e-Vents

[ Monday ]

 

PC Technicians Don't Always Get It Right...

Like many people, I cannot always have 'enough' of some things. Sports cars, boats, airplanes, motorcycles...even ex-wives are among the 'things' that people collect. I must admit...I've gotten better over the years. Moving around has had a lot to do with that. I got tired of transporting the same 'things' from place to place.

One thing in today's world that many of us (me included) cannot seem to have enough of are these little electronic devices. How many remote controls do YOU have; or how many TVs, VCRs, Walkman-type radios, CD players, etc? I lost count of the number of PCs that I've owned, but I am actively running three at the moment. Overkill? I think not.

I run one PC for upstairs; one for down. And, of course, I have one portable for field work. Add to that a smartphone and a separate PDA (they are similar, except for the phone feature). All of these 'things' are supposed to communicate together, and occasionally, they do.

Several weeks ago, I began having some communications problems on my network. I have broadband tied into a wireless router, and while the Internet connections work fine, the file sharing has occasional glitches. After spending several hours attempting to isolate the problems and correct them, I finally made an appointment with a PC technician. After one missed appointment, he rescheduled. One month has gone by, but today, he finally made it to my office.

Upon arrival, I gave him a list of some of the problems which I had encountered. He checked a few things, scratched his head, and said, "I don't know why it's doing that." I told him that I had had the same reaction. He then checked the router and the configuration settings for each PC. He got the same results as me. After suggesting that I disable the firewall installed on each unit, I responded that I had tried that in the past. "Sometimes it worked; other times it didn't," I said. He scratched his head again.

After two hours, having worked with several different devices including digital cameras, USB ports, driver upgrades, router settings, and firewalls, we both came to the following conclusion...sometimes these things work, and sometimes they don't.

Even PC technicians don't always get it right.

MM [13:11]