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RickP
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From: Kent, U.K.
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Advice / Recommendations - 10/7/2005 16:13:40
In view of the fact that I don't earn a great deal from Web design at the present time (sniff-sniff  ) I am planning to offer some additional general PC services to local folk:
Repairs, upgrades, virus removal, troubleshooting, help with home networking etc.
My experience of these things is mainly just that - personal experience - I'm not from a tech background (albeit I did a night class for PC repair some time ago). I'd like to obtain a really good, really practical, really up-to-date and relevant book that covers all of the obvious topics. I'd also like to obtain a really useful set of indispensable 'utilities' on disk(s). Can anyone recommend either?
Are there some current 'must-haves' in one neat package for PC technicians? (I have all the start-up disks and few other bits - ad-hoc)
Thanks in advance for all help/advice
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Giomanach
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/7/2005 16:23:52
Me being me, I will always say a book never covers everything, experience does. Easy way to learn is, get a PC, not too expensive, just a cheap one, and break it. Then solve the problem without referring to any books, just ask people, or try yourself.
As one of Taz's many signatures used to say, If it ain't broke, kick it till it is, and then fix it so it never breaks again.
IMO, the only way to learn PCs is to use them, and do them, rather than reading a book or getting a piece of paper to say you can, but I'm just a geek who fiddles with PCs & their bits all day :)
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RickP
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/7/2005 17:25:37
quote:
Have you thought about taking an A+ or MCSE class?
Yeh, actually, the course I done was preparatory to A+. I enquired about MCSE courses but the price was prohibitive. Right now I plan to keep web designing as the main feature and just do the odd small jobs to supplement things. MCSE would be more than I need for this. I can 'get by' with pretty much any general PC repair, which is fine for myself or a job for a mate but to offer the job proper I feel I want to make sure I know the 'best' practices/methods for doing things.
Here's an example... a few weeks back I reset someone's win 98 PC. Now, I knew how to format C, boot from disk and start loading and got the job done - but it did struggle to find some missing system files later on when I was loading other stuff and I had to get them off the disk (after some searching!). Now, later I was reading up about various methods for installing win 98 (and other win versions) and read something about "xcopy" - I didn't read it all but the gist was that using this method the files on the CD would be copied to the H/D first and then installed from there instead of from the disk. I would have avoided the missing files that I spent time over if I was familiar with this method of installing windows.
The above is NOT something that would come solely from experience no matter how many machines I loaded. We will only ever know about some things because someone else tells us what the options are.
BTW: yes, Google is the indispensable tool ultimately for this kind of knowledge but I spend so much time at my PC sometimes I just like to get away from the monitor and check things out from a book.
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dpf
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/8/2005 10:42:47
quote:
relevant book probably books - i suppose a run thru amazon or borders will turn up many. Frankly, Rick, I would advise caution (though I am not sure you asked for this advice)- reading the thread, you appear to be a real novice in this area and advertising your services when your knowledge isnt at a pro level can permananently damage your overall reputation.
quote:
Repairs, upgrades, virus removal, troubleshooting, help with home networking etc.
that represents a great deal of expertize - not easily or quickly acquired. Why not pick just one and focus on that? help with home networking for example. the demand for that is ever growing. to say "repairs" can lead you into an endless array of problems that you are unprepared for. good luck
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rdouglass
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/8/2005 11:31:54
IMO an MCSE is almost useless unless you want to work for a supprt services organization. I had one but let it lapse 'cause it was a lot of money to keep it going and when I told customers that I had an MSCE they just looked at me with that "deer in the headlights" look. Certifications only mean something to the folks that probably already know what they're doing. They're nice but usually overrated.
Having said that, I would however recommend you get at least an A+ cert. Then you can just tell customers your certified. (They usually don't care what you're certified in just as long as you're "certified" somehow.  )
So what you're really looking for is a 'brain dump'. I've been working with PC's for over 20 years and I have been approached about this a lot. I tried to do this with someone else a while back and no matter how much stuff I tried to catalog / store / reference the next thing that person worked on the info was not in that collection.
