Beam me up

GF had to head for Starfleet HQ first thing. With his communicator not working he needed to get direct access to Starfleet's network in order to get to his mail, do his normal day's work and also try to correct the problem.

Having sung the praises of the help desk on Friday, today was less inspiring. The colleague on the far end of the line was evidently transfixed by one part of the problem presented - and ignored all aspects except that. GF patiently explained that she was concentrating on the wrong symptoms but a poor telephone line and vast distances were obviously hampering comprehension. In the end GF thanked her for all her help and started again by himself.

He uninstalled each of the communications packages and re-installed them from scratch (this could only be achieved whilst connected to Strafleet's network - otherwise he would have done this last Friday). Problem solved.