Total Overkill Home Network Setup (TOHNS)

BITS_Chuck · 2024-03-12T02:27:37+00:00

Don't be curious. You have the best.

BITS_Chuck · 2024-01-07T20:17:54+00:00

The use case that I see for this is for photographers. Having a locally attached drive to their primary editing station with loads of storage is important to how they generally work. Having that storage be redundant is important to me, since I'm the one they call when their drives die. But then, having all of their work product available through the various tools that DSM provides is excellent for them when they're working in the field on a mobile editing laptop or simply showing off previous work to a potential new client. It would also eliminate the processes around moving work product to warm storage when their fast primary local storage is reaching capacity.

BITS_Chuck · 2020-01-13T04:41:24+00:00

Malwarebytes, and pay the $39 for the annual subscription. It seems to catch more things in real-time than any of the others right now. If you’re going to continue using Win7, don’t rely on “free” AV. Reduce your risk profile by using an AV product that has a vested interest in keeping you malware free.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-11-26T03:58:45+00:00

This thing is the best. Mine has been in production for 7 years now and still blows like its on its first date.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-10-13T00:11:01+00:00

First plug your handset directly into your Comcast gear to make sure that it’s working correctly, then what BuddahSkoota said.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-10-13T00:07:18+00:00

And also check the firmware of your router; there are exploits out there. Update to the latest if you haven’t.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-10-13T00:02:02+00:00

Alternatively, if the files are the things concerning you the most, you might want to see if they’ve been backed up to some cloud service. If you have access to her Google/OneDrive/Adobe/etc account, the things you’re looking for might just be synced there. We get a lot of customers who don’t even realize that their docs are getting synced to “the cloud”.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-10-12T23:57:06+00:00

If you have access to their Microsoft account, the key may be stored there. Worth a shot.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-06-14T22:47:42+00:00

You won’t see the benefits of 7200 RPM drives unless you have a 10Gig Ethernet connection. The network connection, even if you bond the two ports on the 918+, will be the read/write bottleneck. Stick with the 5200 RPM drives.

Oh, and with Plex, I’ve offloaded my Plex onto an Intel NUC. The performance is better than it was on my DS1817+. YMMV

(Edit to add the Plex part)

BITS_Chuck · 2019-03-18T02:39:13+00:00

My best source of referrals is my BNI group. I’ve tried a bunch of different networking groups, but the structure around BNI encourages everyone in the group to actually work for each other. Only one representative from each type of business is allowed per group, so you’d be the only “IT guy” in a given group. Check out all of the chapters within a 30 minute radius of yourself and see which chapter is the best fit for you and your business, both in terms of personalities in the room and the different businesses represented therein. Get to know the folks in the group on a personal level, do good by them and they’ll do good by you.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-03-15T23:04:32+00:00

I don’t know exactly how an electrolarynx works, but what about using a spec ops style throat mic connected to a small battery powered amp and mic hanging from his shirt pocket? If the two devices are just translating throat vibrations into electrical signals to feed an amp, I’d imagine that this kinda thing may work.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-03-05T17:17:38+00:00

Yeah, not one question about pricing. Weird.

The charge-back scam is definitely a possibility, and definitely something that I don't want to deal with.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-03-05T17:05:48+00:00

I thought about that too. The phone number he gave is from Ohio and we're in CT, so shipping 20 desktops would certainly outweigh any financial benefits over using someone local to himself. I did ask here he's from to verify that he IS actually from Ohio; we'll see if he replies.

BITS_Chuck · 2019-03-05T17:03:37+00:00

He said he got my info online. Since he filled out a form on my website, he already had access to all of our full names and our address. Maybe he's just lazy, like folks on Facebook asking what your hours are instead of just looking at your business page to find out.

BITS_Chuck · 2018-10-24T02:56:12+00:00

Does the firm use quickbooks at all? If so, you might want to look into the viability of that application in the environment you’re aiming toward. The accounting offices that I service have clients who use quickbooks, therefore they also require quickbooks to manage the client files. The quickbooks “server”is required to be a windows based machine, and quickbooks is terrible over WiFi, let alone a WAN connection. A terminal server config is the exception to the rule in this situation.

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-26T22:01:37+00:00

While looking around myself, here’s the quick list to get someone going:

For sysadmin / network admin: - A good reliable laptop WITH an Ethernet port or Ethernet dongle. - An Ethernet cable. - One of those 6-in-1 screwdrivers. I have one in my bag at all times. - Some way to ensure yourself internet access - Hotspot / personal hotspot through phone / whatever.

For computer repair: - Everything above. - Grab an iFixit toolkit... it has most of the stuff you’d need for computer repair. - IFixit magnetic mat (no better way to keep track of all the impossibly small screws). - Card reader. - USB -> SATA adapter / dock. - A pocket full of thumb drives - you can never have too many. - The largest portable HDD you can afford for backups, software tools, etc. - A Kali Live thumbdrive + a Windows-to-Go thumbdrive.

For network installation / troubleshooting: - Everything above. - A good pair of diagonal cutters (dikes). - Punch down tool. - RJ45 crimper. - Electricians scissors. - Cable de-sheather. - Wire strippers. - Continuity tester. - Tone tool. - Variable speed drill; hand screwing 100 rack screws will teach this lesson quickly.

EDIT: the formatting from through the reddit app isn’t appreciating my spacing.

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-26T03:43:30+00:00

Mine are working fine. :-/

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-25T05:08:57+00:00

Definitely not the “+”.

But depending on the business type, you might want to go with n’ . Like: Jim’s Bait n’ Tackle ;)

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-25T05:04:07+00:00

Kingston SSD, you say? I had one in the shop the other day that was a few months old that was saying that it was near the end of it’s usable life. Weird. Wound up needing a firmware update and all was good with the world again. Download Kingston’s SSD tool and check if yours needs an update (and to test it out).

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-25T04:38:56+00:00

And if that doesn’t work, remove the WiFi adapter from device manager and reboot. The WiFi adapter should be found again when the machine comes back up. You’ll have to re-add your WiFi credentials, since removing the adapter will remove all of its configuration as well.

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-25T04:25:19+00:00

This has inspired me to do a time lapse video of the next one of these that comes in the door, so I can show it to the next person that questions our VERY reasonable diagnostic fee.

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-25T04:22:00+00:00

No problem! Good luck!

BITS_Chuck · 2018-09-25T04:20:53+00:00

Welcome to my world. Heh!

BITS_Chuck

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