The bottom line is there is *no* substitution for experience.
My best advice? Collect resources. And lots of them. Find sites / forums / references / books / people that you can turn to for answers. Do you really think all these "experts" know everything? Not at all but I would wager that the majority of them know where to look. They have compiled a list (either mental, on paper, favorites, etc.) that they refer to and use it often. I know I have and many people feel I'm an "expert". Well, I am not - I just have developed my resources well.
As to "indespensible resources"? Well IMO that is it - the "list". If you can find 10 sources of knowledge specifically in each of the areas that you're focusing on, that will go a long way and you will be well ahead of many others trying to do the same.
And remember, people generally hire someone because they don't want to be bothered to do it, to learn how to do it, or to search for the info to do it. Think of car oil changes. They're not that difficult to do and there are a multitude of places to get knowledge, tools, etc. Yet the oil change service places do a great business.
And lastly, always be up front with customers. I have said on many, many occasions: "Well I have an idea how to fix that but let me consult with my associates and referenc resources." That 1 line works great for me. It makes me sound like I have a lot of depth in my "organization" and it is not false at all. Hey, I have associates all over the world 'cause I've developed my "list".
Hope that helps.
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RickP
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/8/2005 13:01:45
Thanks All - for many valid points - still no direct resources though
Actually, I err towards the cautious in most things and have perhaps slightly under-pitched myself in attempting to see if there is anything that is universally agreed to be 'indispensable', which I may have missed along the way. I have worked an awful lot with my own PCs down the years, from upgrades, reinstalls, networking etc. I have fixed other's for them too, either free or as a paid job for those I already have contact with but I have not advertised myself for such a service up till now. Sure, I have a long list of Internet resources too but, as you know, one guy says this and another says that, even Microsoft clearly doesn't always provide the 'best'/'most practical' answers in many ways. So it's interesting to ask around to see what 'top tens' come up with regards to methods/resources for general PC tech jobs.
I'm not worried about what I can't fix - as has been said - just be straight and say "I'm not sure but I will check this out" - that's no problem to me and, "No fix; no fee" covers it on the business front - combined with fixed prices as opposed to hourly charges I'm sure people are put at ease by that and I can honestly say that (thus far!) every job I've set out to do with PCs I've always got there - eventually!
Good advice to concentrate on strengths and not offer too wide a range of things if it's not realistic. I think home networking will be a constant demand in the next stage of an 'online Britain' but that is one area I do intend to brush up on. And I maybe I'll go back and finish the A+ sometime(?)
So far as the business side and the 'difficult customers/scenarios' are concerned, that's really another subject that comes into all areas of life. We all have our own way of coping (or not!) with those sorts of problems and that's no different to designing/maintaining websites for people or doing any of the other jobs I've done.
I'm posting this question on a tech forum too (which I spent some time at a couple of years back - very good resource!) but so far the only response has been the broad one similar to here. Therefore I conclude thus far that there may not be much consensus about the 'best' tools/methods for most jobs in this realm!
(?)
Thanks again to All
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RickP
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/8/2005 16:42:43
quote:
Who would agree that 90% of all 'repairs' would be using knowledge of basic security? (and Im talking home users here)
Yes, certainly 70 - 80% in my limited experience. The jobs I've done to date have mainly been a case of system crashes: Either due to viruses/overload of spyware or (IMO) instabilities/vulnerabilities that could have been avoided by being kept up to date with Windows updates. I've done a few system resets for folk and I always UPDATE windows ( with all critical updates following re-installation), add FIREWALL (ZoneAlarm if they don't have something else already) add ANTI-VIRUS (E-trust EZ anti-V currently offers 12 months free!) and add ADAWARE (free spyware removal) - as a minimum!
