customer acquisition: At first I would like to test the waters by doing word-of-mouth and posting bills at local shops and cafes. I don't own a car, so I would only work for clients within reach of cycle or public transportation, say, within 45 minutes of where I live (this is a wide swathe of my city, but it has a funny shape).

Business management: someone asked about this already (looking for freelance computer tech support software), but they used Windows and I am now a happy Linuxer. If you run a comparable business on Linux, how do you run your business?

Ticket system that runs off emails

c:\awesome — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:57:33 -0800

Is there a good ticket/support/bug management system that builds a queue out of incoming emails? e.g. user sends an email to support@software.com; the management system receives the email, adds the body to a queue where I can assign it, add updates, mark as done, and do all the other normal ticket system things with.

Do I fix my sister's iMac?

hellojed — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:02:50 -0800

I can fix my sister's iMac, but she doesn't want me to. Do I go behind her back and get it running again? My sister moved back for the summer and brought along her school computer, an Intel iMac running OSX 10.4. About a week ago it did not boot. The computer will hang on the gray progress screen, but it won't get to the operating system.

She did her best to troubleshoot the issue. She reset the PRAM and the PMU to no success, and has concluded the issue must be "hardware related" and wants to ship it to Apple and get it repaired.

However, I took it upon myself to troubleshoot the computer. I got Knoppix (Version of Linux) up and running on it, and the hardware seems to be working. (Unless knoppix has some mystical voodoo shit going on and can bring stuff back from the dead). My mac friends recommend using the gray disk to use the "Disk First Aid" utility, which I could do in five minutes. There are other options I can work on if that doesn't work. (Unless one of you mac geniuses have better ideas)

She works full time, and I have plenty of time off to do this. The thing is that when I offered to help she refused, even though I troubleshoot computers on a regular basis. Hell, when I broght it up she all but snapped at me as if to say "How dare you dirty my computer with your filthy hands, you don't know what you're doing."

Her solution is to ship it off to Apple and wait 4 weeks for some tech to do it. It's covered under Apple-Care, so I think she only pays to ship it.

Do I fix it myself under her nose and "surprise" her with a functioning computer? Or was I out of bounds for troubleshooting it in the first place?

"We know more than you" just doesn't cut it

waraw — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:15:50 -0800

Please help with slogan ideas for my technical support team. I work for a small satellite internet company, in the Tech Support department. I'd like to increase our sense of being a team by making some t-shirts just for us, but I am blanking on a slogan, and would appreciate some outside input.

A good slogan for us would express the following, in decreasing order of importance: 1) We love helping our customers 2) We know what we're doing 3) Our team is awesome. Including some reference to satellite internet (or teh intarwebs in general) would be nice.

How do I buy the right laptop battery when all the sites tell me I need something different?

kingjoeshmoe — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:07:05 -0800

Help my buy a new laptop battery! I recognize that I should be able to figure this out myself. My laptop battery looks like its dying (battery light constantly flashing, and it won't charge), and I want to buy a replacement. There are many battery stores out there that will tell me what battery I need for my computer. The problem is, they all give me different answers! Voltage numbers are slightly off (some are 10.8, others 11.1), as are size ratios. Is that because they're all right, and all will work, or do none of them know what they're talking about?

My computer is an IBM Thinkpad T43 1871.

Lenovo tells me to get this one, but it doesn't explicitly say it works for the T43, just for the T40 series, and they don't have my particular T43 in there (they start at 1872).

Random site 1 tells me either this or this will work. Note the voltage differences between these and Lenovo.

Random site 2 tells me to get this. You get the idea.

Please help me.

Help Desk Remote Support Software Experiences

enfa — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:56:15 -0800

Experiences with remote desktop software for help desk troubleshooting? I've used a few variations of VNC, and Remote Desktop, but our organization that supports a 20k+ users base running every networkable OS is looking for something with a little more ooomph. The nice wikipedia comparison chart has been helpful. I'm looking into NTRGlobal at the moment - care to share your experiences with this or related software? Ideally, the perfect software would:

Work on XP and Vista - OS X would be a nice bonus

Have built in encryption that wouldn't require a separate firewall

Be crazy simple to install on the client end (and be easy to uninstall, too)

Allow the client to see what is going on while the tech is working

Allow the client to easily disconnect the session at any time

Require the client to initiate or at least confirm the connection is OK before the technician can connect

Log the technician's session for later playback

Be nimble enough to work through assorted firewalls

Make it very difficult for anyone other than the intended technician to connect to the client's machine

Keep our security department from yelling at us

Thoughts? What has worked for you?

Install older Bioware games on a brand new Mac?

jeff-o-matic — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:25:26 -0800

Can anyone help me with installing older Bioware games (BG2, NWN and expansions) on a new Mac Powerbook? I've got a brand new Intel Powerbook (2.4Ghz, 4G of RAM, OSX 10.5.1).

I also have some old games that I'd like to install on it, specifically Baldur's Gate 2 (and Throne of Bhaal) and Neverwinter Nights (and its 2 expansions).

I can't get any of them to work.

NWN installs all the way to the end of the first disc, then says there was an error, do I want to try again? Well, I've tried, and I've poked around on Bioware's site and can't find anything that helps.

