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What does a Field Technician need with him at all times?

D

dsd17

Senior member
I recently acquired a new position at a help center and will be starting next week. I will be working on troubleshooting Macs and PCs either at the Customer's office or remotely with VPN, ARD or Timbuktu. This will include desktops, laptops, servers, routers, etc. Basically their entire IT infastructure.

My question is what items and software should I bring with me to and have ready at all times? I remember several months ago Maximum PC ran an ad regarding this, but I cannot find that issue any longer.

I already have 2 laptops (1 PC & 1 Mac), a 512mb thumb drive and network cables, but I need to know what else I should have in my bag so that I'm never caught off guard or missing anything.
 
Your employer will probably provide you with your "toolkit".

But what you need most are the seat of your pants and a screwdriver.
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
I'll be the first smartass.

A condom, because you never know when you will run into a lonely housewife. 😛
Click to expand...


that is an extremely good point, unfortunately, I will not be going to any houses. Only businesses, but I guess people do have offices 😉
 
screwdrivers, torx drivers, and a full socket set for small sized hardware. nothing makes you look like a n00b like showing up to work on something and you can not get to it because you needed a 8mm socked and a t15 torx bit just to pull a hard drive.
 
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Your employer will probably provide you with your "toolkit".

But what you need most are the seat of your pants and a screwdriver.
Click to expand...


i'm not sure about the employer supplying part. He gave me the iBook and manuals, but nothing else so far. Hopefully he will have a list of items he brings or can rattle them off so that I can jot them down.

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Hiren's boot disk for DOS/Windows based machine

Knoppix for Unix based machines
Click to expand...

what is the link to show you how to set up your own XP installer disc?
 
Compressed air canisters, a multimeter, anti-static wrist guards, maybe some anti-static baggies for transporting electonic components. . .screwdrivers . . lots of screwdrivers. A mini mag lite, needle nose pliers or long, small tweezers for getting those screws you will drop into little nooks and crannies. Some disks with all the system monitoring/tweaking/configuring software you can think of like partition magic, etc. . .

Chewing gum. . .and don't forget your towel.

[edit] maybe a communication cable tester for testing ethernet cables and stuff. I gotta go visit the throne. I'll bring my thinking cap and post some more ideas if I think of anything while I'm in there.

Ok, maybe a couple handfuls of various sized computer case screws, a spare case fan or 2, various IDE / SATA ribbons and cables. Maybe a tube of thermal paste. And a bootable ISO CD image for booting to dos w/ cd support. But likely no matter how much stuff you lug around you're likely to encounter a time when you'll be missing something you need.
 
Originally posted by: dsd17
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Your employer will probably provide you with your "toolkit".

But what you need most are the seat of your pants and a screwdriver.
Click to expand...


i'm not sure about the employer supplying part. He gave me the iBook and manuals, but nothing else so far. Hopefully he will have a list of items he brings or can rattle them off so that I can jot them down.

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Hiren's boot disk for DOS/Windows based machine

Knoppix for Unix based machines
Click to expand...

what is the link to show you how to set up your own XP installer disc?
Click to expand...


no idea. And also....bad idea.

You don't want to use any software that might affect his computer (Hiren's Boot disk and Knoppix use up ram and used for rescue operations)
 
How about a external hardrive (firewire or USB). This will give you a chance to back up the customers hard Drive and save precious files or pictures before you accidently reformat or fubar the system and get blamed for erasing 5 years worth of files.

Whenever I offer to fix a friends computer, I always make a backup image (ghost or Acronis true image) of the harddrive. More often than not the system is so messed up with spyware that the easiest and cleanest way to repair it is by a reformat and clean re-install of the OS.

Good luck

Extra:
RAM (DDR,SDR and SODIMM)
AGP and PCI Video card (just for troubleshooting)

Remember most of the time(90%) of the time its not a Hardware but user/software problem
 
Originally posted by: AnMig
How about a external hardrive (firewire or USB). This will give you a chance to back up the customers hard Drive and save precious files or pictures before you accidently reformat or fubar the system and get blamed for erasing 5 years worth of files.

