Help an IT guy find a product
One of my many many jobs is doing some tech support for tenants in our office building. Basically I’m outsourced a bit to the point of proving our internet works and making sure the tenants are good with it.
TL;DR – trying to find device that lets me remotely work on network-hindered machines.
Each tenant is on their own setup/subnet, and for most it’s pretty much plug and play with BYOD… but about weekly something happens, and now with building restrictions and city-wide lockdown I’m increasingly being asked to troubleshoot issues remotely.
This can take a five minute troubleshooting in person and turn it into an hour plus depending on the tech level of the person I’m talking to. Alternatively I can dress up like a space man and come in and work on their device.
My number one issue that I’ve seen tends to be people who for some reason the network card on Windows 10 is suddenly stuck on their home network settings and no matter what you do won’t clear. This rules out any sort of remote desktop application and these are the ones that I’m pulling my hair out on.
Back in ye olden times I used to do remote server management via a KVM switch and could see any video out, push keys, move a mouse, power a switch on and off, but these days I find I’m needing quite a bit more than a simple KVM can deliver as in these circumstances I need to not only be able to push keys and move a mouse, but I also might need to be on a separate network connection.
You know, the port might have gone bad in the office, or the switch it’s plugged into isn’t working, or I’ve got my third suddenly bad ethernet cable for the year – so I need to be able to test that while operating on the building’s WiFi or LTE. I also regularly need the ability to see that someone has plugged the right cable in.
And also by our building’s requirements, city ordinances, I am required to work from home if at all possible.
So, does anyone know of a KVM-style device that works with any type of video in (HDMI, VGA, camera) and operate over WiFi or wired, and can push keys and mouse input over USB to a device?
Basically the idea is something they can take from our main desk, plug into their device, call me, and I’m in it when their internet is not working for whatever reason.
Keeping in mind that their internet is not working for whatever reason.
