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20 Jun · Sun 2004

Vacations and Network Administration

So, on my first day on vacation, 9 time zones away from home (is it really home ?), writing from my parents' (in Israel).

Spent the day visiting family, and yes, fixing computers and networks for the relatives.

First, just fixing configurations of CD-ROM burner, scanner, digital camera at my father in law.

Second, creating a local home network (win XP based) at my brother in law. Downloading OpenOffice, Firefox, and extolling (to my nephew) the virtues of Linux.

Finally, setting up a wireless network at my parents', including the wireless router I brought, installing a network card, replacing the USB DSL modem with an ethernet one.

My goal was to be able to use my laptop, wirelessly. If you are reading these lines, I was successful.

My conclusion is that a bit of network administration background has been very helpful (it probably cut the time on the phone I had with the ISP tech by a significant amount - first time I dealt with DSL). I don't believe I will do any more of that from now on ...

Which brings up the question, how many of us/you engineers/tech guys end up being the family's 'computer experts' ?

Posted by arieh @ 02:51 PM MST [ Comments [2] ]
 
 
 
 
Comments:

>Which brings up the question, how many of >us/you >engineers/tech guys end up being the >family's >'computer experts' ? I'm supporting about 5 different Windows machines for various relatives as well as a volunteer for a non-profit. Remote accces software such as VNC (http://www.realvnc.org) make this easier. Most of the people using these machines have very simple needs: communications (email/browser), word processing, and some financial applications. Like everyone else in the world, they want access to their "stuff" from anywehere they are, and they don't want to lose anything. It would be so much simpler for these people to maintain their own systems if they could simply use a "dumb" client that didn't maintain local state. They really didn't want to install software and patches, run backups, and other sysadmin tasks. IMHO, this is a great opportunity for Sun technology. Many, many Sun employees use SunRays and never have to do any sysadmin tasks. Ironically, I spend more time "futzing" with Windows taking care of my friends and family than doing any similar activities for my own Sun work environment. Looks like some markets are "getting" the SunRay concept. Take a look at the "SunRay(TM) Users Group (SRUG)" www.sun-rays.org. Imagine if Grandma used a SunRay...

Posted by Wayne A. Seltzer on June 21, 2004 at 12:22 PM MST #

I'm my mom's tech support as well but you're a lot closer at the moment. Can you run over and install some anti-spyware software? ;)

Posted by Torrey on June 23, 2004 at 11:26 AM MST #

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