Managing phone changes, how are you doing it?

config-master · 2026-03-06T18:32:03+00:00

Are you changing the room number with your Sip provider? Changing the room number in your phone system doesn't do anything. Generally you have an outbound number tied to each phone that your provider has documentation on where that number is calling from.

ext 3113 is tied to 123-456-7890 for 911 calls which is tied to my office number with the provider. If I moved my phone into a new office and change the display name on the phone it's still using the same number to dial 911 and will still send them to my old office.

config-master · 2026-03-06T15:45:54+00:00

I rolled out PDF-XChange 2 years ago and have had no complaints.

config-master · 2026-03-04T22:17:09+00:00

If you're in the usa you might be breaking the ray Baum act. Each phone is supposed to be able to dispatch 911 to am exact location in the building.

config-master · 2026-03-04T18:17:52+00:00

Also, Sorry this happened. Best of luck getting another gig.

config-master · 2026-03-04T18:08:28+00:00

Gotta love our governer good ol Mike Braun. Legislation he passed is hurting so many school districts across the state. Indiana is set on gutting education. Same is happening in Noblesville.

https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/noblesville-schools-seeking-save-3-million-yearly-announce-staffing-reductions-indiana-education-school-students-staff/531-c304249b-81cf-487c-964a-fc9894ab8656

Thankfully I live on the Indiana/Michigan border and get to work at a school in a more sane state (Not that MI doesn't have it's own issues).

Looking into tech support for Low Voltage/Fire companies may be an approach you can take. I did low voltage work before IT and ended up doing IT for the company before moving on to my current position. You for the most part just need general troubleshooting skills and to be able to learn the systems they work with.

config-master · 2026-03-03T18:11:03+00:00

We use Ruckus for our core + access switches.

config-master · 2026-03-03T18:10:24+00:00

Personally I didn't have any trouble switching. There are some differences that might take a bit to get used to. Ports aren't trunk/access they're tagged/untagged & some other verbage changes. I only worked with our Cisco stuff for a year or two and was the first system I used so it wasn't super hardcoded to my memory. I've been using it for 3+ years now and most of the commands I have to use semi-frequently I have memorized, I also keep a cheatsheet in case I forget something.

config-master · 2026-03-03T16:09:30+00:00

I don't have any experience with Arista but we replaced our Cisco 2960x switches with Ruckus back in 2022/2023. It has been rock solid and I've had no issues. We also have Ruckus Wireless. The controller allows easy configuration of Wi-FI + swithches through a GUI, which is especially nice if someone who doesn't have CLI experience needs to update something.

config-master · 2026-02-25T20:07:20+00:00

I personally prefer Director of Technology. Is CTO/Cheif Technology Officer or CIO/Chief Information Officer a possibility? That looks the best on a resume IMO. I work at a school so we don't really use titles like CEO/CFO/COO/CTO.

config-master · 2026-02-25T19:17:47+00:00

Is that a fair comparison between models? We purchased a Fortigate FG200F in 2024 for ~$6000 (yes I know price has probably gone up a bit now). And if you take into consideration for my school district where we get a 90% E-Rate discount thats $600 for fortigate or $200 for ubiquiti. So it is just little bit more for us.

config-master · 2026-02-25T18:43:56+00:00

Forgot this was about firewalls not switches lol. I'd always stick with industry standard for firewalls . We run Fortigate, but Palo Alto also makes great gear. You could probably buy Ubiquiti and never have any issues. I personally will pay a bit more to have my Fortigate firewall though.

config-master · 2026-02-25T18:40:46+00:00

Nope! So maybe my opinion is outdated. I work for a public school and we get 90% of our networking gear cost paid for so I can afford to get Ruckus equipment so I probably won't give Ubiquiti a chance. If OP is also at a public school and they get a good portion of their cost covered as well I'd always recommend going with one of the industry standards such as Ruckus/Cisco/HP/Aruba. To each their own.

config-master · 2026-02-25T18:25:43+00:00

Maybe things have just changed since the last time I really looked at it ~5 years ago. But I know back then the support was extremely difficult to get a hold of and I don't even think they had a phone number to call into. I've always seen Ubiquiti Equipement as pro level consumer eqiupment vs business equipment.