My advice to date has been: if your system has gotten into to such a state and you've been online for over a year without totally up-to-date protection then even if I clean a virus or a whole load of spyware there is probably lurking a whole bunch of nasties that might not be detected waiting to take over anytime. For a home system without masses of complicated programs & configurations it is best simply to wipe the thing clean and reload. I honestly believe that such an appraoch will produce the best end result and for a system reset it's easy to fix one charge and just get on with the job.
Of course it depends on the customer having the original disks (at least their Windows disk/code) to do the job in an entirely proper manner! I start with a quick backup of all docs (usually well peppered around the PC!), emails, favs etc. onto an external hard drive and then put the machine online via my home network once it's initially reloaded. So far so good but I always wonder if I am doing things the 'best' way!(?)
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RickP
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/8/2005 16:52:01
quote:
Knoppix
Bobby, sorry I missed your posts - thanks. Someone on a tech forum mentioned Knoppix and I'm just looking into it. Can you give me any examples of how it can benefit - i.e. the type of 'real' jobs that it can help with?
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dankos
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/9/2005 1:20:22
Take a look at PC Magazine's book "Guide to Home Networking". (I got mine from Amazon.) It's a pretty thorough book on setting up a home network, from tools, concepts, security, hardware, software, etc. One surprise was that I personally use XP Pro and the book explicitly says it covers only XP Home Edition. Nowhere was that mentioned in the Amazon reviews.
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RickP
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/9/2005 12:02:24
quote:
Bart PE
Hmm, I'll look at it - thanks!
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Kitka
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/9/2005 19:13:54
A helpful free tool that I use is the Belarc Advisor:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Reports all the installed hardware, software versions, MS hot fixes and even gives serial nos and MS products keys, which could be very important if you need to format the drive.
Another very useful tool is Steve Gibson's Spinrite, but it isn't free.
Also, while Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy are excellent free tools, they are limited. We have had several instances where installing the demo version of Webroot's SpySweeper was the only way to find and eliminate the culprit.
If you need to take a drive image before doing anything drastic, try Terabyte's Image for Windows (free download)
If the computer has no Anti-virus installed or it has been disabled by a virus, the online scanners such as House Call can very useful.
Good luck!
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RickP
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/10/2005 14:50:18
Further query...
Searching on the web the last few days keeps turning up this
And here it is under another guise here
Sounds good! but the advertising looks so awful! does anyone know of this tool/set of tools?
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dankos
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/10/2005 16:20:29
quote:
ORIGINAL: RickP
Thanks Dankos - I wil look out for that. Does it spell out all of the options/permutations? - i.e. wired, wireless, with router, without router etc. The fact that it is geared to XP home is a plus for me, as the situations I am likely to encounter will be just that. Does it also go through adding other 'home' Windows systems to the network (98, ME)?
Cheers
It's a pretty recent book, so it doesn't mention anything prior to Win XP. It does, however, cover options such as various types of routers, wiring, topologies, security, NICs, etc. Take a look at the reviews at Amazon.
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bobby
Posts: 11394
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RE: Advice / Recommendations - 10/10/2005 17:38:16
Knoppix boots the computer from CD rather than the hard drive (fully functional Linux OS, runs slow because it decompresses from the disk)
It lets you look at, change, back-up or move data on a Windows partition even if Windows won't boot.
Comes in very handy. I had a drive start to go bad on me all-of-a-sudden. Wouldn't boot at all... had to use Knoppix to boot the PC, then open and copy my files to CD-ROM (ten of them) so I could reinstall the files to a new, reformatted drive with a reinstall of Windows on it.
There's a great book (I think from O'Riely) called Hacking Knoppix that comes with the disk and gives you lots of cool ways to play with it.
For security stuff mentioned above... any time a relative or friend asks me to "fix" their Win machines I run spy/spam/virus searches, install firewall, AV if needed, and two or three anti-malware apps.
Then I copy over a customized desktop background that has one corner sectioned off... I put shortcut links to each application in that spot of the dt.
I tell them it's just like changing your oil every 3,000 miles... each week you spend 15 to 30 minutes updating and running each program in that little box...
Some of them actually use it...
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