Inside the world of Tech Squad

Published October 4, 2018 This content is archived.

If you can order food online from anywhere right to your door, shouldn’t the same be said for tech support? And unlike Grubhub, the Tech Squad will come to you for free.

Tech Squad is a free tech support unit that meets UB students anywhere on campus, even if you don’t live on campus. You can book an appointment online in seconds.

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David Feyder Reuveni has been a Tech Squad member since 2017. He’s helped dozens of students—including more than 50 during Welcome Weekend 2018 alone. He’s seen it all.

“Students need help with all sorts of things, even basic computer functions,” Reuveni said. From getting connected Wi-Fi to downloading free software from the UBIT website, there’s no problem too small.

Here’s what happened on a recent appointment.

4:00 p.m. – Tech Squad arrives on the scene

The appointment is in Wilkeson—a new student is having problems downloading software from the UBIT website.

David and fellow Tech Squad member Kayla Mace pull up in the Tech Squad van and swipe into the building to meet the student. 

4:03 p.m. – Tech Squad makes contact

Joseph is a freshman in the School of Management. He’s trying to download Microsoft Office on his MacBook Pro, but is getting a weird error. He booked the Tech Squad to come to his room in between classes and figure out the problem.

David and Kayla meet Joseph and ask him a few questions. Then they get to work on a fresh install of Microsoft Office.

4:08 p.m. – The plot thickens

Joseph’s suitemates, Andrew and Johnny, come in from across the hall, laptops in hand.

It turns out they all have the same problem—when they try to open the download, it just opens a new file that opens a new file, that opens a new file…and it just keeps on going.

David and Kayla start troubleshooting, testing downloads on different browsers to see if Chrome, which all three students are using, is the problem.

“If this doesn’t work right away, you can use My Virtual Computing Lab to get remote access to Microsoft Office while we figure it out,” Kayla reminds the three suitemates.

4:16 p.m. – Success!

After a few attempts, David and Kayla discover the root of the problem—the downloads weren’t complete when the students tried to open them, leading to a corrupt file. For some reason, Chrome was showing the download as complete when it wasn’t.

4:23 p.m. – Everybody’s got free software

David and Kayla download Office on the students’ machines using Safari, and wait until the download is complete before opening it. The installation starts flawlessly on all three machines. Within a few minutes, they all have the entire Microsoft Office 2016 for free.

All it took was a few minutes, and a visit from the Tech Squad.

“They were determined to fix the problem,” Joseph said, “even after running into some obstacles. They were very helpful and friendly—I would recommend Tech Squad to anyone.”