MAR K PARVIN
In this month’s guest column, roving engineer Mark Parvin reveals how he’s fixing mics and uncovers a hidden Windows remote desktop tool
In this month’s guest column, roving engineer Mark reveals how he’s fixing mics and uncovers a hidden Windows remote desktop tool.
As a roaming IT engineer, I’m used to working on-site. When coronavirus hit, like many others, I had to change the way I did things. Lockdown meant I suddenly had to give support from a distance via phone, email or remote access apps – with collections on the doorstep when my customers needed more hands-on help.
At the start of lockdown, however, some of my customers also had to arrange for their staff to work from home. One company I look after supplies farm equipment and, as an essential business, has stayed open throughout the pandemic. There are usually around 12 people in the office and, to help minimise risk, the firm decided to have staff in on different days. When not at work, some could enjoy the time off, but others needed to be available. Karen, who looks after the accounts, was one of those required to work and a computer at home was necessary for her to access her office desktop.
As it turned out, I had a spare laptop in my possession. It was initially going to David, one of the company’s sales advisers, who lived locally to me. I’d set it up to replace his Dell XPS 12 laptop/tablet. Why was he getting a replacement? Because his screen leaked. Not a typical reason for changing, but it appears to be a common issue with this model. It starts with bubbles within the screen – like a squashed spirit level – and ends up with a sticky substance seeping out of the surround. Some people on the internet believe this stuff is toxic, but that didn’t deter David. He liked his Dell so much he didn’t want to change it. He explained that it still worked and, as long as it was the right way up in his bag, didn’t leak that much. So he’s sticking with it, if you’ll excuse the pun.
All this brings me back to Karen, who is now the proud recipient of the laptop instead. Her desktop computer in the office connects to Windows Server 2012 Essentials via a domain. For her to get onto this machine from afar, the current option is through Anywhere Access and Remote Desktop. I can already hear the sharp intake of breath: Remote Desktop is known for its vulnerabilities. Needs must, however, and additional security such as account lockout and limiting only the users who need it were in force to help. But, hands up, I’ll be looking at improving that area as a priority.
It also got me thinking just how complicated all of this could be for someone who isn’t too IT savvy. Karen wanted to keep things simple, so I put the remote access icon on the desktop. All she needed to do was a couple of clicks and the connection was made. As I set it up, though, I realised all the steps required to get to that point: logging in to the company remote website, downloading the Remote Desktop file, making the shortcut. And that’s before all the fun that can occur when trying to sign in. It’s the type of thing that keeps me in a job as anybody not brought up on this stuff would struggle without help.
It’s also not the end of the story. While I was able to download the file from the company website, it refused to find Karen’s computer. I checked with the office and the machine was on, so I needed to dig deeper. It turned out to be a DHCP issue: the IP address the server had stored didn’t match the computer. A bit of tweaking and a workaround later and all was well. It’s another issue I need to check into fully, though. Computers – especially servers – can throw up these random problems just when you don’t need them to, and I love it.
Email strife
Many of my other customers don’t need access to a work computer as they already run their businesses from home. Lorna is one such customer and she contacted me initially with an email issue. At the time, an on-site visit was off the table, so remote access was the way to go. It wasn’t something I’d needed to use on Lorna’s laptop before, and that’s when things got interesting.
Zoho Assist is my go-to program for getting onto another computer. There’s no particular reason: I get used to an app and end up staying with it. However, sometimes I’m forced to look elsewhere and here’s an excellent example.
Lorna is a little stuck in her ways too. She knows her way around a computer but loses it a bit if she has to attempt something different. I asked her over the phone to type the Zoho website into her address bar. A pretty simple request that turned into a full
“Some people on the internet believe this stuff is toxic, but that didn’t deter David”
discussion about what an address bar was and why it differed from the Google search box on her homepage. Once she understood that, we hit the next hurdle of her typing skills – it took several attempts to get the details right. To make things worse, she would start reading the full Google search page that an incorrect address often creates, and I could only stop her by quickly intervening when she drew breath.
The last nail in the coffin came when she got the address right. She started reading from the web page that appeared, and this time I stopped her well before she got up to full steam. Her internet provider is TalkTalk residential, and this version of TalkTalk now blocks many of the remote access websites. As you’re likely aware, it’s done this to try to stop scam support companies taking control of the victim’s computer. I deal a lot with the aftermath these criminals create and thus applaud anything done to prevent it. Yet when it means I can’t do my job, it’s more than a little annoying.
It wasn’t all bad news, though. It led me to my new friend: Quick Assist. If this doesn’t ring any bells, it’s the new remote desktop app in Windows 10 and I’m impressed. It’s not fully featured, but it offers enough to get you connected and do the necessary.
The whole getting-on process is straightforward, except for one thing: Microsoft has hidden the app away within Windows Accessories. Getting Lorna to understand the All Apps section and digging down under the folder slowed down the process. I considered getting her to use the search box but, now knowing her typing ability, I stuck with the lesser of two evils. Once the program was open, however, she had no issue with typing in a code and clicking two buttons to allow me to take control. It’s worth noting that we could both use the mouse and keyboard: Lorna wasn’t keen to let me know her email password, so I nervously allowed her to type it in for me. She was also able to see what I was doing, which was useful because I could explain things visually as we chatted – very much like an on-site visit. It’s a great little program and one I’ll continue to use well beyond lockdown. I hope the scam support crooks don’t get the same idea.
Can you hear me now?
It may be the case that in space no one can hear you scream, but for John, no one could he ar anything. John, like many, had never used his laptop microphone until the pandemic forced him to try video chat and he found it didn’t work. It wasn’t because he had clicked mute or some other simple solution: no apps worked with the microphone. Windows was happy to tell me all was well with the drivers and the device, but silence was all it recorded.
John wasn’t alone in this; a few other customers had the same problem. The solutions – or workarounds – also varied. A reinstall or update of the driver sometimes helped. For the more stubborn ones, a standard jack plug microphone in the mic socket was enough; at other times, it had to be a USB mic instead. I could have replaced the built-in microphone, but for the time and cost involved it didn’t seem worth it and my customers agreed. When things get back to some sort of normal, none of them will shout at their laptops any more than necessary.
A touch sensitive
As most of my work is on-site, I can travel to quite a few premises during a day, touching numerous keyboards, mice and touchscreens. Not wanting to get or spread any germs, I’ve always carried a bottle of hand sanitiser in the car and applied a hefty dose of it between jobs. Before Covid-19, however, not everyone was happy with my actions. Rosemary is an elderly customer of mine and, as many do at that age, politely comes to the door to see me off when I’ve finished helping her.
One day, Rosemary saw me using the sanitiser through the car window. She said nothing but the look on her face screamed: “So I have a dirty house, do I?” After that, I was too embarrassed to use the stuff out in the open. Instead, I would hide my hands between my legs as I sat to make sure nobody saw me cleaning them.
In the Covid-19 world, it’s the opposite. I now prominently display my hand rubbing to let my customers – and everybody else – know that I’m taking the hygiene precautions needed. Oh, how things have changed.
“She said nothing but the look on her face screamed: ‘So I have a dirty house, do I?’”