Whenever I offer to fix a friends computer, I always make a backup image (ghost or Acronis true image) of the harddrive. More often than not the system is so messed up with spyware that the easiest and cleanest way to repair it is by a reformat and clean re-install of the OS.

Good luck

Extra:
RAM (DDR,SDR and SODIMM)
AGP and PCI Video card (just for troubleshooting)

Remember most of the time(90%) of the time its not a Hardware but user/software problem
Click to expand...


PEBKAC - Problem exists between keyboard and chair. Is that what you are referring to?
 
Originally posted by: ahurtt
Compressed air canisters, a multimeter, anti-static wrist guards, maybe some anti-static baggies for transporting electonic components. . .screwdrivers . . lots of screwdrivers. A mini mag lite, needle nose pliers or long, small tweezers for getting those screws you will drop into little nooks and crannies. Some disks with all the system monitoring/tweaking/configuring software you can think of like partition magic, etc. . .

Chewing gum. . .and don't forget your towel.

[edit] maybe a communication cable tester for testing ethernet cables and stuff. I gotta go visit the throne. I'll bring my thinking cap and post some more ideas if I think of anything while I'm in there.

Ok, maybe a couple handfuls of various sized computer case screws, a spare case fan or 2, various IDE / SATA ribbons and cables. Maybe a tube of thermal paste. And a bootable ISO CD image for botting to dos w/ cd support. But likely no matter how much stuff you lug around you're likely to encounter a time when you'll be missing something you need.
Click to expand...


is there an anitivirus software that i can load onto a cd to run from dos that I can update with the latest definitions?
 
Originally posted by: dsd17
Originally posted by: ahurtt
Compressed air canisters, a multimeter, anti-static wrist guards, maybe some anti-static baggies for transporting electonic components. . .screwdrivers . . lots of screwdrivers. A mini mag lite, needle nose pliers or long, small tweezers for getting those screws you will drop into little nooks and crannies. Some disks with all the system monitoring/tweaking/configuring software you can think of like partition magic, etc. . .

Chewing gum. . .and don't forget your towel.

[edit] maybe a communication cable tester for testing ethernet cables and stuff. I gotta go visit the throne. I'll bring my thinking cap and post some more ideas if I think of anything while I'm in there.

Ok, maybe a couple handfuls of various sized computer case screws, a spare case fan or 2, various IDE / SATA ribbons and cables. Maybe a tube of thermal paste. And a bootable ISO CD image for botting to dos w/ cd support. But likely no matter how much stuff you lug around you're likely to encounter a time when you'll be missing something you need.
Click to expand...


is there an anitivirus software that i can load onto a cd to run from dos that I can update with the latest definitions?
Click to expand...


yes, mcafee's command line scanner. also spybot and adaware can be run from a cd or flash drive. stinger is also useful for some viruses.
 
screwdriver
extension cord
if you know how to make network cables, a wire stripper, a crimper and spare RJ45 terminators
a multimeter? i never saw why this is necessary but they often cite that in A+ guides, same with an anti-static wrist strap
USB floppy drive (not every machine comes with floppies nowadays)
 
Originally posted by: tami
screwdriver
extension cord
if you know how to make network cables, a wire stripper, a crimper and spare RJ45 terminators
a multimeter? i never saw why this is necessary but they often cite that in A+ guides, same with an anti-static wrist strap
USB floppy drive (not every machine comes with floppies nowadays)
Click to expand...

A multimeter is the only real easy way to determine if a power supply is putting out the proper voltages / amperages. You can use it to test and pinpoint problem areas on circuits. Without one, you have to often resort to "trial and error" tests by swapping out possibly broken parts with known working ones. In some cases this could cause you to ruin an otherwise healthy part by plugging it in to say a faulty motherboard or something. A multimeter is a much cheaper testing tool than say a stick of expensive DDR memory or something.
 
A couple more things I thought of. Zip ties! And electrical tape. Basically, if it were me, I'd carry some of everything I'd need to completely build a system from the ground up and get it running (minus all the actual PC hardware and case).
 
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