Help Desk Technician

Help Desk Technician

DeskJunky

Augusta, GA

Male, 25

I have been working with technology for about 7 years now in different facets but all involving costumer facing duties. I have been an Instructor for the military on computer networking. Worked as an independent consultant for small to medium sized networks and now am in a position of working at a help desk on everything from Servers to Desktop computers to your phones not getting email for the 3rd time this month because its out of space...ask me anything.

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16 Questions

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Last Answer on January 08, 2015

Best Rated

So as someone who worked in tech with the military: is Snowden a hero or a traitor?

Asked by kitteh about 10 years ago

Sorry for the delay here. This is outside the scope of helpdesk questions. I do find that any individual that leaks information that is otherwise considered confidential is breaking the trust of its government. That man was cleared to do a job and it did not include releasing information. We know there are spies. We spy on other countries, we spy on our allies and us as citizens’ spy on our neighbors. His actions are his own and the consequences are self-inflicted whatever they may be.

Just how secure are military networks and telcom? Do they use higher encryption standards than everyone else?

Asked by PaulusHook about 10 years ago

I cant get into regid detail on military networks and telecome because the job requires a clearance blah blah but I will say that the military does maintain its networks to the highest of standards and you can buy any of their equipment if you have the cash to do so from a vendor. Which is why most individuals that work in an IT field for the military transition into civilian positions rather easily or end up doing the same thing for the government after they get out at double the rate. 

Are people usually appreciative when you actually help them figure something out or do they kind of treat you like a support monkey?

Asked by B Loeb about 10 years ago

SO this is fifty-fifty. I get the user that is upfront and honest about the fact that they tried loading something and it didn’t work. They are generally appreciative and understanding. Then there are those who break stuff and do nothing to help me remedy the issue. They provide little to no feedback, give you a hard time when you’re trying to get them to take the next step and give you a poor survey score because they need to further assert their innocence and confused state. The second group can disappear from existence for all I care. Know that is a rough thing to say but you people (if the shoe fits) make my job hard and unrewarding, the first group however I hope you win the lottery.

Does it get aggravating answering what you perceive to be people's dumb questions all day long?

Asked by Olaf1 about 10 years ago

You know I do at times get....frustrated for a lack of better words with the absence of knowledge that some people have over simple concepts. If the light is not on the power is probably off...printers dont print without paper. Those things to me constitue issues that are derived entirley from human error that could be avoided if you didnt just pick the phone up and call me because it did not work for 5 seconds. 

The upside to this though is that I do legitmatly understand that some people ask questions and truely do not know the answers. I feel sorry for them more so than aggravation and make every attempt to help them better understand what an issue is in plain English. However I did laugh after muting my microphone one time when a lady told me her applications were uninstalled...I found that the icons were no longer on the desktop and needed to be restored... 

 

What's the closest you ever came to losing it on someone you were helping?

Asked by nightmark about 10 years ago

I had a group with printer issues...which we all know are the Devils gift to IT professionals. They were having problems with network connectivity on this device and after the general turn off turn on, check cables routine I decided there was nothing I could do remotely. So I wanted the lady I was working with to give me the serial number on the printer and get me in touch with a supervisor in regards to approving onsite support from a third party. (They are 5 plus hours one way)


Long story short this supervisor was new and wanted to make a point so she starts drilling me on contractual obligations and not providing onsite support and we should not sign contracts with people if we can’t do the work...this goes on for a few more lines. Anyway I convey to her that us providing support by involving third parties that specialize in printer issues outside the generic was standard policy. She wanted a full report by the end of the day. I got off the phone with her and escalated the ticket to management. I did volunteer to drive the 5 plus hours one way to confirm that the printer needs a specialist touch and then drive the 5 plus hours back billing her the $125 an hour plus expenses just to make me feel good. Management denied the request and I never heard from her again.


I don’t read your companies contract verbatim but I know the just of its contents, I know how to do my job and you taking the time to chew me out over verbiage will only get you on my short list of people I don’t go out of my way to assist.

Do the stats actually back up the "Mac's never get viruses and crash way less than PC's" thing? I've heard that it's complete BS.

Asked by bax about 10 years ago

Okay so....me and Macs are okay friends. I have garnered a healthy respect for them seeing as I have been forced to work with them in this position. I will say "ehhh" in regards to do they get viruses. On the scale that Windows machines get viruses no but there is a likely hood that they could but it’s a small chance. I do know that the Kernel that the OS is built on is one of the oldest and most secure. Plus most malicious software is built for Microsoft operating systems and is probably designed on Macs...go figure. However I think if you left a Mac with a group of Russian hackers long enough we would have ample issues.

I'm trying to completely wipe my hard drive and a lot of products are labeled as "military grade" erasers. Does that actually mean anything? What's the best way to make all data 100% unrecoverable? What if I just smash it with a brick?

Asked by Ted about 10 years ago

Don’t use third party software. If the data is that sensitive format the drive once maybe twice if your paranoid.


http://www.wikihow.com/Format-a-Hard-Drive


You may want to remove the drive and plug it into another machine so you can follow these steps. Be careful though. Once it is formatted at least once dismantle the drive and remove the platter. You can then melt the metal shiny thing (which is the disk itself) and you can sleep easy know your data is not recoverable. You could also just take the thing a bury it on a distant relatives property after you format and dismantle it and you may be good as well. Otherwise don’t download illegal things to your hard drive. (Joking)