I know this is all just a bunch of geeky fun, but I had to share.
During my regular day-to-day duties, I provide technical support services for a number of folks. Sometimes when they call, it’s an issue that has to be handled immediately. Such as these, today.
I was away from my desk and without my laptop when I got a call that a VPN connection was down. No problem, I used my phone to get a secure shell terminal session with the server to double-check the connection, found and fixed the link, and reset the VPN connection — problem was handled in 5 minutes when it would have easily taken a half hour to get back to my desk and my computer.
While at lunch, and without my computer again, I received another call that required me to view what was on the user’s desktop to help them debug a problem. No sweat. Using ssh and vnc apps, I was able to connect and view their desktop from my phone and assisted them immediately without having rush through my lunch and hustle back to my computer.
Late in the day, after I was “off the clock” and out doing things with family, another call came in with a very urgent need to have a Windows server rebooted. Rather than having to brush them off until later, I used my phone to get a remote desktop on the Windows machine, answer a number of pending pop-up prompts, then performed a clean shutdown/reboot. All without having to leave the car (no, we were parked at the time).
It sometimes amazes me how much can now be accomplished, just from my phone.