People can embrace an IT career at any time in their lives. Whether they are starting a new job or want to change career, the IT field is so vast that you can learn a lot by studying books, watching courses and being part of a computer crew. We won’t stress enough to get computer apprenticeship in Westchester because it helps getting comfortable with networks, users, and people habits. If you want to know what type of skills to acquire in this job, you may want to focus on the following topics:

Active Directory

Active directory allows admin to manage permissions and access to network resources. it is a service developed by Microsoft for windows domain networks and it runs on windows servers. One of the roles in it is to manage the access and network resources in a company and most companies are using active directory. Active directory stores data and objects. Objects can be users groups applications or devices such as servers laptops computers and printers. If a user gets locked out in the domain tech help actually resets the password in the active directory and let the user know that the password has been changed. Also if you want to add a device or equipment to the domain like a printer or laptop you also can do it in active diectory.

Operating Systems: Windows, Mac and Linux

The operating system is the software that supports a computer’s basic functions such as scheduling tasks, executing applications and controlling peripherals. It’s extremely important for a tech support to know operating systems because issues that need troubleshooting range from Blue Screen of Death, crashing applications, freeing disk space, and freeing resources that show up at the startup.

Know the Command Line (CLI)

Sometimes issues are not computer related but are network related. For example, user may complain that he cannot reach a website and he/she does not know if it’s blocked by a corporate firewall or if his machine has DNS issues.Pinging an IP address or a website is the most basic taks that allows computer technicians in Westchester to beging understanding where the problem is.

Dealing with Computer Hardware

Lifting and bending is in the norm in the day to day life of a computer technician. We are asked to troubleshoot computers that do not turn on and even if the machines are turned on, users cannot see the picture in the monitors. Step by step troubleshooting requires calm and logic if an IT support technician is called to find out where the problem is. In the back end, technicians are also asked to setup or decommission servers from the rack and check if the ethernet wires are plugged in properly to the right port.

Helping Users Get Comfortable with Hardware

Since the pandemic, the number of users working from home has increased and many users have a setup that includes a laptop and two monitors. However, as a laptop has only one HDMI port for one monitor, a second monitor can be setup through a docking station. I saw users in Westchester getting confused when the first see docking stations but a good IT technician can stay calm and explain how to plug all the wires and make the whole setup work for the user with the least amount of stress as possible.

Gain More Skills by Knowing VOIP Phones

We have customers who have been bringing the phones from work to their homes and most of the times they have issues plugging in the ethernet wires to the router and their pc. Furthermore, company employees often forget their extension which make them unable to receive and make phone calls. As IT is nowadays a very busy job, Sandanotech recommends to outsource the VOIP phones in Westchester to a company who can work in close contact with the IT department and offer quick support.

Know Well the Software the Company Runs

There have been many instances in which software conflicts with each other and IT support will need to call the tech support of the software to take a look at the issue and possible solve it. Issues that can be resolved with software vendors range from Microsoft Teams not working properly, Citrix Workspace shutting down, and the antivirus that blocks false positives. Knowing software intreractions can be used for future reference and a computer technician should write down all the process that brought to the solution of the problem in the knowledgebase articles.

Do not Forget to Learn about Iphones and Android Phones

Phones are nowadays part of our life and companies require that their IT department use Microsoft Intune to setup a MDM (Mobile Device Management). A user’s phone in a corporate environment can be used to check emails on the Outlook app, to further authenticate users with third party apps when they login in their workstation and can also be used to receive other apps pushed by the IT department. Unfortunately, MDM does not protect a phone against spam text messages and malicious links, for which Sandanotech in Westchester recommends researching the matter further and get the right application.

Dealing with Users Unable to Print

When users have deadlines and are trying to print a document they need, often times they can’t print and their file is stuck in the queue. A quick turnaround of the issue can be to clear the print jobs, restart the print spooler service and check if the printer is set as a default printer.

Fix Outlook Issues

From users who complain that they haven’t received emails to others who cannot open Outlook, Outlook itself can be a matter discussed in books for the variety of issues it can generate. If a user does not receive an email with an attachment, usually Outlook is not at fault. The mail security antispam filter can be responsible for that and a tech help can release the email very easily. On the other hand, if outlook does not open, that may be because the software needs updates or the cpu itself does not have extra power anymore to open the application. Check the power consumption, use task manager to kill the outlook.exe process and start Outlook in safe mode.