Hi Blog! It has been a while since we had spring break the week before! I wish It didn’t end, but too much of a good thing is always bad.
This week we had a tour of DoIT-ECC, led by Behzad. I initially thought I wouldn’t like this tour because I’m not interested in machine rooms and the physical technologies present, but Behzad was so lively and wonderful, I had a lot of fun!
We first learned went around different rooms that either connected to the wifi, television, or telephone services. Though I can’t exactly remember every detail Behzad told us about, I remember the plethora of cables and how everything needed to be precise. He also explained the fire system in the rooms, which I thought was interesting at how it would release a gas that would take away the oxygen in the room. When we went into the telephone connection room, I was amazed at how small and how many wires were all placed together. He told us about how unplugging just one normal will be disastrous and every wire will have to be taken out and replaced individually.
Afterwards he explained to us about codes and how information is passed through the internal systems before it would come out as webpage that we choose to visit or what not. I thought it was cool that he is so knowledgable on all of these things and he seems passionate about this field of work. At the end of the tour, he brought up to his office and showed us how he is able to track someone through their device if they are connected to the wifi on campus. It was humorous in the way he presented it, but it was also kind of creepy that he is able to see exactly where u were at any moment!
This week in shadowing, Michelle and I continued to go over staff a bit more, since it was difficult for me to remember faces. I feel that I should start visiting staff, and meeting them and I will be able to be more comfortable with them in the future! Also, we briefly went over using lotus notes to refresh my memory on posting class schedules. We also discussed network issues and situations in which Mickey would be notified on certain things. With Eddie, he presented me with an issue a user had emailed him about. It talked about how the user couldn’t access a certain file within the Fine Arts SINC Site, and Eddie quizzed me on how I would answer the user. We replied to the user on how he/she should try accessing those files from a different SINC Site, and if the problem persist we would email the respective parties on resolving the issue. In help desk, both Eddie and Lian have been letting me answer more phone calls recently, and it is still nerve wrecking to me! I feel that I don’t answer the users effectively sometimes and I end up having to ask the senior cons for help a lot. I hope I can get better at this aspect soon!