I) What we do and do not support
What We Support
- MIT owned computers on campus in our supported sections
- SHASS Dean's Office
- Women and Gender Studies
- Global Studies and Languages
- Literature
- Anthropology
- Music and Theater Arts
- Programs in Science, Technology and Society
- History
- Installation of software from IS&T and troubleshooting of buggy performance
- Set up of new machines
- Set up of email and backup software
- Contacting property to deactivate old machines
- Secure wiping of data and recycling of old machines
- Basic troubleshooting of printers
- Recommendations for new computers, printers, and peripherals
- Tips and tricks for troubleshooting unusual issues that may be encountered by our clients
- iPhone email setups
- Very basic Windows and android phone troubleshooting
- Providing documentation as time permits for know issues and best practices on the SHASS IT website and the SHASS IT Documentation Site
- Troubleshooting of wireless and wired network and email issues in our supported areas and reporting them to IS&T
- Set up, maintenance, troubleshooting, security, and updating of Synology and Macintosh File Servers for select academic sections
What we do NOT support
- Personally owned computers or off campus MIT owned computers
- MIT computers on campus that belong to employees who are not in our supported areas
- How to use your software (lynda.mit.edu has great resources to teach you how to use software)
- How to use any of the MIT academic or administrative web-based systems (Stellar, Cognos, etc). We don't have access to them so we don't know how to use them.
- Setting up or building websites
- Fix printers (for printer repairs, KSL is the official MIT printer repair vendor and can be reached at ksl@mit.edu)
- Fix computer hardware (Macintosh, Dell, and Lenovo Thinkpad machines can be brought to IS&T's walk-in help desk for repair)
II
The details of the SHASS IT Support Model are as follows:
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) Support Blocks
Each area has been assigned a single support block (morning or afternoon) where Dan or I will come on site to work on any and all IT problems.
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SHASS Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri
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AM WGS FLL GSL Anthro STS Emergencies
PM Emergencies LIT MTA History Reserved
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C. During short weeks where sections may be closed and students and staff are on vacation like the week between Christmas and New Years, support blocks will be suspended as we go to an on call model. All requests for support during this time can be emailed directly to us.
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III) IT Liaisons
It will be the job of the section LIAISON to track requests for IT assistance in their sections and prioritize them for us when we get onsite. You know your people better than we do, so if there's a support issue that's more important, please let us know so we can assist those users first. So far we’ve been able to address, forward to IS&T, and/or resolve ALL tech issues that the liaisons have brought to our attention.
a) In order to maintain quality of service and fast response times, all REQUESTS FOR APPOINTMENTS must go to the section's IT liaison for processing. The Liaison will then send an email to the shass-tech RT ticket system to request an appointment and we will get back to them to schedule.
b) Faculty members CAN email us directly if it’s a simple question. (eg. Is this spam, what do you recommend for X, is this service legitimate, have you had any experience with this program, etc)
c) As a best practice, complicated questions and issues (like email or calendaring not working all the time) should be handled in appointments anyway and should be directed to the Section Liaisons for scheduling.
d) The LIMITS of our support coverage are with MIT owned machines on campus. This is a practical limit. There are 2 of us and we support 7 sections in the school as well as the Dean's Office. We simply don’t have the resources to support all home networks, peripherals, and/or personal machines and devices. HOWEVER, time permitting, we are happy to TRY to answer any questions users may experience at home with MIT work machines. BUT for more complicated issues we have to see the machine. This is best accomplished by bringing in the machine to MIT. On a very special limited case by case basis if the users can work with us and users can’t bring in a machine, we can attempt to work with a relative off campus while the user is on campus with us so we can convey instructions to them and they to us to try to troubleshoot the issue.
e) With few exceptions we will NOT troubleshoot complicated issues over email. Due to differences in vernacular and terminology we have found that 90% of the time it leads to a frustrating experience for everyone involved.
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IV) Onsite Appointments
There are 3 situations where out-of-cycle onsite appointments can be scheduled: (please carefully note the specifics)
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C) SPECIAL PROJECTS that require a lot of manpower signed off on by Albert and the Dean's Office. Examples of this include mass deployments or upgrades of new machines or mass wiping of old machines.
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V) Alternating Coverage
Dan and I will be alternating morning and afternoon coverage on a weekly basis. We will continue alternating morning and afternoon coverage week after week.
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VI) Questions
It is ALWAYS OK to email QUESTIONS to us. If you're not sure whether something can wait, email us. If you have a question about a problem that you think you can resolve yourself, definitely email us if you're not sure or you need advice. Questions are always welcome and we firmly believe from practice that educated users are the best users. Never be afraid to ask questions. There are no dumb questions.
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VII) Examples
Some examples of the time it takes to perform tasks:
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