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Technical Etiquette 101

So, writer's block has finally been broken.  Today, I want to talk about how oyu should and should not interact with technical support. And I'm not talking about just the basics, like courtesy, politeness, etc.  I'm talking about professional respect. This is important because there are a lot of things that clients do that actually mess up the process that can help them. I am also going to discuss our obligations to you, our (potential) clients, as well.   So, when you call in to Technical Support, regardless of the product that you have, you are going to go through the motions with us, and what I mean by that is, the person on the other end may or may not have a script, but they are generally going to be operating from a manual. It doesn't mean that they're a monkey.  Being technically inclined is one thing, working with a specific product and applying those skills can often be another.   To that end: 1)  Whatever they ask you to do, you really need to do it. Espec

Welcome, Good Evening, and I ain't Got No Class. Oh, and I'm Going to Need Buttons. Lots of Buttons.

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What an eye-catcher for a title, eh?  I've been bouncing around the idea of a tech blog for awhile (had a gaming one), and thought, hey, why not just make a new one?  Partly because creating these on my cellphone was wrecking formatting. Great job, Blogger app.  Be better, yeah? So, a little introduction (because everyone loves a braggart):  My name is Nathan, I'll keep the last name a mystery for now.   Prior to my career in technical support, I went to school for systems administration.  I did amazingly well on my A+, completed my Windows XP MCP and then stopped getting certifications.  My reasoning for this is because I have the education, and I know how to seek the answers.  Stupid reasoning, by the way.  Don't do this. As this blog evolves, I'll share some of that with you (how to find answers). I work for a major Internet Service Provider in Canada (Cogeco), and have been doing technical support for cable service providers since 2011, so I've had skin in that