November 19, 2004
Challenges
Had fun last night. The manager of a local pub called me on my cell and asked me to help him with a problem he was having getting their new point of sale software to run. I went over and spent almost 2 hours dorking around until I called in a friend who gave me what I needed to make it work. The challenge of making something I know so little about work was awesome.
According to the vendor, it is just a matter of following the instuctions on his sheet. If only it were that easy, then people like me would be jobless. 
Step one: The floppy drive did not recognize the disk. Replaced the drive with another drive salvaged from a discarded computer. Note: USB floppy drives might require drivers.
Step two: Installed Microsoft Novell drivers which did not work.
Step three: Installed Novell client which removed MS drivers.
Step four: Stumbled around why the computer could not see the Novell tree. [This is where I called in assistance.] The solution? Remove the Novell client and install with the "IP and IPX" option. It saw the tree fine.
Step five: Stumbled around what user logs into the computer. Our solution? Take one of the dumb terminals and have it reboot. Pause the screen at the point it logs into the Novell server. Crack the password for that user.
Step six: Follow the vendor's instructions.
I didn't offer to fix the remote printers or make the card swipes work. Maybe that can be next week? 
