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One of the issues we discuss a lot is the limitations of remote support. We're often a thousand miles or more from the user we're trying to help, so if it isn't a hardware problem, we have to work on the software remotely. Our typical setup has 4 or 5 retail terminals, 2 workstations, and a server. If it looks like a problem with network settings, we sometimes have to ask the user to go to each terminal, shut down the retail software, review the IP settings, etc. and then repeat these steps several times. This is viewed as extremely tedious by the support staff, and more importantly, by the users. The users' supervisors see this time consuming activity as 'totally unacceptable', and I can't say I disagree. We all should be looking for better ways to do things... For us, finding a better way to execute remote support is a must.

See ya later.