Half my time so far seems to have been taken up with sorting out printer issues.
There are dozens of different desktop printers in various places in the company, and also several networked ones.

In one department, a dos machine which printed to a network printer (via Novell Netware)needed to be able to also print to a local desktop printer, which would be shared between 2 machines. The first step was to work out how to get it to lose the network printer connection on request. After scanning through the autoexec.bat file I noticed it was calling the file startnet.bat in the Novell Netware folder. In this file, one line included a capture command to 'capture' the network printer. A bit of reading later, I found that by typing an endcap command at dos you could lose the network printer. Bingo! It was then just a case of plugging a device sharer (basically a box with an A or B selector dial) in between the 2 PCs.

Next up, a desktop Epson wouldn't work. A message on screen said 'unknown error:return to your nearest epson dealer' or something like that. A web search revealed that there is a built-in counter in some Epson printers which causes this error after a specific number of prints. There is a pad which soaks up spilt ink inside the printer. The company estimates that this needs replacing at regular intervals, hence the error. The sites which mention this usually claim it's a con job - you take your printer in, the engineer takes it into the back room, resets the counter using special software, replaces the pad, then charges you way over the odds for the privilege. Anyway, the various free software I found which claimed to let you reset this yourself didn't stop the message. A new printer was bought.

Third problem: A desktop Okipage 6e started only printing some of the time. I noticed that the printer was disappearing and reappearing magically in the printers list. Tried installing different drivers - no joy. Tried printing directly - ditto. Tried it on another PC - same problem. Replaced drum with the only spare available (original was leaking toner) - no luck. Shelved it and replaced it with a working one that prints at a slant (the paper guide doesn't sit level). Probably haven't heard the last of this one.

[FITM = Former IT Manager]

This office was part vintage hardware graveyard, part IT library.
Once we'd gone through the books sorting out which belong to FITM and packing them up for him, the next step was to sort through reams of printouts and notes to try and work out what they were and whether we needed to keep them. The approach was "If we don't know what it is, we'd better keep it".
Then I had to go through 3 large cardboard boxes full of floppies, to work out which we could chuck and which we could reuse (there always seems to be a floppy famine at our place).
Next it was onto piles of CDs.
There were 2 metal cabinets full of software, CDs and manuals. Some of the stuff in here was comically vintage. Manuals for Word 3 on a Mac from 1987! A manual for a primitive laptop that looked more like a desktop with a flip up screen bolted on. Interesting stuff, but it had to go.
The guys from the services department started clearing some of the metal shelving of old old macs and busted monitors. This still leaves about a dozen (probably broken) printers and a pile of Amstrad 33mhz base units. There are also 2 cabinets and a table full of strange bits of wire, connectors, adapters, modems etc etc.

To be continued...

Restarted one PC and it lost keyboard and mouse (both PS2). Serial mouse worked, as did USB mouse. USB keyboard didn't. Couldn't get into BIOS to check USB settings cos the keyboard didn't work. Anyone know how to get into a BIOS without using the keyboard?! Phoned the tech support company we deal with and they sent out replacement motherboard. Had to send an engineer to fit it (I've added devices to PCs but never had to replace a motherboard).

Restarted another PC and the network card lost all it's settings. Another engineer was sent, and said these cards (D-Link) have a known problem with this. An update was downloaded and applied, which fixed it.

One of our Novell netware networks suddenly refused to accept more than 2 users (there are 30 licenses). It came up with an error saying the licenses may be corrupt and that removing and reinstalling them may be required.
- Tried to update licenses and found that the username and password used by the former IT manager didn't work. All attempts to find a working username/password from him and former IT assistants failed.
- In a desperate attempt to gain access I downloaded and ran a file called burglar.nlm, which allows a user to create a super user on Netware. Still couldn't get in.
- Meanwhile, the eight users shut out of the system (and thus unable to do their job properly) had started ringing me at 30 minute intervals to ask when they could go back in.
- I found out that the tech support companies who I thought were contracted to help us out with this system actually weren't.
- After a day and a half, someone from one of these companies phoned me and talked me through it (probably at the request of one of our directors). It boiled down to the fact that I hadn't been adding 'context' to the username. This amounts to adding a few characters before and after the username to tell the system what you want access to. Once I could get in, removing/reinstalling the licenses was easy.

I hate Netware.


The company I work for has 80 employees, 2 networks running Novell, dozens of databases, stacks of vintage mac/pc hardware and software.

The IT department was one guy - and he just left.

They asked me to take on most of his tasks.

I have some IT skills but not much experience.

This should be fun!