Baldur's Gate 2 is another can of worms. I finally read that I need to do a minimum install, which I did. According to the info, I should do a minimum istall off the first disc, then do a full install on the remaining three discs. Well, I can get the first one installed, but then there's no option to 'choose' full install on the second disc.

Last night, I was able to do a minimum install of all the discs, and was able to play the game. I played for a while, and saved. Today, I launch the game and it asks for disc 2. I insert disc 2 and after a long pause, it quits.

I realize this is a long shot, but reading the various forums for these games and not finding the answers --- yet reading posts from people who are playing on newer machines --- I figure there HAS to be a way.

Any help is appreciated... especially the kind of help that will lead to me being able to play these nerdy old games. Thanks.

How can I convince people not to buy HP?

scission — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:44:14 -0800

How can I give a company a lot of bad publicity? I am a bitter customer who wants other people to reconsider before buying from HP. In the past 2.5 years, I've bought two laptops - one HP, one Compaq. Although I was able to replace my original laptop through Best Buy's lemon policy, I had defect-related problems with my Compaq after the regular one-year manufacturer's warranty.

My customer service experiences with HP have been extremely poor. Although their representatives are polite, they have made errors at nearly every step of the way, from getting my name and address incorrect to failing to take any action until I call them again a week later.

I haven't been documenting every instance, but I have email records and approximate dates. I had thought that official interactions would be tracked in their own databases; however, when I referred to an official request I made in October, they claimed that nothing had happened since August.

Obviously I am not planning to purchase from them again. I will be doing more research into companies' customer service reputations before I buy another computer. Is there anything else I can do? Should I join a consumer opinion site or start a blog?

To top it off, I bought the Compaq from CompUSA. So much for that 3-year warranty...

Browser makes incorrect requests.

Yogurt — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:57:07 -0800

My browsers frequently try to load the wrong page. They invent web addresses based on other open pages. What's happening? I don't think it's spyware. For example, in trying to load Ask.Mefi, Firefox tried to load http://www.metafilter.com/content/themes/onion/style/tabber.css (I had recently closed The Onion). I'll sometimes get CSS templates or favicos instead of the page I'm looking for. Generally, the third refresh loads the page properly.

This happens in Firefox 2.0.0.9 (safe mode and normal) and IE 6. I haven't noticed problems with other Internet programs. Multiple spyware scans reveal nothing. Other computers connected to the same router are fine. I've reinstalled Firefox. My system is Windows XP SP2.

I miss my monkey

SansPoint — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:07:20 -0800

Why did Greasemonkey stop working? For some reason, no Greasemonkey scripts on my Mac running BonEcho (G4 Optimized Firefox) 2.0.0.8 actually get applied. None.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the extension, selectively disabling extensions, etc. No luck. Help!

Help me add to my tech support skills.

fenriq — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:43:30 -0800

What are the core tech support skills needed to work in a school district and how can I improve those skills this weekend? I'm interviewing with the local school district next week for a site computer tech support position the includes both computer support and instruction. It requires knowledge of both Macs and PCs (though the school I'd be working at is all Mac), networking, wireless, end user support and a whole bunch of other stuff. I have the Mac side covered without fear but I'm a bit rusty on the PC stuff. I will be practicing on my wife's PC to get some rust off but could use some additional help for sure.

I've read previous AskMe threads that touch on tech support skills but none have been explicitly what I need.

I'd love a site that can walk me through tutorials and expand my knowledge if possible. But really, I'd love any insights to help get me through the multiple layers of testing and interviewing.

The first written test is on Monday followed by a hands-on on Tuesday.

Repairing a whining iBook?

Marquis — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:49:05 -0800

[Ohgodno!Filter] My iBook G4 has for months been making a weird sound when I move it, but today something in the vicinity of the hard-drive has started to make a sharp rhythmic whine/scrape when the laptop is tilted. Is there any hope other than bringing it into the shop? For several months now my computer's made a whirring sound in the lower left quadrant, usually when I'm hefting the thing around - lifting it in and out of its case, carrying it. Basically when it's swinging in the air and not flat on a desk/lap. It's a weirdly pendulum-like sound, like something's weighted not quite right and so the hardware's moving a bit.

Today -- panic. I picked up the computer to go and do some writing at a cafe and when I held it under my arm it began to make this severe, rhythmic (ie, every few seconds) bark/whine/scrape sound, amidst the usual whirr. And then it just abruptly shut off.

I was able to reboot the machine, and things are fine as it sits here on my lap, but when I lift or tilt the machine I hear that familiar, gravitationally-variable whirr/buzz, and eventually the sharp/fast "zzzzzirr!" that sounds really broken.

I ran Disk Utility and the disk turns up fine. I'm just assuming it's a problem with the drive hardware because it's coming from southwest of the keyboard.

Anyone have any ideas for fixes? I'll take it in if I have to but both the cost and lack-of-computer access would be particularly inopportune right now. Could it just be a matter of a loose screw or something? If so, any simple instructions exist for getting in there and tightening it?

I am relatively technically competent; certainly enough so to not be afraid of opening my iBook up (though I can't figure out how to get any deeper than the keyboard/airport card), but I am not a hardware geek and don't know what anything is or what it does unless a website tells me explicitly so.

Thank you!