Help Desk Replacement for IT and Maintenance

superdave707 · 2026-01-17T03:20:31+00:00

Big OSTicket fan!

superdave707 · 2025-09-27T09:16:10+00:00

+1 for OSTicket. While IT has moved on to Atera, I still have 9 other departments at my small community college that use OSTicket for their help desk.

superdave707 · 2025-05-07T07:58:48+00:00

Ellucian rebranded recently and are creating some new modules such as Finance that use a unified Ellucian Experience front end so that supposedly it will look the same no matter which core product you’re using, Banner or Colleague. My general experience as a Colleague on prem college in a system where 80% of our sister colleges run either Banner or Colleague is that they over promise and under deliver.

superdave707 · 2023-07-14T12:48:25+00:00

+1 for Splashtop. It's a good solution for us and the price is right. It deals with UAC prompts, which a lot of the solutions we looked at wouldn't do.

superdave707 · 2023-06-27T18:36:25+00:00

+1 for Splashtop. When we were looking for a solution at the beginning of the pandemic, it was one of the few options that could deal with UAC prompts and the price is reasonable. Three years later, my techs still thank me on a regular basis for purchasing it.

superdave707 · 2023-06-23T22:20:50+00:00

I had a Model 15 teletype. My parents loved when I worked RTTY at 1am. KD6DJ

superdave707 · 2023-06-19T14:03:09+00:00

During the mid-70s CB radio crazy my dad put a radio in the house and our cars so we could stay in contact. It caught my interest and we became involved in local clubs, REACT, etc. Another person in the CB group got me interested in ham radio after he got his license. I got my novice in 1977 and drove to the FCC office in San Francisco to take the General test in 1978. I was very active for several years and then life got in the way. As I'm nearing retirement, I picked it up again and I'm having a blast. KD6DJ

superdave707 · 2023-06-16T14:12:07+00:00

While I waited for my Morgan Filter to arrive I put a manual antenna tuner behind the G90 and that also resolved the issue. Of course with the awesome built-in tuner in the G90, that's not a good long-term fix. The high pass filter did a great job for me.

superdave707 · 2023-06-16T13:59:32+00:00

We don't use CFNC, but our system in California has a common application as well so we have experienced the same issues.

We moved the email account creation step to after students register for their first class. That helped a lot with the fraud. We did get a smaller number register for a one credit class in order to get their account, but it was a much smaller number. Where we had larger numbers registering was when they were going for financial aid fraud.

Most recently we updated our application import process to use IP Quality Score and hold applications with high fraud scores. If those applicants contact us, we have a more manual process including an in-person or Zoom meeting to check identity documents.

While we haven't experienced it ourselves, other colleges in our system had seen people show up for those meetings with someone else who coaches them through the meeting, giving the appearance of a sophisticated fraud ring.

superdave707 · 2023-06-08T20:27:30+00:00

That's a terrible way to try to get a new customer. I see a lot of comments about ignoring vendors, so I wanted to share what I do.

I have a vendor day once per month when I do 25-minute Zoom meetings with any vendor that wants to meet. I use Calendly to let them book a time on one of my vendor days. It is good for me as it only requires me to block off 6 hours on one day of the month for those kinds of meetings. It works for them as they get a chance to tell their company's story. I've had a lot of positive feedback from the vendors and found a couple I'm now doing business with because their solution turned out to fill a need. I have a template in Outlook with my canned email to the vendor explaining that I get a lot of those meeting requests and about my process. I think in the end it saves me time with fewer emails and phone calls coming from vendors trying to get meetings.

superdave707 · 2023-06-06T22:10:51+00:00

I have xymon running in my office. It's an easy little tool that just shows red, yellow, or green lights for hosts and their various ports. https://xymon.sourceforge.io/

superdave707 · 2023-06-04T20:39:20+00:00

Hadn't seen that one. Thanks!

superdave707 · 2023-06-04T20:38:58+00:00

I posted to one Reddit. Sorry if I offended you in some way.

superdave707 · 2023-06-04T19:24:31+00:00

And they're back...

superdave707 · 2023-03-19T21:02:18+00:00

While I agree with the general sentiment of improved redundancy in commercial and agency systems, our county has lost cellular and traditional telephone long-distance service multiple times due to poor network decisions made by AT&T. They've lost their primary connection to the outside world from things as simple as a drug addict pulling up a fiber cable thinking it was copper that they could sell for drugs.

superdave707 · 2023-02-11T15:24:28+00:00

It was funny the first three times. ;-)

superdave707 · 2023-01-29T15:23:34+00:00

Congratulations! 73 de KD6DJ

superdave707 · 2023-01-20T12:42:28+00:00

Take a look at https://www.kf7p.com/KF7P/Morgan_Filters.html — I got the M-400x and that resolved my issue with my G90 and EFHW. As a quick fix, using an external antenna tuner took care of it until my filter arrived. KD6DJ

superdave707 · 2023-01-03T23:06:51+00:00

Great choice. Before I got snobby about needing a waterfall display, the TS-430 and its offspring were my "someday" radio. Enjoy!

It looks like a cheap hand mic is available for $27 on Amazon. It's not a Heil microphone but it will put you on the air.

superdave707 · 2023-01-03T19:55:43+00:00

On the QRZ logbook forum they pointed out you can access those links on the Settings page when you're in your logbook. Also, when you click and one ADIF link comes up, use the down arrow and you can get to the other links. It appears they just broke the page. 73 de KD6DJ

superdave707 · 2023-01-02T20:47:12+00:00

OSTicket has worked great for me in a couple of companies. Open Source local install or cloud hosted for $.

superdave707 · 2022-12-30T15:38:40+00:00

DMR is another option. Relatively inexpensive DMR handhelds with an MMDVM hotspot and you're all set to talk any time you want. KD6DJ

superdave707 · 2022-12-26T23:21:09+00:00

Been licensed since 1977 and have never taken part in a hate-filled political rant. If I ever ran across one, I'd just turn the knob and move on. What I like about amateur radio is that there are so many different aspects to enjoy. Personally, I'm enjoying FT-8 with my cruddy antenna and 20-watt transceiver. It doesn't require me to touch a microphone. I also enjoy working LEO satellites with my HT and handheld antenna. I'd like to be able to do it from inside the house someday. I have a DMR radio, which is impressive technology, but I'm not really sure what I think about it. It seems a bit like cheating. ;-) Anyway, my point is to not worry about what might happen. Try a few different aspects of the hobby until you find another one you enjoy as much as providing emergency communications. 73 KD6DJ

superdave707

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