Month: October 2013

Here’s a story about backups…

• Client told tech her CD-ROM wasn’t working. Client was trying to write to a CD on a CD reader (not writer).
• Tech asked “what are you trying to do?”
• Client explained that they make backups of Excel documents to CD, or at least, they used to.
• Tech made a note to get back to them.
• Tech was busy, so I got back to her, asking “what are you trying to back up?”
• Client said “I think we’re all set because everything is backed up to the server, right?”
• I said “no, your stuff is on your local hard drive, not the server, so it is NOT backed up.”
• Client replied “We will just back up to thumb drives, so we are all set.”
• I said “That is the sort of thing most of our clients stopped doing ten years ago, in favor of automatic backups.”
• Client replied “I’m confused. I thought everything was getting backed up.”

So… what are we discussing here?

A new client called to inform us their Internet was down. I called, and they put me on with the technician from the telephone company, who informed me he was there to set up their new Internet service. Naturally, we knew nothing of this, because you only call your IT consultants when things break, not with any sort of advance notice, right?

Telco technician: “I plugged in the router, and it doesn’t work.”

Me: “What kind of router is it?”

Telco technician: “It’s a Cisco.”

Me: “More specific…? Model?”

Telco technician: “You’re asking the wrong guy.”

Me: “Then maybe you shouldn’t be trying to set up their Internet connection!”