It is hard to differentiate the symptom from the cause. These steps help to determine, and fix, the cause.
- Get information about the incident
- What, when, how, where, who?
- What: What is being attempted? What is the issue?
- When: When did the incident start? Did it start after a significant event? What changed recently?
- How: What steps were taken?
- Where: On or off campus? Wired or wireless network?
- Who: ID and affiliation (Faculty, Staff, Student, etc.)? How many people are affected?
- More details
- Device type
- University-owned or personal device?
- Operating system
- go.uwrf.edu/ip: IP address and date/time
- Software name and version
- Browser name
- Any out of the ordinary setups? (e.g., external monitor, VPN)
- Sometimes ordinary setups cause issues. Eg., some software can only be run on campus or on our VPN.
- Error messages
- Screen shots
- Reproduce the issue
- Isolate the cause of the issue
- Does it work for you on a different device? (It could be the device.)
- Does it work for another person on the same device? (It could be the account.)
- Does it work in another browser? (It could be the browser or browser settings.)
- Correct the cause of the issue
- Search the knowledge base (if UWRF specific) or the Internet (if global in nature) for answers.
- Use the process of elimination
- Try standard, easy, tried and true fixes first
- Reboot device (gets the device to a known state)
- For browsers, clear cache/cookies (gets the browser to a known state)
- Close and reopen the program (gets the program to a known state)
- Log out/in (gets the account to a known state)
- Remove/Reinstall software (gets the software to a known state)
- Update to the latest version of the operating system (software sometimes needs the latest)