Viability of roaming home user support

[NoTiG]

IM currently unemployed... and Ive been wanting to become semi self employed... I have my basic necessities paid for... like food and shelter etc... but to make money I was thinking about starting a home support business... this isn't for a long term or full time life supporting thing.. just a chance for me to learn more (on-site problem solving skills) and to make spare cash.

For example... someone from my general vicinity has a spyware problem... I drive to their house and fix their computer.

Basically my questions are: who has done something like this and what experiences do you have?

What kind of materials would you use? FOr example.. I am planning on using a laptop, with a usb key to transfer programs in case i need to, an external storage device for backups.. maybe some random tools like screw drivers.. rescue disks. And also subscribe to one of those mobile phone networks so that i can just access the internet from my laptop with a mobile phone.

I don't have any credentials to start something like this.. but i do have the skills.. and if i can't solve something i know how to search to find someone who has had the same problem before and fix it. I have built computers for various friends/relatives and have fixed their computers from various things (software and hardware issues) .

Advertising: how would you advertise for something like this ? just a small add in the newspaper ? I wouldn't expect a website to generate any clientelle since the chance of someone visiting my website and being in the same area is low.. but maybe it could make the whole operation look more official?

Money: I am not greedy at all.. in fact i would be willing to work for less. I was thinking that I would not charge by hour... I would charge like maybe a $25 fee... Only if i fixed there computer though. In that way if i couldn't figure something out.. they wouldnt have to pay me.. and If it took me a long time to figure something out.. they wouldnt have to pay extra because of something I did not know.

ANd also.. as a side mission.. i could start converting the world to unbuntu linux and hand out free CD's for fun >:P Maybe dual boot it on their computers so if one OS croaked they could use the other in the meantime or something. ANyways...

What are your thoughts??????

[CospeFogo]

I haven't done something like that for a living, but I think that this distro: http://www.knoppix-std.org/ would be very useful to you.

[Amarack]

A good large external hard drive can be very useful. If your client has a large amount of data, and their system is "really bad," backing up their data is very hard without a large hard drive. And internal just wastes time.

I think you could charge more than $25. I am quite sure that if your skills are good enough and you get word around that your good at what you do, then it will be fine to charge a bit more. I know someone who was charging a flat fee of $50 for on-site service of desktop machines. The thing about it is, its really often that you are going to find the computer in a terrible mess, and it could very well take you a lot of time to fix it (regardless of your skills).

Good luck on your work!

[NoTiG]

unfortunately i would need to keep windows and probably use windows programs like adaware and spybot and stuff... although i would probably keep a Live cd around for maybe repartitioning or something >:P

[NoTiG]

A good large external hard drive can be very useful. If your client has a large amount of data, and their system is "really bad," backing up their data is very hard without a large hard drive. And internal just wastes time.

I think you could charge more than $25. I am quite sure that if your skills are good enough and you get word around that your good at what you do, then it will be fine to charge a bit more. I know someone who was charging a flat fee of $50 for on-site service of desktop machines. The thing about it is, its really often that you are going to find the computer in a terrible mess, and it could very well take you a lot of time to fix it (regardless of your skills).

Good luck on your work!

Thats a good point! Some things do take more time even if you know what your doing.

[CospeFogo]

unfortunately i would need to keep windows and probably use windows programs like adaware and spybot and stuff... although i would probably keep a Live cd around for maybe repartitioning or something >:P
Yes, this is a live cd. It's a Knoppix based distro aimed at information security.

[jdong]

I've never done this for a living (read: full-time), but I do occasionally do this to raise money to support Backports and myself (as a high schooler).

I can say, that if you're fast at fixing these types of problems, you can easily earn $50+ US per hour, which is an astounding amount!

Tips/Tricks from my personal experience:

Networking / Wi-Fi Debugging:
If you're asked to help someone set up his/her home network, take along a Linux LiveCD. It can be VERY helpful for seeing if a problem is hardware-related or Windows-related. In addition, bringing your own network card (USB is best) also comes in handy.

If you're asked to set up a wired internet connection sharing, avoid getting chewed in the rear later. Though it may be cool, don't recommend him to take a 16MHz system and turn it into a Linux/BSD router. Also, don't go with one of those ultra-cheap routers that are a pain to set up. Go with high-quality solutions, and your reputation will be preserved (yeah, high-quality home-brew Linux solutions are very impressive to show, too!)

Spyware / Ad-Ware cleanup:
Make sure you take some sort of medium with Microsoft AntiSpyware, Ad-Aware, Spyware Blaster, and Spybot on it. ALL OF THEM! Make sure, if possible, to bring along the latest signatures, too. A significant portion of spyware WILL hamper your downloading/network abilities.

Take care with the "Fix All" button. Using it hastily can cause Windows to fail. If it isn't 500 pages long, print off a list of everything found, in case you need to backtrack.

