Let's face it. No matter how careful you are, equipment will sometimes malfunction or break. Cables will be damaged, power supplies will fail, hard disks will shuffle off this mortal coil, and processors will burn out. The key is to make sure that any unexpected outages are dealt with in an expedient and professional manner. The most important thing to do in this event is to communicate. Don't get so deep into mending the problem that you fail to tell the rest of the world what has happened. After discovering that there's a problem, your first step is to call the heads of all affected departments. It's wise to have a list of these people prepared in advance. Tell them that you're aware of the problem and are investigating. Once the line of communication is established, you may choose to maintain it through the help desk. Get the help desk involved -- and keep them informed -- by giving them regular reports so that they can pass the information on to department heads. There are several good reasons for doing this. First, customers need to know what is happening. If they don't hear anything, they don't know what is going on -- for all they know, you and your team could be in the local pub enjoying yourselves. Let them know what has happened as soon as you can. Then, tell them what you are doing to fix it and provide a rough estimate of how long the fix will take. Further, proactively continuing the flow of information will reduce the number of calls to the help desk and, when users do call, the help desk staff will have the latest information available to pass along. And, if you keep the affected departments apprised of your progress, they will be able to better plan their work to avoid using the network. They may be able to attend to other tasks if they know they will have an hour or two without the system. Communicate, communicate, communicate
No matter how you slice it, the way to deal with network downtime is through frequent communication. If possible, let people know in advance that there will be an outage. If you have no warning, keep users up to date on your efforts to fix the problem. Your reward will be fewer complaints and a thankful user base. Running and administering a network is a constant learning process. By making sure that every incident is logged and acted upon, you can ensure that the next time you perform a task it will be easier and have less impact.
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