Supporting the Widespread Campus:

Remote Support at the Ohio State University

Duane Rigsby - Assistant Manager & Coordinator, Ohio State University South Centers:
Changing settings on end users' computers - we're just now going through a big email changeover, and it's been a small headache for us. When we tell that we've tried to call and talk to the end user and say, change this setting, this setting and this setting, and that doesn't always work because of the different networks, different - some people are, like I said, are on DSL. Some have cable, wireless.

All of their settings are different and we may have to change a POP server or an SMTP server or something to match their network providers. So we have to kinda almost do a one-on-one training with that just to get all their email set up and such, and then also being able to connect to multiple machines at one time.

I can connect up to another one and say, "Oh, you know, here's how - you missed this document." Or they would call me up and say, "I've lost files. Where can I find them?" and they would just be - they moved a folder accidentally or something, and you would just have to go in the machine and find it.

Again, you know, one of those easy problems that can be cured just by doing this. You don't have to drive those two and three hours just to get to their - or map a network drive that they might've disconnected accidentally or something like that.