Telephone customer support utility

A customer support utility for providing diagnostic support of a customer computer using a standard telephone handset to communicate over a telecommunications network with a remote support computer, the customer support utility comprising:

• an encoder electrically connected to the customer computer for encoding an operational status thereof in a manner capable of producing audible tones indicative of such operational status;
• a speaker electrically connected to said customer computer for producing the audible tones;
• a telephone handset proximate to the speaker for communicating the audible tones over the telecommunications network to the remote support computer;
• a receiver electrically connected to the remote support computer for receiving the audible tones communicated over the telecommunications network;
• and
• a decoder electrically connected to the receiver for decoding the received audible tones into data representing the operational status of the customer computer wherein the receiver comprises a microphone electrically connected to a sound card, wherein the microphone receives the audible tones transmitted by the telephone and the sound card generates at least one file comprising the data representative of the operational status of the customer computer.

A customer support utility for providing diagnostic support of an electrical device, which device includes circuitry for recording the operational status of the device, wherein the utility uses a standard telephone handset to communicate over a telecommunications network with a remote support computer, the customer support utility comprising:

• means electrically connected to the electrical device for encoding an operational status thereof in a manner capable of producing audible tones indicative of such operational status;
• means electrically connected to said electrical device for producing the audible tones;
• means proximate to the means for producing the audible tones speaker for communicating the audible tones over the telecommunications network to the remote support computer;
• means electrically connected to the remote support computer for receiving the audible tones communicated over the telecommunications network;
• and
• means electrically connected to the means for receiving for decoding the received audible tones into data representing the operational status of the electrical device to enable appropriate diagnostic functions to be determined with the remote support computer wherein the means for receiving comprises a microphone electrically connected to a sound card, wherein the microphone receives the audible tones transmitted by the telephone and the sound card generates at least one file comprising the data representative of the operational status of the electrical device.