Devoted to Help Desk and Technical Support personnel and applications

Interesting you'd pick these 4 items. I get the first 3, but why Who Is? What does this get for you on the Help Desk? I've used it to sniff out spam on the Desk, but I'm having a hard time seeing how one could say they're an advanced tech just because they can go to http://www.allwhois.com and see who a domain is registered for. I'm sure I'm missing something here. Thanks for enlightening me!

When I originally wrote this blog entry, I debated over breaking down the explanation for the need for each of these skills in this blog, or saving it for another entry that I would link to. This blog does leave you hanging, which was the idea, and I’m glad you asked.

Keep in mind that I don’t think a person is an “advanced” tech, as you say, simply by knowing these skills. I will reword that blog entry to show that to me they break through to intermediate when they can demonstrate that they can use these skills. They are no longer entry level, but they have a ways to go before I would consider them an advanced tech.

You really need to know how to use the information that “WhoIs” can give you. For one you can find out if a user is sending you on a wild goose chase. The fastest, easiest way to find out if the user has goofed up the url when a website won’t come up can be quickly resolved by running a whois. They could be one letter off for all you know. You will waste time if you are busy checking to see if it is a firewall issue.

I have also used whois to get a phone number for support when I have a user who can’t login to the website. It is true that much of the whois data is now blocked in an effort to thwart data miners, but when you have four managers looking over your shoulder needing an answer, it is worth a try.

You can also find out the server type. Why is that important? Well, If the site is running on an apache server, you know that the webpage url is case sensitive. Try going to this link: http://www.helpdesknotes.com/2007/08/Advancement_4_tools_every_help.html it won’t work, because helpdesknotes.com is running on an apache server. I changed the “a” in advancement to a capital letter. Now try this link: http://www.helpdesknotes.com/2007/08/advancement_4_tools_every_help.html it works. What else can you do with whois information? You can look up the DNS information if you are having problems viewing a webpage. Maybe you are trying to troubleshoot connectivity problems one of your companies websites. You can even use whois to troubleshoot email routing issues for a domain.

Whois information can tell you if the registration recently expired. I have also saw a domain name get “hijacked,” WhoIs was the first place I went.

Anymore questions?