About

Hi my name is D.A.R.Y.L., it stands for Data Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform. Any of you seen that film?

About me

I have been working as an IT consultant full time for the past 5 years. This involves the installations of servers and networks from the initial design phase right through to completion. I am certified in several MS server and client operating systems and work with the latest Windows technologies. Some of these are Windows 2008 R2 server, Exchange 2010, TCP/IP issues and general techy type stuff. I would say I specialise in security and TCP/IP.

I am a clever chap (…I like to think ) but only recently found I have a knack of thinking like a computer. I say this because although others are just as clued up as me in other areas I’ve noticed I can consistenly solve computer problems A LOT QUICKER than people around me. I put this down to that I must have good troubleshooting skills and think like a computer! It probably also helps that I enjoy reverse engineering technologies. By learning how each piece of technology works you can more accurately pinpoint where the fault is. This is the difference between solving something almost instantly as opposed to it taking all day.

About this blog

The golden rule you have to remember about computers is that they don’t make mistakes… users do! How many times have you looked at a problem and you are convinced the computer is doing something wrong only to kick yourself when you find it was something you caused? All the time I bet… Computers do exactly as they are told and if you start to think like this (like a computer) you will fault find a lot easier.

With that in mind I decided to create this blog. I see all too often people struggling when troubleshooting because they didn’t take the right approach. Well this is what this site is for; to show you how to troubleshoot effectively. You will find some posts will be very long winded, only to find that the solution is in one sentence. I believe that is important though, that you understand how I got to that solution. If you understand how I solved the problem then you will be able to yourself in similar scenarios. Of course I am not unique in how I think, but I used to think everybody took the same approach as me until I found otherwise.