Become a tech support superhero

If you’re a PC Pro reader, the following scenarios are no doubt familiar: when dad’s broadband goes down, he calls you first – not BT. When mum’s printer won’t stop spitting out error pages, it isn’t HP she picks up the phone to – it’s you. You’re also the go-to for friends with busted laptops and family members with malware infections.

While it’s nice to be needed – and to have the skills to help – unofficial tech support can be a thankless, never-ending task. As our Real World Computing columnist Mark Newton says: “The best bit of advice I can give is never let on to friends or family that you know anything about computers.”

We salute your long hours of frustrating, unpaid work and your underappreciated and poorly understood skills. To help make the job a little easier, we’ve gathered up the best tips and tricks from our own team of experts, industry specialists and your fellow readers – thank you to all who submitted advice. As well as taking an in-depth look at remote desktop tools, we also reveal some tech support horror stories that will make you laugh – or cry.

Start right

As unofficial tech support for your family and friends, you may be asked to help set up their new PC or laptop. “Take the time to do the job correctly and spend extra time checking things so you don’t have to go back later,” says Leigh Wood, director of Node IT Solutions.

Start with good buying advice. If a frequent support “customer” is shopping for a new device, encourage them to buy equipment with which you’re familiar. If your mum uses the same laptop as you, it will be easier to fix the common problems, since you’re likely to face them yourself. You’ll also have the hardware in front of you for times when you’re troubleshooting over the phone.

Reader Roger Greenwood suggests buying simpler devices or opting for Chrome OS, which automatically updates every time you reboot it. “For non-technical relatives with anything old such as XP or Vista, buy them a Chromebook and download a few apps and extensions,” he says. “It will the best £200 you spend this year.”

Once you’ve set up their hardware, take photos so you can reference the images when questions crop up down the line, such as which port to use. John Cordiner, from Dell’s social outreach services, advises noting the make and model of hardware, such as the PC, the router and the printer, and making a list of installed software – or downloading a tool such as Piriform’s Speccy to get this information – since it will help you find the right drivers.

As you would on your own PC, create a proper backup system, set up software updates to run automatically, and install antivirus. This way, when the latest security scare hits the headlines, you can assuage their panic by putting on your most reassuring voice and telling them “it’s okay, you have up-to-date antivirus and it scans all the time,” says Tim Danton, PC Pro’s editor-in-chief. Choose antivirus you’re familiar with to make it easier to troubleshoot.

“Some malware packages – Bitdefender leaps to mind – have a silent mode that automatically blocks things without asking the user what to do,” adds PC Pro deputy editor Darien Graham-Smith. “This can spare you the odd phone call.”

A little education regarding what is and isn’t safe to click on can help avoid problems in the future, adds Dell’s John Cordiner. “Get your nearest and dearest out of the habit of clicking on every link they see and you’ll save yourself a lot of work.” Reader Dan Hedly suggests showing those you support what their antivirus pop-up messages looks like “to reduce the risk of them being fooled by those dreadful ‘There’s a problem with your PC’ pop-ups.” He also advises dedicating time to preventative measures. “For family, routine maintenance whenever you visit needn’t take long and will save a lot of pain down the line.”

Be prepared

If you’re carrying out a lot of unofficial support, being prepared can save hours of time when problems arise. Columnist Mark Newton advises filling a USB drive with useful utilities and installs for browsers, antivirus and anything else you might need; don’t assume you can download it when you get there.

“I have friends whose internet connection is at best 0.5Mbits/sec; you’ll find yourself there all evening,” he says.

PC Pro reader David claims he never leaves the house without his USB key. “On it, I have a program called PStart to provide a simple task tray menu,” he says. “I also install lots of portable utility programs and use PStart to launch them, as required. From my USB key, I can clean a PC, remove viruses and such like wherever I may be – it has been a godsend.” Dell’s John Cordiner carries a USB flash drive with an antivirus programme such as Avast or AVG (both of which have highly rated free versions), as well as file-recovery software Recuva and anti-malware tool Spybot.

Real World Computing columnist Simon Jones advises copying any software you acquire, from applications to hardware drivers, to an “Installation packs” folder on your network or an external drive, with relevant product keys saved in a text file. “You should also teach all your ‘customers’ to do the same thing,” he says. “Three years down the line, when you need to reinstall something quickly, you’ll know exactly where to find it and won’t have to spend hours searching for the missing disc. They always go walkies when you need them most.”

Deputy editor Darien notes that Windows 8 has a handy “Refresh your PC” feature to bring Windows back to a working state without touching personal data. However, if you’re running an online download of Windows 8.1 you won’t have an installation disc. A quick Google search will reveal how to make one, and how to make a custom refresh image to restore the OS to a working state with drivers and apps in place.

Getting to (unpaid) work

After the initial suggestion of turning the machine off and on again, the real work begins. If hardware isn’t turning on or responding, Darien advises using an old support trick: ask the user to unplug the cable and blow into the end before plugging it back in. “The blowing isn’t really necessary; the point is to get them to replug the cable in case of a loose connection, or indeed to prompt them to notice that it wasn’t plugged in in the first place,” he says.

However, be careful they don’t blow too hard. Reader David tells a support horror story (see Tech support horror stories, above) in which a customer did just that. “After waiting patiently on the phone for ten minutes and hearing nothing, a colleague finally picked up the phone and told me they’d have to ring me back,” he says. “When they did, it turned out she’d been holding the metal connector as she plugged it in and had electrocuted herself. She was fine after a bit, though.”

On the PC Pro website, reader Carlos says it might be easier to carry out all the servicing at home, where you have your tools and equipment to hand. “I had a spare hard drive that would have solved anything on the spot,” he says. Another reader, Rob, agrees, saying he prefers to work from home in order to do “all my cursing in the comfort of my well-equipped lair”.

