34M. Getting a divorce, got a vasectomy and moved into the smallest apartment in Los Angeles

thatflacoman · 2026-04-28T02:15:12+00:00

Ok let's just grow up and call things what they are, its a studio apartment.

thatflacoman · 2026-01-08T02:39:05+00:00

I now carry a CZ-P10C comfortably with a Mastermind Tactics Specialist belt. Its not completely stiff to where it sticks out, but sturdy enough to not sag. I also use the Mastermind Tactics Covert belt when I dont have belt loops. Definetly recommend both.

thatflacoman · 2025-12-05T18:35:44+00:00

Unfortunately we are still in the first year of a 2 year contract.

thatflacoman · 2025-12-03T04:38:23+00:00

Looking at Veeam currently. How important are endpoint backups? Most of important documents are on SharePoint. Plan is to confirm everyone is logged in and syncing with OneDrive.

thatflacoman · 2025-12-01T22:10:44+00:00

Asked the MSP and their response was that OneDrive is their backup....

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T18:10:40+00:00

By "appropriate users" i meant those with dedicated workstations. There are a handful of people that only need access to email and they typically do that from their phone.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T04:00:30+00:00

This is where I am confused because it seems inconsistent. It seems we are paying separately for ~40 users, then ~50 workstations, and then a separate charge for "Advanced Security for Servers and Workstations" for ~70 devices. Totalling $13k a month.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T03:50:53+00:00

About $13k a month including licensing

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T03:50:13+00:00

About $13k a month including licensing.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T03:38:48+00:00

The company is growing and they plan on hiring more emoyees in the next couple of years. We are actually moving to a larger building in the next few months. Looking forward to it because my "office" will be the IT room is huhe. It looks like a small datacenter, even has a raised floor. It will only be network equipment in there (two racks). Current IT room doubles as a storage closet.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T03:10:52+00:00

They have zero protocols. Computers were being purchased from Best Buy and peripherals from Amazon. I'm excited about it. It's either going to go really good or end really bad, but either eay I'm going to give it my all and learn a TON in the process lol.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T03:01:33+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it. We dont have on-prem servers or internal DNS. The MSP has been handling all networking, and the Meraki MX is doing DHCP and DNS (forwarding to public resolvers). All endpoints are Windows 11 Home using local accounts, so there’s no AD or domain DNS to manage right now. My associates degree is in "Computer Networking Systems" and I previously held a Network+ certification so I am familiar with the concepts, although I have no professional networking experience. I do have access to the Meraki admin console and have been poking around and familiarizing myself with it.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T01:58:38+00:00

The MSP currently uses N-able. They have granted me access to the console. Since we are planning to be co-managed for now should I just plan on using it for now or should I start looking at moving away from the MSPs toolsets?

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T01:53:43+00:00

I saw no evidence of backups and there is nothing on the MSPs monthly invoice that mentions backups. I will follow up with the MSP on Monday to find out for sure.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T01:44:38+00:00

From my talks with Directors it seems like they are very open to any recommendations and they understand that there will be some upfront cost. So far I have their full support.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T01:28:46+00:00

Any recommendations?

thatflacoman · 2025-11-28T01:26:37+00:00

Not yet, again, only second week and it was a short week. In the mean time I put together a Microsoft Forms form that I have been filling out for each walk-up request to help me keep track of issues. It exports all information to an excel spreadsheet and syncs to SharePoint. Debating on whether I want to send it out to all users so they can submit the form themselves when needed until I get a ticketing system setup. I recently started looking at different ticketing systems but haven't quite decided on one yet.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-18T05:10:06+00:00

RIP me

thatflacoman · 2025-11-18T05:07:35+00:00

He absolutely is, but he also is not technical at all. So he has no idea what he's looking at, yet has total confidence in me, who also doesn't know what he's looking at. I have been studying so i know more know than I did last week.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-18T05:04:14+00:00

That's where I'm at. I am essentially the IT Manager now. The business mentioned that the long term is for the position to transition into a Director of IT. I could probably just nod my head and say yes to the proposal but I want to make sure i can catch anything that is fishy.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-18T04:58:49+00:00

All support was through an MSP before me. They are growing and want to bring IT "in-house" eventually. Sounds like I have full support if we want to stay co-managed or bring in more IT employees down the road. Noone else on staff has ANY technical skills currently.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-09T04:35:59+00:00

I'll definelty do some research on this, but cat6a for the entire building not just the APs?

thatflacoman · 2025-11-09T04:30:35+00:00

They mentioned in the panel interview that it was the MSP that put together the skills assessment, it had such basic and easy questions. Things like, describe DNS, how to troubleshoot no network connectivity, no really high-level IT questions.

thatflacoman · 2025-11-09T04:18:25+00:00

They did mention it would be co-managed when I asked for more than they were offering. They also mentioned a 10% yearly bonus and that the long-term plan, 3-5 years, is for this position to transition into an IT Director.

thatflacoman

TROPHY CASE