Everything has been working just fine for this small business's IT, with e-mail and the Web site managed by a third-party vendor on the vendor's servers. But then the Web site vendor moves e-mail and Web sites to the servers of a large hosting company.

This pilot fish has watched his IT shop grow from a single IBM minicomputer to dozens of servers connected to hundreds of PCs over the past 20 years, and these days he only occasionally sits in on a department meeting. But sometimes, that's a good thing.

Lone on-site IT engineer at a small military base in the desert in Iraq is very gung-ho about doing his part, and he wants to be able to brag about his time ‘outside the wire' -- so he comes up with a novel excuse.

Pilot fish gets a call from a client with a week-old PC -- and he's in a panic. The newbie user tells fish that he can't plug in the mouse and keyboard, and he needs to answer an important e-mail that has just arrived.

This government agency wants a digital photo of an employee in a remote office, and the local administrative assistant dutifully e-mails it. But that's not the way the folks in D.C. want it.

Programmer pilot fish uses a big-name software package to write quick and simple reports for some users. But when it's time to upgrade the hardware for the report server, things get complicated.

This manufacturer needs to set up a remote office just to support the management of its inventory with a certain huge retailer. But after DSL is installed there, the staff calls the help desk because they can't reach the Internet.

Pilot fish gets a call from a department manager on the other side of the building, who's complaining that all the network printers in his area have stopped working.

This nationwide retailer's help desk staff spend a lot of their time resetting users' passwords. And they try to be nice about it -- but sometimes it just doesn't help.

User calls support pilot fish with an improbable story: She says she dropped her mouse and her PC shut down.

Pilot fish who works for a big software vendor is hunting for one of the company's sales reps, and tracks him down outside a conference room -- in the middle of a heated discussion.

This IT pilot fish's job is as a support tech, so naturally he also ends up providing tech support for his friends and family. And when a friend calls with a printer problem, he knows just what to do.

Newly hired pilot fish is issued a computer by a member of the IT staff. Great, says fish, now I can load the programs to interface with our test equipment. IT guy's reply: No, you can't.

Network admin sends an e-mail to his group's applications admin, database admin, developer and interim IT manager -- and he has a serious security concern.

Receptionist in this doctor's office has been working there for three or four years and using a PC the whole time -- but that doesn't mean she's mastered it.