Full Index for Help Desk and Support Organizations

• Why I’m Here
• Typical Scenario - You the Technician Answer the Questions – This Does Not Scale Well.
• Getting Started – What Are Some of the First Questions to Answer?
•  Scalability
• Design Your Tools to Scale
• Be Flexible! This Can be a Lifesaver.
• What’s Easier? Do This Instead.
• If it’s a Quick Fix You’ll Pay Later
• Starting from Scratch
• Many or Most of You are Probably Already Doing Some of This
• If You Have Started have You Planned?
• Plan, Plan, Plan
• Design Your Traffic Flow
• Make Use of Available Tools
• Free Tools
• The Web
• Some Support Organization Scenarios
• Scenario 1
• Scenario 2
• Resources
• What Will You Need
• Where are You Going to Get What you Need
• If You Can't Get Enough - Prioritize and Become Efficient
• How to Become Efficient
• How to Prioritize
• Getting the Power You Need
• Your Boss
• Your Bosses Boss
• Your Organization's Boss
• Customer Relations
• Setting User Expecations
• When you Give Support
• Protecting Yourself, Your Staff,and your Organization
• Set Hours
• Backup Your Consultants
• State Your Policies and Make Them Clear
• Create a Second Line of Defense if Possible
• Acceptable use Policies
• What to do About Issues You Can't Resolve
• Creating Your Support Organization
• Is Talent Available?
• What's the Draw? Training? Access to Equipment and Network? Etc.?
• Setting Aside Space
• Getting the Phone Lines
• Setting up a Wait Queue
• Voice Mail, Messages, and Phone Trees
• Remove Roadblocks
• Example Roadblock 1
• Example Roadblock 2
• Example Roadblock 3
• Creating Distributions (Installers and CD-ROMs)
• CD-ROMs
• Document, Document, Document
• Using the Web
• Using Email - It's a Time Sink, but It's on Your Time
• Your Help Desk Email Responses – What Goes in the From Field?
• Automated Replies
• Database of Replies
• Searchable Index of Email Responses
• Help Desk Tracking Systems. Are they Worth it?
• Should You Build One? Customized, In-House Help Desk Solutions
• Using Other Tools
• ICQ - Watch Security
• NetMeeting
• Remote Control Software
• Scheduling
• Scheduling Software
• Proactive Steps
• Train Your Clients
• Offer Free Training
• Offer Paid-For Training
• Push Your Documentation
• Push Your Website
• Train Your Staff
• Train them Some MOre and Use them to Train Themselves
• Set Aside Some Time for Staff and Assign Projects
• Stay Up-To-Date with What You Support
• Conclusion
• Appendix A
• Some Practical Discussions
• The Troubleshooting Process
• Client Side Issues – Almost Completely Windows-Centric
• Windows 9x – There are Multiple Versions with Multiple Quirks
• Windows 9x Version Table
• Comments on Specific Versions of Windows:
• Windows 95/95a
• Windows 95b
• Windows 95c
• Windows 98
• Windows 98 2^nd Edition
• Windows Memory and Machine Requirements
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows NT
• Windows 2000
• Hardware Issues
• Some Machines to Watch out For
• Winmodems or Host Based Modems

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