Workers' Edge

Let me begin by stating that most tech-support staff know their stuff and exhibit the patience of Job when dealing with us dumb, short-tempered users. Let me add further that on some occasions in the past I have had a less-than-pleasant demeanor when seeking the assistance of help-desk helpers.

Even though support staffers have saved my bacon on several handfuls of occasions, I feel like I have lost untold hours of my life on tech-support lines in a futile effort to troubleshoot some PC problem or other.

My most recent exchange with tech support occurred after a mail-server upgrade went awry, knocking out the remote access I rely on when I work outside the office, which is often.

(I must note that the IT folks at the company I work for--which is not CNET, by the way--were more victimized than I was; the conversion was "handled" by an outside contractor.)

I never did find out the particulars of the problem, though I believe it was related to caches that didn't clear when they should have. The lesson of the experience for me was knowing when to stop looking for a fix and start looking for a workaround.

Gmail to the rescue
In this case, the workaround was Web mail. By using my Gmail account rather than my work mail account, I was able to receive and send all the messages and files I needed. I met all my deadlines easily.

It helps that our office has a contingency plan in place for server and phone outages. It helps even more that ours is a small office, so I can reach everyone I need to reach with just a couple of phone calls.

Still, after my last 75-minute phone session with the contractor trying to restore remote access to the server, I found I was more troubled by the time I lost than by the frustration of the problem we were fixing. I decided then and there that the next time I was tempted to call tech support, I'd start with the workaround and leave the troubleshooting to the pros.

Great sites for PC troubleshooters
For a great overview on how to avoid the tech-support blues, read Jeff Bertolucci's Never Call Tech Support Again. And for tips from decorated veteran of the tech-support wars, see Prashant Patnaik's Tips for Getting Good Customer Support. Lastly, a good site for doing your own Windows troubleshooting is the Tech Support Guy.

Even with the many work-hours I lost over the last two weeks attempting to make contact with the recalcitrant server, the problem didn't really slow things down much, thanks to our various Plan Bs. One of the nice things about overlapping technologies is that you don't have to rely on any single one. Now if the coffee machine ever breaks, we'll be in real trouble.

I spent Wednesday afternoon getting to know Microsoft's new Office Live Workspace, a free service that lets you store Office files online for easy access and sharing.

Once I got used to what the service isn't--it isn't a way to actually work on the files in a browser--I came to appreciate how easy the service makes it to save Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on the Web, and open them in their original app on any PC with an Internet link.

The biggest downside is how difficult it is to get the service working on a Vista machine running Office 2007. I was uploading and downloading Office 2003 documents on my XP machine in just a few minutes, but I had to jump through a series of hoops to do the same in their Office 2007 equivalents on my newer Vista PC.

I decided to start from scratch by creating a new Windows Live account rather than using my existing Hotmail account. Signing up for the account was a breeze, though I opted out of most of the options the installer presented. For example, I had no interest in downloading Messenger, the Windows Live Toolbar (my browser's cluttered enough already), or anything having to do with OneCare, which single-handedly destroyed my home network when I tried out the beta last summer. Be sure to uncheck the option to make MSN your home page, and you may want to avoid sending Microsoft any more data than the company already helps itself to.

Uncheck options in the Windows Live installer to avoid downloading programs you don't want or need.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Once the Windows Live installation completed, it took just a few more clicks to get started with Office Live Workspace. You're prompted to give the generic workspace a name and description, which you can change later simply by mousing over the name in the left pane and choosing one of the options that appears.

Adjust your workspace by mousing over its name in the left pane and choosing an option from the popup menu.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Of course, there's not much you can do with the service until you get some files uploaded. You can add files from inside the workspace one at a time or in batches, though the batch approach uses an ActiveX control, and thus requires Internet Explorer 6 or higher. Since I normally use Firefox (and had used that browser to create the workspace), switching to IE just to upload a bunch of files at once would have been a major inconvenience. Still, I never intended to use this method to add files to the workspace. Instead, I downloaded the Office Live Add-in, which lets you upload files to and download them from the workspace directly inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

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We get so used to doing things a certain way, we sometimes miss new techniques that could save us time and trouble. My latest "d'oh!" moment was when I realized, after spending a couple of hours moving files from my office PC to an FTP server so I could sync them with my new laptop, that there's a better and faster way that doesn't cost a nickel: remote access.

