Harried IT managers may save time and money by training remote users to troubleshoot simple network problems themselves.

An informal study of network managers conducted by Network World showed that providing remote and mobile workers and teleworkers with knowledge of troubleshooting dial-up communications or other computer-related problems will save time and free IT to concentrate on more complex issues. Network managers recommend training users on a range of tasks from running Microsoft Scandisk on a hard disk drive to troubleshooting dial-up and broadband connections.

"At Novell, we have a help desk that is staffed seven days a week, 24 hours a day," says Ken Anderson, CIO of the network giant. "We tracked the types of calls we were receiving and isolated the 10 most common calls." From there, Anderson put in place a series of tips for solving the most common problems.

A couple of years ago, Anderson says, the most common calls IT received were questions on how to obtain an IP address. "Today, my No. 1 call is how to change passwords," Anderson says. Novell maintains a library of training materials on the Internet that helps users learn how to perform tasks such as removing or adding software or connecting to Novell when they travel.

Few IT managers, though, have the luxury of providing online materials to remote workers, and even fewer staff their help desks 24-7 to support flexible work styles.

But many network managers supply materials that guide users through some rudimentary troubleshooting of dial-up connections, such as what to do when a blue screen occurs or tasks users need to perform daily, such as virus checking.

"All my remote users have Norton Utilities and antivirus software," says Michael McKenney, IS manager for Americorp in Birmingham, Mich. Moreover, McKenney provides a handout that guides users through using utilities such as ping of ipconfig, which they can use to test dial-up connections.

If users are having connection problems, McKenney says they call their ISP first to make sure the problem is not on that end. McKenney also gives users a handout that teaches them "some essentials of traceroute, scandisk and chkdsk."

In addition, he requires users to perform daily maintenance tasks. "They empty the contents of C:\Windows\Temp, and the recycle bin, and run Norton Disk Doctor, Speed Disk and Norton Antivirus. If they need new hardware, I walk them through the installation over the phone," McKenney says.

Most of the network managers Network World polled said, at a minimum, users should be able to troubleshoot their dial-up connections. If the user couldn't solve the problem, then the managers said they helped.

"We provide faculty/staff and students with software and documentation for setting up their computers and laptops so that they can dial in to the university network," says Jeremy Mlazovsky, network specialist at the University of Dayton in Ohio. "Many problems users see are due to a misconfigured network settings; the fixes are detailed in documentation we provide. The first thing users should do when a problem occurs is make sure the settings are correct."

"If the user is sure that everything seems to be in order, then they should contact us," Mlazovsky says.

Head off trouble

Check out these troubleshooting utilities and resources:

• Utilities such as ping, traceroute and whois help you troubleshoot your Web connection. Download them.
• Windows' indispensable WINIPCFG utility displays users' IP addresses and helps you determine whether they're connected. Learn how to use it.
• Windows NT's utility IPCONFIG is similar. Check it out.
• Having trouble accessing a Web site and can't tell where the trouble lies? This site lets you ping a host on the spot.
• Learn how to troubleshoot dial-up connections.
• An example of dial-up allows Goshen College to help its users troubleshoot.

Network World

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