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Outlook Email Support and Organizational Tips

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Business Email Organization

As a network IT consultant and system administrator for small to medium-sized enterprises, I encounter many email issues that arise primarily from ineffective organizational techniques which cause business productivity to suffer. Below, I offer suggestions to some of the most common email and task oriented problems that I come across.  Then we dive into more detail on Outlook email support.  Outlook is the number one desktop email application used around the world.  We help optimize it for your specific needs.

Problem 1 – Use of business accounts for personal email

Employee Bob signs up for marketing emails (Groupon, Starbucks, Target, et al.) using his company email address. He also uses his company email address as his personal Facebook account and as the primary communication method for keeping in touch with family and friends.

Answer 1

Counsel employees to use their corporate accounts for business purposes only. Assist them with unsubscribing from all marketing emails and to setup a Google or Hotmail accounts for those personal needs. Personally, I use a separate Hotmail (junk) account in addition to personal (family and friends correspondence) account for subscribing to email or organizations I’m unsure of their plans for my information.

Problem 2 – Email accounts are slow to open when utilizing desktop email applications

Bob loves using Outlook but access to his email is getting increasingly slow to load and really unstable.

Answer 2

For web-based email (my favorite is Gmail), a good rule of thumb is to maintain email storage under 2 gigabytes. Deleting email permanently (especially when connecting to it in a few different ways) takes some effort. I would suggest buying a copy of Microsoft Outlook (which comes with Microsoft Office but can be purchased separately), and set it up using the IMAP (instead of POP) protocol. IMAP forces synchronization of email and actually removes it from the cloud storage location as it’s pulled down into Outlook. That way, employees can take action on an email once and be done with it.

Problem 3 – What are my IMAP settings?

Answer 3

As discussed before, these settings will allow you to sync your email with all computers and devices.  I will build this list out for the San Diego region as I see fit.

IMAP settings:

Account Type: IMAP – Time Warner Cable
Incoming Mail Server: mail.twc.com
Incoming Server –IMAP port: 143
Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): mail.twc.com
Outgoing Server – SMTP port: 587 TLS
Inbound & Outbound User Name: Enter full email address, for example:

johndoe@[division].rr.com
johndoe@roadrunner.com
johndoe@twc.com

Inbound & Outbound Password: Email Password (same as Web Mail)
SMTP Server Requires Authentication: Checked

IMAP settings:

Account Type: IMAP – Google Apps
Incoming Mail Server: imap.gmail.com
Incoming Server –IMAP port: 993 – SSL
Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com
Outgoing Server – SMTP port: 587 -TLS
Inbound & Outbound User Name: Enter full email address, for example:

johndoe@domainname.com
johndoe@gmail.com

Inbound & Outbound Password: Email Password (same as Web Mail)
SMTP Server Requires Authentication: Checked

Problem 4 – Too many Outlook folders

User Bob LOVES Outlook folders and has hundreds of nested folders to “make filing email easier and more organized.”

Answer 4

I counsel my clients to not get into the habit of organizing email into folders because even the most organized employees don’t maintain the folders properly (removing them when no longer needed). If you are using hundreds of nested folders in Outlook, the size of the local email database (called a PST) will get enormous. Outlook has a very good built-in search functionality. Use it.

Problem 5 – You need to maintain a record of email for a certain number of years

If you have a legal or archival need to maintain a certain number of years of email, the 2 gigabyte limit is not realistic.

Answer 5

If you have a legal or archival reason for maintaining email beyond a year, I would suggest maintaining one PST per year. That way, retrieval of archived emails can be performed by other people if necessary and there is some assurance that corruption of a single PST wouldn’t affect other years.

Problem 6 – You would like to use your smartphone for personal and business email

Answer 6

Android devices and Apple iOS have generic email apps installed by default. Use these apps and configure them for your personal/junk email accounts (marketing emails, Facebook, Groupon, etc) and then turn off notifications. Use the separate Gmail app or Microsoft Outlook app (formerly known as Acompli) to organize your business email and perhaps an additional friends/family account.

Problem 7 – Why can’t I see my Outlook calendar on all my devices

Answer 7

Forget Outlook calendar. It only works well if you have Microsoft Exchange or Office 365. Find a cross-platform (computer web browser, phone, and tablet) calendar like Sunrise.AM (http://www.sunrise.am) and bask in all its agnostic-feature glory. (Note: Microsoft bought this app, too, and the developers of Sunrise have since stopped implementing new features and have been reassigned to the new Microsoft Outlook app. With that said, I still love it!)

Problem 8 – But… I REALLY like Outlook calendar

Answer 8

Fine. Get Exchange or Office 365. Too involved? Get Companionlink (http://www.companionlink.com) or Google Apps Sync. (Warning: both services are a bit quirky.)

Problem 9 – What about managing tasks?

