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Tech Support on the Go: My Essential Tools for Any Situation

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By Demetrius Tipton
2 min read

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I fancy myself somewhat of a computer doctor always ready to make someone’s tech life a little easier. A large and especially important part of being able to help, is being prepared to help. Below is a list of the tools I carry with me most often to help create positive outcomes to IT emergencies and keep my expertise at its most powerful. In desktop support a little preparation today could save the day tomorrow.

After all “everything that happened today began yesterday.”

Cables

  • Apple USB-C to Lightning Cable: Charges everything up to iPhone 14s and AirPods 3rd gen. Occasionally I need to give these away so I keep a standard one with me.
  • Apple USB-C to Apple Watch Cable: Same deal as the Lightning cable above except for Apple Watch.
  • Apple USB-C to MagSafe 3: The Thunderbolt cable listed below will charge a MacBook. However, Apple’s proprietary MagSafe connector (when combined with at least a 96w power adapter) allows for charging from 0%-50% in 30 mins.
  • Anker Thunderbolt 4 Cable: Provides power, data, and display with one cable connection. Thunderbolt 4 because 4 is more than 3 ☺
  • Retractable CAT6 Cable: WiFi is great when it works. This cable is a lifesaver when it doesn’t.
  • Retractable HDMI Cable: I’ve needed this cable and not had it often enough to add it to the kit. HDMI is still one of the most accessible video connections.

Adapters

  • USB-C to A Adapter Set: This adapter set includes both configurations of male and female for usb-c to a and vice versa ensuring you almost always have access to a usb interface.
  • Belkin USB-C Ethernet Adapter: In a world ruled by WiFi, there are still occasional reasons to use a physical network connection. Verifying a port is functional with a known-good cable or router configuration are a few examples.

Power Adapter

  • Razer USB-C 130W GaN Charge: If you’re carrying as many cables as above, you’re going to need something to plug them into. This power brick has 2 USB-C ports, 2 USB-A ports, and intelligently splits the 130w of power it pulls between them. It also comes with international plugs.

The Bag Itself

  • Bellroy Tech Kit: A compact canvas zippered pouch. It’s soft-shelled so it can fit into a tight space like my commuter bag. The straps and pockets inside allow for organization. It fits much more than it appears.

Honorable Mentions

  • Apple MagSafe Duo: This is a more compact apple-branded option to charge both an Apple Watch and iPhone (12 and beyond). It is also strangely absent from Apple’s website, at time of writing. The Twelve South Butterfly appears to be a suitable replacement, however, I haven’t gotten my hands on one to play with.
  • Samsung Flash Drive: External physical storage is always nice to have. Sometimes its faster to transfer a slide deck from one device to another using a flash drive instead of logging into a cloud storage service.

These are the items in my “doctor’s bag.”

Now I’d love to hear from you! What are some of the technology lifesavers that you carry with you? Is there functionality that I’ve (woefully) overlooked? Let me know in the comments!

As always, thanks for reading.

#Tip10Tech #DesktopSupport #LinkedIn #ExecutiveITSupport #InformationTechnology

Information Technology, Executive Support
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.