posted on July 17, 2001 08:54:41 AM
We have the Computer Room open here at the elderly housing apartment where I live.
It is hoped that it will offer the opportunity to both sell items on eBay to benefit the Resident's Council and for individuals to become exposed to buying and selling for themselves. We would be thankful for shared experiences from anyone who has been involved in similar group processes.
Before we can get very far we need to deal with more immediate problems. The following is our present status.
Five computers online connected thru a hub to the Internet via cable.
Two computers offline for practice, games and word processing.
A collection of donated used equipment which seems to meet our present hardware needs.
Many residents (average age about 79) have never used a desktop computer but we are helping each other and getting volunteer support from individuals within the community.
We adopted user procedures from existing sources such as the Library.
Where we are having difficult is establishing some standards for maintenance.
I have (and mostly ignore) an understanding of what should be done with my personal computer but keeping a network of computers operating is a completely different matter.
We will try to find someone within the community that maintains the computers for a company to give us an overview and hopefully sets-up procedures for us to follow.
Any suggestions for a site we can visit that might provide a checklist or other resources that could be the start of our system support manual?
Most service providers seem to offer a great deal of information on a narrow topic such as security but I haven't found an overview.
I thought I could screw up my own computer and fall behind with s/w upgrades, scans etc. but I had no idea what could really be done until I started to experience what 75 or more users on seven machines in several languages could accomplish in just 24 hours.
People have been yelling at me all of my life to finish paperwork, turn in reports or file taxes. No big deal and I generally can ignore their chatter. But the darn machines just shut down so I guess they've figured out how to get immediate attention.
Any other shared experiences or suggestions will be appreciated.
On the plus side I can't begin to express the joy people feel when they first send and receive emails from their family or visit family web sites.
It has reconnected me with the wonders of this whole process which I had started to take for granted.
posted on July 17, 2001 09:06:25 AM
First let me say congratulations on this huge task you've undertaken. As far as maintaining the computers and the network, you might want to check with the local high schools and/or community colleges to see if there are any young people out there who might like to take on this project at no cost as a community project. Some of the community college programs might even give them class credits for doing this. The benefits could work both ways. The computers will get their needed attention, and the young people might make some older friends who could be there to talk. See if you can get some young people to serve as mentors for the computer newbies - sort of a turnaround on a proven method of support.
posted on July 17, 2001 09:12:59 AM
The first rule is: No food, liquids, or smoking, in the computer room- no exceptions.
Use only electronics approved cleaning materials to clean the equipment screens,cases, etc..
Get cans of air duster and clean key boards regularly.
Change mouse pads periodically. With many people using them, skin oil and dirt will accumulate on the surface and end up in the mouse - it is better to dispose of them and get new than to try and clean the old ones.
Clean mouse periodically- remove ball cover and scrape off the rollers(gently)and air dust.
GET A FIREWALL AND VIRUS SOFTWARE AND KEEP IT UPDATED, ALSO PERIODICALLY RUN VIRUS SCANS- and make some rules about loading applications/software to the machines by users either by disk,email, or net downloads.
With email, you'll either have to explain about viral attachments to the users or set up your email application to exclude some types of attachments - for instance limit accepting attachments to 'jpg images.
Good luck- tell all the seniors Reamond says Welcome to the Net, glad you're joining us !
posted on July 17, 2001 10:16:32 AM
I love what you're doing! Congratulations.
About mouse pads, I second the suggestion to change them often. I've found mousepads at Staples, etc., that are made from sheets of paper that you can rip off just like a regular notepad. These work great and cost very little, and you can have a clean mousepad every day if you want one.
posted on July 17, 2001 11:05:51 AM
I help supervise a computer lab as part of my job.
We use this one program, it is called Deep Freeze, and it has been extremely valuable to us. It resets the system everytime the computer is restarted...so if someone deletes a file or downloads a program or changes a setting it gets put back to normal.
Most people can't even tell that Deep Freeze is running on the system. It's great. The program fits on a floppy and is shareware for 30 days and then you have to pay to register it.
posted on July 17, 2001 01:09:47 PM
Not sure how much funding/time you have, but some thoughts on "mass maintenance":
1. Either have a box of new mice available so that when (not if) one dies (or just needs cleaning) you can swap it out and deal with the old one later. Better yet, have optical mice that don't need cleaning. Nothing worse than a balky mouse, esp. if your fine motor control might be weak.
2. Ditto with keyboards and a monitor - have one spare to just swap in at a moment's notice.
3. Standardize your software. The ideal would be an standard disk "image" that could be restored if software doesn't function for any known reason. with different machines, you might need different images, one for each machine. If you had an external cd burner, for example, you could set up a machine, then back it up completely, and restore it if need be.
4. Download or collect a good set of drivers for the hardware of each machine into a central location, such that you can reload drivers at a moment's notice.
posted on July 17, 2001 01:23:17 PM
"The first rule is: No food, liquids, or smoking, in the computer room- no exceptions. Use only electronics approved cleaning materials to clean the equipment screens,cases, etc.. Get cans of air duster and clean key boards regularly. ..."
Boy I'm glad I'm not in an old folk's home (yet).
