Internet Service Provider support is usually provided through the ISP help desk.
  • the ISP help desk is usually the first place a user or business turns to for help
  • help desk technicians: have the knowledge and experience to fix problems and get users connected
Levels of customer support:
a.) Level 1 – for immediate support handled by junior levelhelp desk technicians.
                      – many customer issues are resolved by the Level 1 support technician.
                     – Responsabilities:
  • diagnose basic network connectivity issues.
  • diagnose and document the symptomps of hardware, software and system problems.
  • resolve and document any basic user issues.
  • help customer complete online order forms.
  • escalate unresolved issues to the next level.
b.) Level 2 – handles calls that are escalated to more experienced telephone support
                      - Responsabilities:
  • diagnose and solve more difficult network problems.
  • use diagnostic tools and remote desktop sharing tools ti identify and fix problems.
  • identify when an onsite technician must be dispatched to perform repairs.
c.) Level 3 – for calls that cannot be resolved by phone support and require a visit by an onsite technician.
                      - Responsabilities:
  • diagnose and resolve problems that have been escalated by the Level 1 and Level 2 technicians
  • survey network conditions for analysis by a senior network technician.
  • install and configure new equipment.
Level 3 Support is usually in accordance with a Service Level Agreement.
MSP – Managed Service Providers – organization that provides managed services or or 0n-site support.
A help desk script is used by the help desk technician to gather information and cover the important facts about customer incident.
OSI model: Upper layers ( Application, Presentation, Session) and Lower Layers( Transport, Network, Data link, Physical)
Problems that occure to this layers:
  • problems that occur at the Apllication layer are often related to errors in the configuration of the user software
  • problems that occur at layer 4 (Transport) can be caused by improperly configured firewall filter lists
  • problems at layer 3 (Network) – incorrectly configured IP address information, router configuration
  • problems at layer 2 (Data link) – incorrect Nic drivers, interface cards and hardware problems with switches.
  • problems at Phisycal layer - loose or incorrect cables, malfunctioning interface cards or electrical interference.
Troubleshooting approaches:
1.) Bottom-up – starts with the physical components of the network and work its way up the layers of the OSI model.
2.) Top-down – starts with the user application and work its way down the layers of the OSI model
3.) Divide and conquer – is generally used by more experienced network technicians.
                                                – the technicians makes an educated guess targeting the problem layer and then based on the observed results, moves up or down the OSI model. 
Email issues:
  • can receive but not send
  • can send but not receive
  • cannot send and receive
  • nobody can reply to messages
A common problem is using the wrong POP,  IMAP or SMTP servers name.
Host configuration issues:
  • improperly configured host addressing information
  • Link local address – 169.254.1.0 – 169.254.254.255 - used when the server is unavailable or unreachable
  • APIPA – Automatic Private IP addresing – communication outside the network is impossible. 
Connectivity issues:
  •  TCP/IP stack can be tested and verified using a loopback address
  • loopback is a special address, the reserved IPv4 address 127.0.0.1 , which hosts use to direct traffic to themselves
  • addresses from 127.0.0.0-127.255.255.255 are reserved for testing purposes
Trouble ticket or incident report – a piese of paper in a paper filling system or an electronic tracking system designed to follow the troubleshooting process from beginning to end.
Call escalation process – passing the call to a higher level technician
Steps an on-site technician performs beginning any troubleshooting at the customer site:
1.) Provide proper identification to the customer
2.) Review the trouble ticket or work order with customer to verify that the information is incorrect
3.) Communicate the current status of any identified problems and the action the technician expect to take
4.) Obtain permission from the customer to begin the work.