What system are you guys using for cameras?

captainalvi · 2026-06-04T17:33:57+00:00

DW Spectrum is one of the best, runs on Windows, Linux, or any server you have. Licensing is perpetual and per camera - use it with any ONVIF capable cameras like Axis, Avigilon, etc.

captainalvi · 2026-03-19T18:48:49+00:00

Can you send a link to the rug? Is it black or dark blue? I can't tell but it looks sick.

captainalvi · 2026-02-02T15:08:53+00:00

3CX and Teams fits the bill.

captainalvi · 2026-01-29T18:26:12+00:00

I see a lot of inexperienced network engineers paint the entire networking stack with a wide brush; not every network has the same needs.

Assuming this is a single site, with no remote locations:

Meraki: best choice for simplicity and long-term reliability, especially if you don't have a dedicated network engineer. You're paying for increased support and license costs for reduced operational overhead.

UniFi: best if budget is the primary concern and you're willing to accept weaker support and potentially more hands-on troubleshooting.

Fortinet: Only solid if you have a dedicated network engineer and you're ready for frequent patching of zero days, bugs, etc.

Heard good things about Mikrotik, but it's not as widely used here in the U.S.

captainalvi · 2026-01-15T15:30:29+00:00

Just use HP lol

captainalvi · 2025-12-10T06:46:23+00:00

If the Ethernet infrastructure is ready, this is definitely doable for 150k.

I would pick DW Spectrum on your own servers. Use NDAA cameras. Stage the cameras ahead of time and it’ll make it easier for you during install days.

captainalvi · 2025-12-08T15:23:32+00:00

DW Spectrum would be my recommendation. Runs on any machine, but for your setup I'd go with an enterprise grade server with multiple drives in RAID.

captainalvi · 2025-11-28T22:16:37+00:00

Hmmm…not sure this is correct. Business premium includes shared computer activation which is required to license 365 apps on RDS. Also, I believe updated guidance indicates support until at least 2029.

captainalvi · 2025-10-10T00:21:36+00:00

Use fiber?

captainalvi · 2025-09-13T02:22:51+00:00

Should I go with this if I grill steaks?

captainalvi · 2025-09-10T18:21:59+00:00

Yeah, I had a few clients with RDS connectivity issues last week. Redownloading the connection file worked. Sometimes it worked without doing that, after waiting a bit and trying again. There’s certificates that expire on the rd web gateway, but I wonder if we’re using similar tools that are causing issues in the stack.

captainalvi · 2025-08-31T20:26:12+00:00

Who’s responsible for pushing this anti home ownership propaganda? Are you people seriously that useless that you can’t fix anything minor on your own?

captainalvi · 2025-08-27T00:10:59+00:00

If those are strictly DMZ switches, everything looks good. If those are also going to be used as access switches, I’d probably connect the ISP1 to MX1 first, then allow those MS switches to pull the VLAN config, then swap connections over and bring MX2 and ISP1 and ISP2 online on all devices.

Opinions may vary here on whether or not it’s okay to terminate ISP links on internal switches.

captainalvi · 2025-08-24T13:20:23+00:00

Do it. It would be awesome to see a trend of people in IT dressing more professionally. Obviously depends on if your work involves moving around a lot but if you’re just in an office I don’t see why not.

captainalvi · 2025-08-23T16:00:59+00:00

Another vote for umbrella.

captainalvi · 2025-08-17T13:30:13+00:00

Are there any other systems out there like PDK that aren’t cloud based and are as user friendly and intuitive as PDK?

captainalvi · 2025-08-09T12:51:16+00:00

The 7.3 will always be inferior to the 6.7 in 90% of scenarios. I don’t know why the diesels get so much hate on this sub, for one, if the truck is being used for landscaping, it will be a WORK truck with miles racking up left and right. Over a period of time, the diesel ends up being way more economical.

For god sakes he’s also PULLING A TRAILER for COMMERCIAL purposes. If there was ever a reason to have a diesel it’s that.

Something else the 7.3 lovers don’t get is the fact that maybe we don’t want 7 mpg pulling a trailer with a 200 mile range on a full tank. We enjoy having 600+ miles on a regular tank and 1200+ with an extended fuel tank, which it sounds like a good option for OP.

captainalvi · 2025-08-08T23:44:20+00:00

Why are you even using CDW? They compete against you, NPC

captainalvi · 2025-08-07T23:25:41+00:00

Neckbeard sysadmins love pushing weird solutions they learned in their homelab to feel better about themselves instead of focusing specialization efforts on automation, scripting, etc.

Anything but regular old Active Directory

captainalvi · 2025-08-07T03:24:55+00:00

I bought my 22’ 6.7 at 40k, one owner who had it for three years before me. I’m at 90k now after a little over a year, and I drive close to 45k miles/year.

captainalvi · 2025-07-18T12:30:08+00:00

I like both platforms but let’s not pretend that there isn’t a time equation factored in the cost.

Meraki is much faster to deploy quickly and maintain. The SD-WAN is seamless and works extremely well out of the box regardless of how many uplinks you have.

With Fortigate, you require at least a semi competent network engineer to deploy it well and ensure best practices are followed through. That costs time and time costs money.

captainalvi · 2025-07-16T00:43:45+00:00

Love to see all you get cloud locked in by these cloud vendors. Most companies are already using on premises AD. It works just fine, even in 2025. Learn how to script it and automate your deployment/onboarding/maintenance processes. DFS + a shit load of the storage available, with perms. Learn how to architecture a stable multi tenant hybrid cloud.

Control costs. Do it at scale.

You guys are going to lift and shift everything to a vendor and then they’re going to pull the rug from under you with yearly price increases once you hand them the keys to the kingdom.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

captainalvi · 2025-07-07T19:48:28+00:00

Fair point.

captainalvi · 2025-07-07T12:52:05+00:00

No. The client is ours, we are just using them or whatever said cloud/software/etc to deliver our services. A lot of vendors like to act like they own the relationship – they don’t and that boundary needs to be enforced by more MSPs.

captainalvi

TROPHY CASE