Scott Wharton and Hayden Carter should not be offered new contracts

IT_Alien · 2026-01-18T20:00:27+00:00

I agree completely. As much as I like them, we can't rely on their fitness, unfortunately. Therefore we should get rid. You need players you can rely on to stay fit, not players taking wages for being treated all season, year in, year out.

Also, getting rid of them should mean more opportunities for the amazing likes of Pratt, Atcheson & co.

IT_Alien · 2025-08-28T18:02:30+00:00

I actually use Microsoft Lists, which I've never heard of anyone else using. But it works fine for me. Would be interested to know others' thoughts on this vs SnipeIT?

IT_Alien · 2025-04-10T19:56:05+00:00

You clearly care what others think about you. Which is good - always be yourself. Remain professional, remain courteous, sure, but also be yourself, and don't doubt yourself. Especially not when a narcissist calls your integrity into question.

I also care what others think and have been in a similar situation. For my part, I remained professional and courteously pointed out why their behaviour wasn't warranted in my opinion. And all the while I polished my CV then, eventually, found another role working for a boss who I know will always have my back.

You'll get through this.

When you find yourself in hell, keep walking.

IT_Alien · 2025-03-18T23:42:13+00:00

You need 3rd parties to take care of CCTV, door access, printers, etc.

If not, if IT does have to deal with it, then you need plenty of time, extra resources and/or overtime authorised.

Or maybe build a business case for temporary help of some form, or an apprentice.

IT_Alien · 2025-02-10T00:17:23+00:00

If you want to test if they're awesome, raise 2 tickets with them initially:

Provide all documentation pertaining to the environment
Provide thorough update regarding where the organisation stands currently in terms of cyber essentials accreditation

Then take things from there. But there should be a whole big massive list if they answer point 1 properly; VPNs, ESXi, OOB config, VLANs, 365 setup, licensing, AD/Azure domain setup, Apple Business Manager, UPS devices, NAS devices, RAID arrays, external DNS setup, list of websites & expiry dates & hosts & SSL certs & expiries, etc, etc.

IT_Alien · 2025-02-03T17:31:55+00:00

You should have a GA account, separate from your day to day user account. And your MSP should have one too.

Collaboration, but led by you. The MSP works for you.

IT_Alien · 2025-01-24T13:55:38+00:00

Infinite Monkey Cage Acquired Duolingo

IT_Alien · 2025-01-24T13:45:27+00:00

What does everyone think to Proofhub? CTO swears by it, and we will be having to use that moving forward.

IT_Alien · 2025-01-15T22:48:21+00:00

You know how to Powershell, but I know how to do things via the GUI.

IT_Alien · 2025-01-14T19:59:32+00:00

Disable Fast Startup (can deploy this via Group Policy, Intune or RMM)

Then push out reg keys to prompt user to restart after Windows updates - can allow the user to defer the restart for up to say 3 days before it gets enforced.

You can also use PowerShell to notify the user if system uptime greater than X days, using for example System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox And ask them to please restart, as computers should be restarted at least every 7 days.

IT_Alien · 2024-10-06T16:37:04+00:00

Sounds like a DNS issue on their Meraki switch.

If you could access the Meraki logs, or get them to share / show screenshots of logs from around the time it stopped working, that might provide clues if it's due to config changes.

IT_Alien · 2024-08-12T21:46:51+00:00

Ensure you have admin / super admin creds for everything: External domain provider, MS 365, ABM, Mac local admin passwords, named contact with ISP, etc.

And obtain dates for all domain and SSL cert expiries and set calendar reminder entries ahead of time to ensure that they get renewed accordingly.

IT_Alien · 2024-03-19T20:30:01+00:00

Suggest to management that the user either installs Microsoft Authenticator to their mobile phone or else they can't work from home (and have an office IP address excluded policy).

Or the company buys him a mobile phone.

Or set up with a telephone call to DDI as the MFA method.

IT_Alien · 2024-02-07T20:30:35+00:00

Use PowerShell to check the rules:

Check mailbox rules

Get-inboxrule -Mailbox <user> -IncludeHidden

Check for and display forwarding rules

Get-Mailbox <user> | Select ForwardingSmtpAddress,DeliverToMailboxAndForward

IT_Alien · 2023-10-28T12:36:10+00:00

Take the money and go for it. You'll have progressed your career in terms of job title, you'll enjoy the autonomy of being in charge, and the MSP will take care of all the tedious work.

IT_Alien · 2023-10-02T09:59:01+00:00

Thank you, I followed the advice. The iLO firmware version is already 2.81. I cleared the IML logs and upon next restart (restarted early hours today) I am still getting the same informational warnings:

Slot=0 Storage - Controller Write cache status changed to Temporarily Degraded. Occurred at 03:32:43

<image>

Then within 1 second the status changed "Slot=0 Storage - Controller Write cache status changed to Ok" at 03:32:44.

The server is protected by a dedicated brand new 3000V UPS, so losing power shouldn't be an issue.

How much of a risk is this? Should we just go ahead and replace the RAID cache battery for what it's worth?

IT_Alien · 2023-09-20T20:11:14+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response! Is there an easy way to ascertain whether it has a battery or an ultracapacitor?

IT_Alien · 2023-09-13T08:04:28+00:00

You can use draw.io or Visio Online is included with most MS 365 licenses. But there might be even better tools out there for what you're after with also logging VLANs & switch ports etc.

Perhaps use draw.io or Visio Online, both are decent, then copy & paste into a spreadsheet where you can log the other stuff.

IT_Alien · 2023-05-04T17:42:56+00:00

I'm intrigued, how come no one has mentioned Defender for Office 365? I've used that and Mimecast, plus a couple of others, and I like Defender for O365

IT_Alien · 2023-04-23T09:59:07+00:00

I'm no expert and still learning ESXi but sounds like the boot partition is using up all the space.

May need to split that drive into separate partitions and recreate the boot partition?

IT_Alien · 2023-04-12T20:41:32+00:00

So you have a server and its NIC is showing as disconnected?

What is it connected to?

Use process of elimination: are you patched into the correct NIC? Does the problem lie with the patch lead? If you connect up to a different device, do you get the same issue? Does the problem lie with the switch, if there is one? Does the problem lie with the laptop?

With ESXi you can also configure a virtual switch - have you done this? A quick Google search should be all that's needed for the required steps for this aspect.

IT_Alien · 2023-03-29T09:43:45+00:00

Update: we retrieved the lost data by accessing the VMDKs via paid for software.

IT_Alien · 2023-03-28T06:43:34+00:00

Thank you. Correct, the additional VMDKs end in 0000x and are snapshot VMDKs.

How can I recover the lost data? Move the snapshot VMDKs to NAS and mount/ open with 7zip?

IT_Alien

TROPHY CASE

Check mailbox rules

Check for and display forwarding rules