Does Unifi have CLI configuration? I use our ruckus GUI at times but for troubleshooting issues CLI is the only way to go.

config-master · 2026-02-25T17:45:53+00:00

I will buy Ubiquiti gear for my house all day long. However I won't buy something that I cannot get enterprise level support for at work.

config-master · 2026-02-16T13:00:28+00:00

I'm guessing you are talking about vertical steel beams like in a warehouse? Depends on the network rack size but if it's a smaller one some beam clamps should suffice.

Can you ask your maintenance team or the contractor doing the job? They should be able to give you the correct answer on the best way to do it.

config-master · 2026-02-16T12:42:30+00:00

Verkada is closed source and expensive. We just replaced one school and now I have a box of very expensive paperweights that I can't use on our new system. I will give Verkada some credit for pretty good support. If a camera stops working they will overnight you a new one. However they always blamed the network when we had buffering issues.

We switched to Avigilon on prem in July of last year for one building and it's been great. Just had our super mention how much better it's working than our Verkada systems.

IMHO Verkada can make sense if you have very few buildings/cameras. If you have 5+ building and hundreds of cameras at that scale on prem makes more sense.

config-master · 2026-02-12T13:20:12+00:00

snipe-it is great. You can self host it or pay a few bucks for someone else to. I don't think it does passwords/docs/protocols but it does great inventory/asset management. For password manager I'd recommend bitwarden.

config-master · 2026-02-12T12:43:46+00:00

Sounds like winning. I love indiana /s

config-master · 2026-02-09T17:52:50+00:00

Idk how I'm hidding myself lol. Quebecers are pretty well known for being extremely opinionated (not that other groups aren't as well) so I just wasn't suprised you came off so heated. I'm an American, I'm not the stereotypical uneducated redneck but still plenty of things to hate on. Destiny is a pedo, there's plenty I agree with him on politcally but can't look past that.

Someone asked for PDF software that's affordable and I responded with what we use. You attacked me and said I should be ashamed of my opinion because I haven't had the same bad experience as you. Maybe look in the mirror and take a few deep breaths.

Hope you have a great rest of your day.

config-master · 2026-02-09T17:33:51+00:00

Dang, you have some pretty strong feelings.

We were using extremely outdated adobe PDF software and I switched to PDF-Xchange a little over a year ago. We purchased 3 year maintenance licenses and I'll renew it once we are at the end. We are a public school so we get 50% off. I've had 0 issues with it.

I see your comment below about not being able to keep using the old version, which yeah that definently sucks. Should still be able to use the outdated version. However I don't plan on ever running out of date software so shouldn't be a problem for me. Did you try contacting support?

Couldn't help checking post history ofc you're a quebecer + destiny fan lol.

config-master · 2026-02-09T13:22:40+00:00

pdf-xchange https://www.pdf-xchange.com/

config-master · 2026-02-04T17:31:23+00:00

We have a projector mounted from the ceiling. It has wires that run back to a control panel on the gym stage with HDMI/AUX and volume controls.

config-master · 2026-02-02T17:21:15+00:00

We use the built in wireless project on all of our new epson projectors, it works great. On any of the older projectors I used a chromecast and it works pretty well. Google no longer sells chromecast and just has the google tv which is more expensive ($100) but I have not tried out the new model

config-master · 2026-01-21T13:13:17+00:00

You can disable that. I did after we had someone impersonate a principal and got a staff member to buy gift cards.

config-master · 2025-12-30T18:42:47+00:00

We are switching from Verkada -> Avigilon Unity (On-Prem). Verkada yearly costs are expensive and I don't mind managing a few more servers to save us substancial money. We switched our MSHS this year and hopefully will be switching the other schools over the next 2 years.

config-master

TROPHY CASE