A couple of years ago I edited a review of a half dozen remote-access services that link to a PC from any other Internet-connected machine. At the time, the services cost between $10 and $20 a month. Since that time, several companies have released free versions of their remote-access services, one of which is from LogMeIn (formerly 3am Labs). In the midst of my home PC-to-FTP server-to laptop two-step, I recalled the company's free file-transfer service, and I'm glad I did.

That's because when I returned to the site, I discovered that its LogMeIn Pro offering is now available in a free version that includes all of the features of that $13-a-month service during the 30-day trial period; when the trial ends you lose the ability to drag-and-drop files between the PCs, stream sound from the remote system, print remotely, and hold mini-conferences by inviting others to access your remote desktop, among other features.

Signing up for and installing the service takes all of about two minutes: you provide your e-mail address and a password (this is the one you'll use to sign into the service, so make it tough to guess), download and install the control file, follow the link in the confirmation e-mail, and log in. If you use Firefox, you'll be prompted to download a separate file that improves the view of the remote desktop in that browser.

Now you're ready to log into the PC from any other Internet-connected machine. Just browse to LogMeIn.com, log in, and select the remote PC from your list of connections to open the page showing all your connection options.

The LogMeIn console shows all your remote-access options.

Logging into a remote PC via the LogMeIn service is as easy as entering your user name and account password.

From here you can begin a remote session by providing your login name and password for the remote machine, or open the Windows Explorer-like file manager for transferring files between the two systems. Other options on this page let you change your settings, or perform other actions. After you log in remotely, you'll see a toolbar at the top of the browser window, which provides easy access to screen settings for color and resolution, as well as connection options, volume adjustments, the magnifier and laser pointer, and other tools.

LogMeIn's browser toolbar provides one-click access to screen, connection, and other adjustments to the remote session.

Even though I don't think I'll need the mini-meeting, chat, and other features of the Pro version when my 30-day trial period expires, the drag-and-drop file transfers may be the feature that gets me to cough up $13 a month (or $70 for a year) for the Pro service. But I have 29 days to think about it.

Tomorrow: handwriting makes a comeback in Office 2007.

Nearly all broadband Internet accounts come with storage on the ISP's servers, but I'll wager not one in 10 broadband users ever store anything there. That's a shame, especially if you find yourself schlepping a USB thumbdrive or rewritable CD full of your personal files from computer to computer. There are dozens of free utilities out there that make transferring files between your local PC and an FTP or Web server as easy as dragging and dropping. The two I've been using are the open-source FileZilla FTP client, and 2Brightsparks' SyncBack, which is also available in a $30 version called SyncBackSE that adds compression, performance, and security features.

Windows' built-in FTP comes up short
You don't need any added software to send files to an FTP server from Windows: simply type the server address into Windows Explorer's address bar and press Enter to connect and view the files, or open a command prompt and type the address there. If you're working with lots of files in several folders, the Windows approach is like dressing in the dark. FileZilla and other FTP clients give you a clearer view of your file transfers before, during, and after the process.

For example, I use FileZilla to transfer files to a directory on my ISP's FTP server, as well as to update a Web site hosted on one of the company's Web servers. I created a profile for each task and can jump between the two simply by clicking the drop-down menu next to the program's Quickconnect button. FileZilla's multiple windows let me view the folder trees and contents of the local PC and the remote server side by side.

The free FileZilla FTP program lets you compare the contents of folders on your local PC and the remote FTP server.

As simple as FTP transfers are using FileZilla, you can't use it to back up files to an FTP server automatically, nor is it easy to synchronize files between two folders. That's where SyncBack comes in: the program lets you schedule file syncs and backups to FTP servers as well as to local storage devices. And you can run your backup and sync profiles manually with a single click. SyncBack lists the files that appear in the source or destination folder, but not in the other, so you can choose which files to include or exclude from the update.

Back up and sync files on an FTP server as easy as to a local folder with the free SyncBack utility from 2Brightworks.

It may sound like a trifle, but one of the greatest benefits of the FileZilla/SyncBack approach to file syncs and backups is that I no longer have to fumble around trying to plug my thumbdrive into the USB ports on my various PCs. It's also one less gizmo to keep from misplacing. Any programs that simplify my life even a little bit are welcome.

Monday: Getting Ubuntu to play nice with Flash and QuickTime.