Five ESSENTIAL Tools for a Network Support Technician

We’re upgrading a lot of our ‘desktop support’ tools at work this month, here are some neat things I’m starting to use.

LogMeInRescue - A very fast and reliable ‘instant on’ remote connection. You give the client a web address “www.logmein123.com” and a 6-digit pin code and they’re in your loving hands in about 60 seconds, IE, firefox and vista compatible. A bit pricey at $120+ dollars a month for a single user, yet if you do serious remote troubleshooting, there is no other software out there that can compare. This is fast, painless, and very professional.

N-Able Momentum - This is a highly customizable external service-monitoring service :P We hook all of our DNS and SENDMAIL servers up so that if any go down we get emails and/or SMS texts depending on the priority of the machine. It also provides SNMP and WMI information across local area networks. Great for our larger business clientele, especially medical offices that have 50 or 60 computers and a couple of servers. Not only do we get realtime usage / troubleshooting information on the entire remote network, but any computer inside of the network is instantly accessible via a VERY strong ‘instant on’ connection dubbed Remote Support Manager.

Acronis True Image - I use this to make backup images of people’s partitions. My own workstation, some of the programmers’ workstations…and clients that routinely destroy their operating systems, I’ve found it’s easier just to assume the worst and be prepared! Even saving yourself from a single workstation reinstall can more then pay for itself. I highly recommend this software, I don’t even know 3/4 of what all it can do, but even the most simple basic operations are lifesavers!

XXcopy - For making uber fast file-level system wide backups, nothing beats xxcopy. Just plug a drive in, launch the ‘full command’ –> xxcopy <src> <dest> /e /c /v /h /k /r <– and it will happily plug away, unattended until all the copy-able files have been copied. There are some other really nice switches too, works alright over the network as well.

Roboform - I can’t believe how much I freakin LOVE this program. With Roboform you can store all of your login credentials, as well as personal info to populate registrations and forms. I never realized how much time I spent typing stuff in all the time until I started using this software. It’s fantastic and you just have to try it to see how helpful it is! I don’t even ‘consider’ trying to get work done if I don’t have Roboform, as we have so many web apps these days it’s just not worth my time otherwise.

Got any programs that you’re really fond of? Drop down and share with us wot?!