Bored at work.

September 4, 2006 1:07 PM

I've started a new job doing tech support for an ISP and have quite a lot of downtime between calls. What can I do on the internet that will make me smarter and/or better at my job?

We're allowed to use the internet (within reason), but instead of just reading Wired or The Register or whatever, I'd like to focus more on techy sites that I can work through and learn from at my own pace. Maybe sites that have mini-courses or good overviews of new technology. Right now I'm just typing random words into Wikipedia, but I'd like something more structured. Thanks!

posted by speranza to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

When I did tech support for an ISP, I spent a lot of time writing down answers to some of the questions that people asked me all the time that were sort of lengthy or annoying to look up, especially steps for doing things so that when we were done I could say "want me to email those to you for next time?" I made a reference list of commands that I could use in the shell, what all the stupid lights on a user's modem might mean, commands I could never remember, and other miscellaneous crap. On the way I taught myself some (circa 2000) html which was helpful for my next job where I used it more often.
posted by jessamyn at 1:23 PM on September 4, 2006

perhaps you'd enjoy playing go on the dragon go server.

also, watching streaming video of lectures from places likes MIT.
posted by paradroid at 1:36 PM on September 4, 2006

How about hanging out in the forums at ADSL guide to see what problems are happenning at other (and your own!) ISPs?
posted by kenchie at 2:06 PM on September 4, 2006

Response by poster: kenchie, already hang out there (in fact, one of my customer's has a recent post on there!), but yeah, it's a very good site (and UK-based, which is good).
posted by speranza at 2:28 PM on September 4, 2006

I'd second Jessamyn's answer. Keep tabs on the questions you get, write up the answers to the common ones and forward that to your bosses so they can use it as a reference guide/training aid. It shows you're an eager, forward thinking employee. That's actually how I got my break into technology writing many years ago.
posted by baggers at 5:06 PM on September 4, 2006

I would spend some time going through the articles on DamnInteresting.com. Like it's name suggests, they have many interesting things. It's really a collection of reports on interesting things in history.
posted by lockle at 7:23 PM on September 4, 2006

This thread should be of help.
posted by lunchbox at 7:35 AM on September 5, 2006