IT & Technical Support Guide to Helpdesk, Desktop & Servers

** Updates in progress - December 2025 - Now with roleplay! - Quiz questions also being added to each section **

On this course, you will learn how the different levels of IT technical support work, some of the topics included on this course are as follows:

* Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - expected level of service availability

* Data Protection - how to ensure that data within your organisation is kept secure.

* Assessing User Ability when dealing with support requests as is unique from user to user

* How to ensure passwords are secure in a modern computing environment

* Ticket escalations and priority exceptions for issue troubleshooting

On the Level 2 section of the course, we'll be covering some real world issues that can often appear when troubleshooting 1500 computer systems analyst interview practice exam tests. Some of the topics covered are as follows:

* An overview of physical and logical troubleshooting, explaining the differences between the two and how these issues can be identified

* Troubleshooting steps to take in the case of a suspected hard disk failure

* How to identify and troubleshoot memory issues, such as insufficient and/or faulty RAM.

* Dealing with CMOS battery failures and understanding the impact of this on a machine.

* An overview of the two main boot modes found on modern computer systems, legacy mode and UEFI.

* An explanation of PXE Booting and some of the common issues that occur when building new PCs

* Motherboard beep codes

* Domain trust relationships and how they can be affected by other issues

* An explanation of the differences and limitations between 32-bit and 64-bit architectures and operating systems.

There are also various other topics covered such as DHCP and simultaneous connections as well as some guidance on where to find information on issues that are hard to troubleshoot, such as internal knowledgebases and colleagues. Whilst external resources can be useful for troubleshooting, it is important to only use trusted resources, i.e. ones known to other technicians within your organisation.

On the Level 3 section of the course, you'll find some insider tips, such as how to build useful contacts within your company when you're working at desktop support level. Although this is possible at any level, I've found this be easiest at level 2 as you are more likely to move around to fix issues.

The key element to providing quality technical support is to ensure that you keep your knowledge up-to-date, some of this can be achieved through additional experience, whilst you can also give this somewhat of a boost by gaining additional technical certifications, which can be especially useful in the early stages of your career within desktop support (level 2), as well as infrastructure and technical support (level 3).

You'll learn everything you need to know to be able to move up from 2nd line desktop support to 3rd line (server) infrastructure support. Note that this does assume knowledge of some basic IT fundamentals, which in most cases would have been gained whilst at 1st line technician level.

Whilst this will, of course, vary between different organisations, this is based on my own experiences of some of the key things that can go a long way to making that move, along with becoming as familiar as possible with your organisation's processes, I wish you all the best of success in your career.

* Brief introduction to the course and the contents

* Day in the life of an infrastructure technician

* An overview of hypervisors and their function

* Introduction to virtual switches - how they tie into hypervisors, etc

* Incident free product management fundamentals practice assessment exams course - managing incidents

* Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RPOs)

* Escalation processes - when to escalate an issue to a higher level of the support process

* Threat monitoring - identifying threats

* REPADMIN and DCDIAG utility overview

* SYSVOL folder basics - replication overview

* Data protection fundamentals

* Backup types - incremental, differential, full and synthetic full

* SAN Storage Overview - basics of storage area networks

* Overview of the most common RAID levels used for backup purposes - RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 and RAID6

On the legacy systems part of the course, we'll be covering legacy operating systems and the things you need to know when learn hvac troubleshooting course for maintenance home repair bms any issues. Course topics include the following:

* Hardware ports that you would find on older machines, such as PS/2, USB, Parallel, Serial & SCSI ports.

* Legacy file systems such as FAT16 and FAT32.

* Legacy boot configuration files and how they work

* Plug and play support for hardware devices

* Security considerations and compatibility mode

* System activation and built-in applications

* An overview of machine virtualisation and dual-booting between different operating systems.

Also included in this course are some real-world examples of where you might find older machines, and what the best procedure is within most organisations when planning any changes, whether this is due to an emergency, or due to a planned upgrade or decommissioning of old equipment during a major project.

Note that wherever possible, legacy hardware should no longer be in use on a production network, however this course is designed to help you deal with those situations where this simply isn't possible, for example if the cost of replacing equipment is too great, or if there is any other reason this needs to remain operational, such as legal or compliance reasons specific to an organisation.