Tech Apps for the PROs

[confus-ed]

I see your point - but for me is no good. An adequete laptop cost her more than 1100US$ (basic IBM R50e).. Also, DSL and cable coverage rate in my area is somewhat 50% of the houses..

I have two laptops now, but I got away with using a tosh 4200 (I think its got a 350 celeron in it) for ages (cost me £100 on ebay !) & only upgraded as I was feeling rich, & as nobody seems to get it, I'm advocating having your own connection available, not the customers (I have a 3g card -384kbps which is fast enough for the odd thing not already on my laptop) , but I do this full time, part time techs mayn't be able to justify this expense ..

..You try getting a cd to mail in here (or similar) to ask when you don't know/haven't seen the problem before !

[confus-ed]

& since we really wanted a list of apps & not me saying 'you'll be compiling that list for ever, do it different ..' - well how about something to deal with zip files - I must use WINRAR six times a day at least.

[InTheWayBoy]

I have to disagree with the laptop idea...I, also a mobile tech, can't see the justification of putting a $700+ item on the chopping block everyday. As a mobile tech, I am of course everywhere, and the chance of damaging, losing, or theft of said laptop is too high to risk. I bought one of these clipboards:

http://www.artsuppliesonline.com/cat...m?cata_id=6775

And inside I have everything I need outside of test parts and bulk cable! I have a small 10 cd hard case to hold the CD's in, and that has never let me down. Also, since many PC's are in a troubled state to begin with, network access is usually not an option. I do have one in my car, but it's mounted in the car and is used for GPS and printing only.

But that's just my opinion

And for net access, I use my cell-phone with a USB cable...Sprint PCS baby!

[pcgenie]

but you are gonna look mighty stupid clutching all your disks when you can't actually use them in the machine you are trying to fix ! I know who'll look stupid then !

I carry no more than basic tools some with advanced options like bootable CD, as far as CDs go and then I have one CD for the customer to have with some free basic stuff, which normally has the adware and stuff on it, no need for me to have it on another CD.
If I can't use the cd-rom, then I'm pretty sure I know what part of the problem is, but I'm smart smart enough to be aware of the basic issues of the computer. It all comes down to asking before you visit onsite.

If you are using a laptop that houses 60GIGs worth of tools, awesome, but don't you have to transfer them to the client and install when needed. O wait no NIC to do that..or awesome I can use that good old trusty printer port to transfer(not). Each of us will come across something that may hinder some part of fixing a machine. I do however like the idea of the jump drives. Get a jump drive with a gig of space and have a second option to use onsite.That would work for me.

somebody said to me - 'what are you doing ?' while noting it took me 1/2 an hour every time before setting off to get organised,

Um, Might want to tidy up a bit more. I recommend the CD ORganizer for those having a ruff time doing so.

btw just to give you an idea, there's 60 gig's worth of utilities & images on my 'baby' - & that's an awful lot of cd's

Not really to comaplin or anything but 60GIGs worth of tools seems abit excessive for our kind of work. I use around 6-8 CD-Rs and store them, while maintaining a current copy on my computer that is ready and able to be burned within 7 minutes, 10 on cold mornings.(I run 3 minutes slower when it is cold). To each his own I guess. I just thought a list for others to refer would be nice, doesn't really matter how you store them.

Never triple quoted someone before..LAST TIME FOR THAT..looks like I'm just typing and typing and typing just to type. Guess I might have been.

[pcgenie]

..You try getting a cd to mail in here (or similar) to ask when you don't know/haven't seen the problem before !

Not sure what you meant on this one!

[constructor]

Since most customers have USB these days I found that a couple of CDs together with a 80Gb USB Ext Drive with all of the rest of the Drivers etc does the job v nicely. I just update the Drive Weekly from the server.

[confus-ed]

Not sure what you meant on this one!

I can use my lappie to mail folks, if/when I get stuck - cd's kind of lack that capability

btw earlier I should have put 60gigs worth of programs, images & utilities just in case anybody thinks I am crazy enough to carry that many !

Constructor makes a good point about an external drive probably my second most useful thing after my laptop.

So methinks you can't compile your utility list until you know what kit you might carry to help you, as it isn't that bright a move taking say ghost along with you to image things if you have no external drive or burning capability present ..

[tommo666]

I don't carry any apps, if the customer doesn't have the original cd's with license it don't get loaded.

I do carry all the Dell resource and driver CD's and a couple of disks with server bioses and utils incase i can't get web access. A few boot floppies and ghost.

That's about it, i do have the firms laptop and that is full of EMC software. Oh and a hotmail/Gmail account