In addition to just cleaning up, educate users how to prevent spyware. Show him/her the Firefox browser. Run Spybot's Immunize and Spyware Blaster. People are happier if you don't tell them "pay me more money in a week" ;-)

[Arthemys]

I can back everything jdong has just posted 100%

I work for a local computer service / retail company. We range from home users up to a few small businesses and a small number of larger companies.

We currently charge 45 USD for in-shop work, and 55 USD for on-site work. We're considering keeping the 55$ / hour for our existing clients and any new clients via contract, but upping the non-contracted price up to 65$.

At this time we have one location in Southern Vermont, and travel quite all over for our clients.

This is exactly how my company started out, my boss did exactly what you're doing. Then as his client base grew, he added the advent of a store front and employees.

I personally no longer handle our home user clients anymore, I deal with our inhouse network and any of our small business clients.

If it hasn't been mentioned yet besides having a backup drive, you'll want to bring along a computer with you to mount their hard drive on.

Scan disk, AntiVirus, disk defrag will all be performed on your machine and any forms of antispyware will run on the client's computer, as when you try and remove spyware you will need to have their registry loaded into memory so that you can scan it properly and remove all the nasty bits.

[jdong]

I gotta add, I'm just doing this as an amateur in my spare time, so I'm probably charging much less than realistic rates.

Typically, I'll charge $50 per incident, which takes anywhere from 1-2 hours to resolve. Usually customers pay me more than $50, after seeing the struggle trying to degunk their poorly maintained Windows boxes ;)


But yes, it's very profitable. I intend on starting up my own business soon, doing this.

[Arthemys]

We started out only charging $35 inshop and $45 onsite.

Comfortably we were able to raise it up $10 each, just needed to do it in $5 intervals, unfortunately up here they will not pay extra, regardless of your struggle. :P

I was only tipped $20 ONCE. Which was greatly appreciated...
Ironic you may say, but the best feeling for me is when I provide customer with information to fight their own battles and then they're happy for the rest of the year.

Yes that's technically money down the drain on some occasions, but I feel good about it when the person takes my advice to heart and learns from it.

[NoTiG]

Bringing a computer to mount their hard drive sounds like a good idea. Maybe thats a good way to get around them having a slow computer which will hamper the whole process and make it take longer. Older slower computers can be quite annoying!. It is more fun to work on a newer computer.

I guess for onsite $25 is kind of low. $30-35 sounds more realistic..

thanks for the tips :P

[Arthemys]

With your situation I would even suggest $40 USD / hour, if you believe you provide good service then there's value to that, don't undersell yourself.

One more thing to note regarding your comment on Ubuntu and linux. Showing a Windows user something like Ubuntu, will get you into something that you won't have the resources or time to deal with. Atleast, that's my experience with trying to convert people or have them buy a new computer with linux installed.

It's new to them, and there's no help line to call, so you'll be the point of contact and representative for the entire linux community. Even if you explain to the user you're not incharge of support or cannot do support for free, they will still expect it. It would be a new and scary world for someone that's used to a startmenu and "My Computer"

Granted it seems easy for us, just take into consideration I've seen users become confused and dazed at the fact their icons have moved one slot over and their wallpaper made it hard to find. Which then will warrent a phone call. Or their ATi graphics card ran fine in Windows but now plays Tux Racer and awful rates because of poor driver support, that will warrent a phone call too.

I'm not saying to not suggest it, but keep those in the back of your mind when doing so. I really wish with all of my heart that I could just "sell linux" all day to everyone and make the world a better place. But linux isn't ready for stupid users, stupid users combined with linux will bring you into a living hell much worse than a crappy Windows install from more than a year ago.

[NoTiG]

I agree.. it would be nice to give then linux but hard! I can install it and set it up pretty quickly with the aid of those automated scripts that install the codecs and things. but it does take a little savvy to use linux. I wouldnt just load it up on someones computer and tell them have a nice day. i would probably dual boot them so they could play with it or something.

The funny thing is... once you get linux customized for your needs... its actually easier to install programs... If they are in the repositories ... than in windows. not to mention that since they come from the repositories they are Safer.. and little to no chance of spyware.

[poofyhairguy]

If you're asked to set up a wired internet connection sharing, avoid getting chewed in the rear later.


......by not doing it. I help people with their computers all the time (for free, but just because I don't have the acorns to charge people) and I REFUSE to touch a wireless network. Those cheap wireless cards don't really like playing with cheap wireless routers. Wireless has caused me much pain, and now you can't pay me to mess with it.....

[jdong]

I've only helped two "dumb users" install Linux.... and they still bug me to this date.

[poofyhairguy]

I've only helped two "dumb users" install Linux.... and they still bug me to this date.

Hmm....that is the problem with Linux in my experiance of giving it to new people who aren't excited about it. Everything is your fault. With Windows, you can blame things on viruses/microsoft/the user.