Thursday, January 24, 2013

Computer Questions

Let me preface this by saying that I'm pretty good with computers.  My dad and husband both have comp. sci degrees, and I've been around them since before I can remember.  I know how to do a lot of things with and to them, and I'm pretty used to running checks etc so they stay working.

So I get a patron who asks if our wifi is down.  I tell him, no, it's still up.  He replies that he can't get into his e-mail.  I cock my head (over the phone, so he can't see the gesture) and ask him if he's in the library.

No, he's at home.  But he can't get into his e-mail.  He's just making sure that our wifi isn't down.

Upon further questioning, I find out that it's just his e-mail that's down.  He can access other websites except for his e-mail.

Now, to my knowledge, that's a problem with his e-mail.  Host, server, they're doing something.  Maybe updating, maybe it's just down.  But it happens to websites - sometimes, they go down randomly.

I tell him this, that it's a problem with his e-mail, especially if he can get into other websites.

So he wants to speak to our tech page certain name.  I shake my head and tell him that he's not here right now, but even if he were, he'd probably tell him the same thing I am.  That if he can get into other websites (which he says he can do), then it's a problem with his e-mail and there's nothing we can do.

I had another patron (a few days ago) wanting to talk to our tech guy to help retrieve his facebook password.  That he'd put in the day before.  And hadn't saved.  Now, to my knowledge, without a keylogger, there's no way to retrieve a password like that.  And our computers wipe the drives (or something like that) when they're shut down, so there's no way to retrieve the passwords.

He was very disappointed, but understood where I was coming from.

No comments:

Post a Comment