Why you should get there early

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past seven years as a trainer is “arrive early, test everything.” Case in point, DU last night. I was told that the campus had wireless access so I trudged onto campus 1.5 hours before my class just to be sure. I found my classroom, booted up the laptop, found several connections, chose one, connected and promptly got the DU “warning your connection is insecure until you download this iVPN client to secure it. Oh, and until you download that client, you can’t surf away from this page.” So, click on the link to download. Nothing happens. I wait two minutes and get “document contains no data.” Call network support, ping the site, it’s up. Try the IP numbers as URL, same lack of response. O.k. go over to the helpdesk at the library. (Luckily just across the street.) Get to the help desk, wait ten minutes and get some help. I show them the problem so the just plug me in to the wired connection and download the client. Install the client. (It takes three tries.) I no longer see any of my network adapters. The iVPN client had completely messed up my laptop. It doesn’t even shut down properly any more. Another tech chimes in: “Oh, the iVPN client doesn’t work on TabletPC.” Thanks, where were you ten minutes ago!? Try to uninstall the client, it won’t. Do a system restore to before installing the darn software. Computer back to “normal”. Wireless still doesn’t work and I don’t have a LAN cable on me. They give me one and I go back to my classroom. The class itself went without a hitch.