Laser Technik Ltd
Providing Internet services for over a quarter of a century
Having worked with the internet from even before it became commercialized in the early 1990s (and in IT before that), our MD at Laser Technik Ltd. possesses a wealth of experience.
That means that what may appear as an intractable problem to you is something he has encountered before and may be able to resolve in a matter of minutes.
If it’s an unfamiliar issue, his abundance of diagnostic skills and his determination to “solve the puzzle” will usually provide a way forward.
Below, you will find just a few examples of the numerous problems he has successfully resolved.
Web design company can't fix the problem
The IT company tasked with maintaining the client’s website couldn’t solve a newly emerged problem with the site. The client had made no recent changes but overnight it stopped working. Our diagnostic revealed that the host had implemented a software update to PHP a key programming language. Not only had they not alerted clients to this important change but they didn’t even recognise it as a probable cause for the website becoming incompatible.
Once we pointed out those issues the host was unable or unwilling to roll-back the software update. PHP version updates are usually fixing bugs and adding new features. It’s good to keep up to date but not essential. Most hosts allow users to choose the PHP version. That usually means if an update does result in a problem, affected users can switch back to a prior version to allow time for the incompatibility issue to be resolved.
In this instance the client’s website needed a significant re-write to render it compatible with the new server software meaning it would be unavailable for weeks.
To temporarily resolve the issue, the client was switched to a different web hosting provider and we migrated the content, seemingly sucessfully.
However, a short while later a new problem was found – the user couldn’t add new items to the database. Despite the new provider declaring the situation to be “impossible” we undertook to investigate. We don’t readily accept defeat! It took a lot of effort but after a couple of days we identified an obscure configuration setting that needed changing. Once identified, it was the work of moments to change.
This experience will help us provide faster resolutions for similar issues in the future. It also highlights the technical shortcomings of many internet service providers.
Web site designer gone missing!
Sadly this is a type of issue we’ve needed to address several times. This example is typical although the resolution more challenging than most.
The website was still running but the designer couldn’t be contacted. The client could not gain access to the webserver or the domain name, everything was licensed to the missing web designer. The relevan providers were unwilling to engage with anyone other than their client, the original designer (on the valid grounds that to do otherwise would represent a serious security failing on their part).
Our client had no log-in credentials for the web server, they were only able to access individual database entries. The domain name and hosting were due to expire and critical data that had taken ten years to accumulate would be lost. The web site was a private stock control system only accessible to staff, they were able to read, create new entries and delete or update existing ones but could not export the current items even individually as there were thousands and not in a straightforward format.
We used a program to fire thousands of enquiries at the database via the still active web site (that took a while!). We were then able to extract the data from the web page responses and recreate the database.
Next we built functional equivalents of the database look up programs and took the opportunity to incorporate the customer’s “wish list” of enhancements.
We also implemented a backup process such that the customer could take a complete copy of the live database to one of their own PCs. Alternatively they could choose to extract all or some of the data in Excel format.
Finally we provided comprehensive documentation including details of hosting, domain registration and copies of all the web pages and program files such that they could be certain that the same situation whould not arise in future.
This took weeks of effort and the cost was substantial but there was no other way to recover the data before the deletion deadline.
Sometimes it is possible to regain control of a domain name by providing evidence and an indemnity. In this case it was not essential, cheaper and quicker to use a new domain name.
Web site full of errors
A £20 quick fix
A one-man business found that suddenly his home page was full of error messages. This was his livelihood and anyone going to the site and faced with just a load of obscure technical error messages would probably just go somewhere else. He was not our customer but that’s not a problem.
We were able to offer an immediate diagnosis, the error messages told us all we needed to know. The underlying cause was simple but the effect cascaded throughout the web site. A small tweak was all it needed. He was so desparate we could have charged far more but £20 for 5 minutes seemed fair.
Just read what this happy guy wrote:
“Thanks for your advice, my web designer is pretty useless he couldn’t tell me any of this so it apparent you know more than him!! My hosting provider was no better. I emailed the designer with your solution & hey presto!! we are all fixed, no-one else could solve the problem! I can’t thank you enough, I had 4 other people try with no success, many thanks again. Kind regards, Andy”