Pardon me whicle I brush these bread crumbs off'n the keyboard
or into the keyboard
or fn sdniweopg mapfnm
msooso
posted on July 18, 2001 12:53:47 AM
I agree that you will need some management software like WINSHIELD or DEEP FREEZE (http://www.deepfreezeusa.com) to assist you. We used to run a coffee shop with internet access, and had it NOT been for winshield, we would have been rearranging and reloading for hours each day.
Also, you should post on the wall some rules for the people to follow. Some general guidelines, perhaps a book or two on Windows for Dummies (no bad thoughts intended).
Though, people don't always follow the rules. (no kidding huh?) We had one kid that got really mad at us because our CD-RW drive discs (each machine had a CD-RW in it) could not read on his friends machines and he COULD NOT ACCESS HIS PORNOGRAPHY he was downloading using our PUBLIC (but still a private company) machines. I had to explain to him FIRST that he was underage, SECOND it was not allowed, and THIRD we just didn't care if he could see his porn.
The REALLY bad part... what he did left reminants on our machines (from documents to backgrounds) and our other customers discovered it. WORSE part? It was all bestiality pictures.
posted on July 18, 2001 02:45:09 AM
In our area we have a county wide computer club. They volunteer their time to give senior classes. They also solicit, repair and store used hardware for the seniors building in our area.
You might want to check in your area for a group like this.
posted on July 18, 2001 03:57:08 AM
At the school where I learned computers there was a backup program that would run every day and restore the system to its original state. Anything downloaded or installed would be removed. However, if you are using your computers to receive email you may not be able to do that. Norton Ghost is supposed to be a very good backup program and it is the one my own computer's restore uses. I would suggest you educate your users regarding VIRUSES especially the email kind, for example NEVER open any email titled "Snow White - the real story - hahaha!" or anything similar.
As for selling on eBay, users don't need a business degree. Start with simple ads and inexpensive items. Roommate's old shoes or dentures immediately comes to mind. LOL!
posted on July 18, 2001 04:40:52 AM
Hi,
What a wonderful idea. I live in Connecticut and I believe a lot of other states have adopted this including Florida (where I lived before). In order to graduate High School you have to complete a certain number of hours in Community Service. I would contact some local High Schools and see how many computer geeks would like to do this. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. In their minds it's way more 'cool' than a soup kitchen, picking up litter in the park etc...
Jay
posted on July 18, 2001 05:42:54 AM
an optical mouse senses movement by using a tiny digital camera that detects very small movements. No moving parts, unlike the traditional mouse with rollers and that stupid rubber ball. Depending on the mouse pad and overall cleanliness, you may have to go in and clean it once a week (times 7 computers). Otherwise gunk builds up and the mouse cursor jumps when you move, making it difficult to point and click accurately.
posted on July 18, 2001 03:03:46 PM
a couple of ideas here
check with local independent peaple doing networking and see if you can find someone you can "click " with WE have done the local food bank , womens shelter and boys club and charged only occasionaly for materials never labor we were also able to get other customers to donate obsolete equipment.
See if you can get the local paper or TV or both to do a story and be sure to mention you accept donations of equipment and are looking for IT proffesioanl help
Check with large corpartions and financial instutetions in your area talk to the IT departments and see what they can do for you lots of times big corportions will pay their peaple while they do community service work.
Good luck and if all else fails post questions here there are some knowledgable posters on this board
posted on July 18, 2001 04:59:56 PM
You might want to buy one used digital camera that could be shared like an older Sony Mavica because it is very easy to get the picture to the computer - you take the floppy out and insert it in the drive!
If you have lots of room a small card table or banquet table with a sheet draped down the wall and across the table where it is well lit would give them a place to shoot pic with the camera.
posted on July 19, 2001 02:44:00 AM
Are you paying extra to your cable company for having those four extra computers online? If so, you might want to switch from a hub to a router so you can stop paying fees for having more than one computer hooked up to your cable account.
I would recommend your residents get ONLINE email accounts (like Hotmail or Yahoo), so their mail won't be lost with every computer crash.
You might contact a local Boy Scout/Girl Scout troop to see if any of the kids can help out while earning merit badges.....or contact local high school service organizations that provide volunteer services in the community (our National Honor Society candidates have to do community service now in order to join). They might help with training as well as maintenance of your equipment, and it wouldn't cost you anything.
I don't know what kind of security you've set up to avoid THEFT, but your computer room should be LOCKED at all times with specialized access (keys or swipe cards) given to authorized users only, unless you have a guard/monitor watching the equipment during all "open" hours and have the room securely locked during "closed" hours.
If you haven't obtained a printer and photo paper, you might want to consider purchasing them, since there will be a lot of interest in printing out photos that are sent to residents by email or are seen on family websites. (You'll probably need a simple photo program loaded on one computer to size and "gang up" images for printing, but there are some programs available online or in stores for little to no cost.) Depending upon your budget, you might charge enough for this to cover expenses. Off-brands of photo paper and printer ink have become *very* inexpensive now, as have scanners (something else I would recommend you have). If you give everyone access to a digital camera, expect it to get broken. You might authorize only a FEW trained people to use the camera, and let them take photos for everyone else.
YEH! reston_ray Keep up the good work.