Remote control

While some basic problems are easily solved over the phone – “turn it off and on again” – or by sending a few links of instructions to follow, you’ll need to turn to remote desktop tools if things are more complicated.

However, remote-login tools can be a mixed blessing, says editor-in-chief Tim, since they make support too easy. “At one point, it felt like I was logging onto a friend’s laptop every week to sort out some minor problem,” he says. Reader Alan Wood adds that using remote desktop tools can be confusing to less tech-savvy users, meaning you’ll need to spend time teaching them how it works before you can get started.
If you’d rather not use remote-access software, for whatever reason, ask your supportee to send a screenshot of the error by pressing PrtScn, switching into their email account and hitting Ctrl+V, advises deputy editor Darien Graham-Smith.

Cloud backup tools can also help. “If you can, inculcate in your supportees the habit of saving everything to one place. If they can fit everything into Dropbox, that’s ideal, because if they manage to lose a file you have 30 days to recover it (and can do so remotely with their password),” Darien adds. “Even if they manage to break Windows entirely, you can simply wipe it and pull their files back down from the cloud.”

Communication is key

The weak point in tech is often the user, and this is no different with support. It’s easier to keep calm when faced with difficult users when you’re being paid to put up with them, but it’s frustrating when you’re doing it for free – and it’s your mum who’s being a pain.

Before you even start work, set some boundaries. “People who come to friends and family members for free support have a tendency to save up small problems and then drop them on you all at once when a big problem arises,” notes Darien. “Depending on how you play this, you might want to make a point of asking them to fill in an informal ‘support request form’ so you know which tools and skills to bring, or you might even sneakily agree to drop in for half an hour on your way somewhere.”

PC Pro reader David advises asking what changed between when the device was working and when the problem cropped up. “It may be that the answer is, ‘Time passed’, but it may be, ‘I plugged in a different mouse’.”

Don’t rely on someone without tech skills to be able to describe the problem accurately. “Before you start trying to troubleshoot anything, get your supportee to demonstrate the problem,” he adds. “It’s amazing how often it turns out that they’ve neglected to mention an informative error message popping up.”

On the PC Pro website, reader Rob says to avoid asking if they’ve set up something correctly – they’ll say yes regardless. Instead, walk them through it step by step.

Indeed, don’t assume your “customer” is telling the truth, adds reader David. While diagnosing a problem over the phone, he asked a client to unplug and reconnect a cable. She said it didn’t help, but when she went to lunch and another person took over the call, he asked them to try again. It turned out the first person hadn’t bothered to unplug the cable, since it was in an awkward position; when that solution was attempted, it worked.

“Rather than say she couldn’t do what I’d asked her to, she said something to keep me satisfied and, unwittingly, prolonged the problem,” he says.

Avoid awkward situations by giving people fair warning that you’ll see everything they’ve done on their computer. “This can help keep relatives off your back,” adds Real World Computing columnist Steve Cassidy.

Follow-up

If you’ve fixed one problem, expect to be called back for future issues, says columnist Mark Newton. “Be ready for the subsequent call for help when another totally unrelated problem occurs,” he says. “Despite your best explanations that the two issues can’t be related, expect the ‘it never did this before’ plea.”

To help avoid this, deputy editor Darien Graham-Smith advises sitting down with your supportee and the fixed machine to make sure everything works as before. “This way, you’re there to give guidance if anything now works differently to the way they expect, and, more to the point, it makes it more difficult for them to say, ‘This was working before you started changing things’.”

Show your supportee how to fix the problem themselves to avoid being called back again for the same issue, advises Dell’s John Cordiner. “It’s always preferable to demonstrate how you fixed issues, rather than simply fixing it yourself and telling your mum or dad afterwards,” he says. “It might save you some time later.”

Keep it professional

Be wary of being tapped for free tech support services for a friend’s small business. Tech consultant Leigh Wood warns that such attempts to “save some money” aren’t wise in the long run. A client of his ended his contract to switch to a new support company – which turned out to be “a friend who knows computers”.

A day after the contract ended, their Exchange server went down. “We’ve stepped in now and are getting things up and running for them, and as a result the customer has extended our contract,” he says. “The ‘friend’ sounded very relieved, and he admitted that this was all too complicated for him. So, the lesson here is this: the reason everything is working is because your IT support company is doing its job.”

Stephen Green of IT services firm TSG warns on the “crossover between home and business use”. “Typically, freeware doesn’t come with business-grade support and isn’t supported by the major vendors, so it could cause problems,” he points out. “It’s also important to check that it’s legal for use in a business context.”

“It’s always going to be difficult to say no to people who ask for help, but make sure you’re not doing someone a favour that turns out not to be one,” he adds.

What’s work worth?

Your tech skills have been acquired through years of work, and your time isn’t worthless; make sure your supportees know this. If it will cost more in petrol to drive round to mum’s to fix her laptop than to call in paid-for tech support, it makes little sense.

In addition, putting a mental figure on your time can help inform a longer-term solution. “You can put in weeks of fiddling to not quite fix some infected disaster zone that cost the buyer £2,000 but can be replaced for £250 in the current market,” notes columnist Steve Cassidy.

However, just because you value your work at a certain hourly rate doesn’t mean you should expect to earn anything for your efforts, said reader Nick on the PC Pro website. “My dentist gave me a cheap bottle of wine for rebuilding his laptop. He charged me the full rate for my next visit.”

And even though you’re a PC Pro reader, you’re not immune to needing help yourself sometimes. Columnist Mark Newton has advice many will appreciate: make sure to stock your support’s favourite type of coffee when they come round to help out. A few biscuits wouldn’t hurt, either.