Answer 9

Wunderlist app… see next Blog. Now go focus on your email or contact our team for further Outlook email support. :)

The post Outlook Email Support and Organizational Tips appeared first on Network Antics.


ArcGIS IT Support Troubleshooting Steps

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ArcGIS is a map database for a variety of organizations, educational institutions, government agencies, and consultants that like to collaborate with other groups on projects using the Internet.  We provide here ArcGIS IT support for your team to troubleshoot basic issues within a small environment.   We typically find ArcGIS being used with 1 license Subscription to Basic (ArcView) Concurrent Use.  Please make sure you reflect that in your configuration.

  • 1 license Subscription to Basic (ArcView) Concurrent Use

We provide a simple ArcGIS workflow for you to troubleshoot…

Workstation communicates with server to retrieve license.

Problem  1

Workstation produces licenses error upon entering ArcMap, ArcGlobe, and ArcScene.

Resolution 1

Check connectivity to server. Enter “Network and Sharing Center” for Windows Server and view active networks. Confirm your organization’s network is a private network.

Problem 2

Windows Server views network as “Public network” not private.

Resolution 2

a) In Registry Editor, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles

ArcGIS IT Support

 

 
b)Double click/tap on the Profiles key in the left pane to expand it. Click/tap on each long GUID number subkey, and look at it’s ProfileName string value in the right pane to see if it has the current network name (ex: Network) until found. (see screenshots below)
ArcGIS IT Support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ArcGIS IT Support

 

 

 

c)  When you find the correct ProfileName for your network name, double click/tap on the Category DWORD value in the same right pane to modify it. (see screenshot below)

 

ArcGIS IT Support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

d)Type in a new Data value number for the network location you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
ArcGIS IT Support

Network Location Data Value
Public 0
Private 1
Domain 2

e)  When finished, you can now close Registry Editor if you like.  Sometimes you may need to sign out and in of your user account or reboot to apply the new network location.

 

 

Problem 3

ArcGIS Administrator on server still errors out.

Resolution 3

Check ArcGIS administrator settings. Review the server name and port number for ArcGIS administrator. Custom settings are as followed…

E:\shares\software\gis\license\10.2\bin\service.txt

SERVER this_host ANY 27004

VENDOR ARCGIS PORT=27006

  • Choose correct Product Type – Basic (ArcView) Concurrent *ArcGIS – 1 license and save
  • Go into services.msc, (arcGIS) stop/start license services, reread licenses

 

Arc GIS IT Support

 

 

 

Additional Services to stop/restart

  • Flexnet license service properties (automatic) stop/start
  • ArcGIS License Manager Properties (automatic) stop/start
  • WMI Performance adapter   (automatic) stop/start

Check client workstation and review license availability. Should be 1 avaialable. 1 in use.

The post ArcGIS IT Support Troubleshooting Steps appeared first on Network Antics.

WiFi Support in San Diego

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WiFi options in a business environment typically are low end access points, router integrated Access Points. These are off the shelf products are found at big box stores at Best Buy and Office Depot.    We specialize in WiFi support in San Diego when big box store equipment is not meeting your needs and it’s impeding productivity. The high end wireless Access Points are managed by an expensive controller. The UniFi® Controller software introduced by the company called Ubiquity is an affordable alternative to the fancy access points. It is a powerful, enterprise wireless software engine ideal for high-density client deployments requiring low latency and high uptime performance. A single Ubiquity UniFi Controller running in the cloud can manage multiple sites: multiple, distributed deployments and multi-tenancy for managed service providers. The wireless Access Points in the each location would need to be able to see the original controller in order to control them.
UAP-AC Network Topology Requirements

  • A DHCP-enabled network.
  • A management station computer running the Ubiquity UniFi Controller Software, located either onsite and connected to the same Layer-2 network, or off-site in a cloud NOC. *The management station can be a workstation or server. The management station that contains the controller software is not required to be on at all times for the Access Points to work effectively but it was not designed for the controller to be off regularly.

 

All UniFi APs support off-site management controllers. For details see the Users Guide on the website: documentation.ubnt.com/unifi

Fun Management (controller) Station Features:

  • Wireless Access Points can lose their configuration aka factory default by clicking “forget the device” from the management station.
  • It’s called adopt or associate when the wireless first attached to network, receive a dynamic IP, and you are joining the device to be managed by the controller. It’s possible to inherent the other devices wireless access point configuration settings from that point forward.
  • You can view all the wireless bandwidth hogs, limit their connections, and or block them.
  • Wireless Access Points can MAC address can have an alias name and a map can be inserted to easily locate each device
  • You can connect to management station via a web browser URL https://nameofhostcomputer:8443

Aruba is the alternative Access Point on the same quality level but without the standalone controller. Aruba’s wireless access points are more expensive than the Ubiquity but don’t require a software or hardware controller. The Aruba Instant does not require a separate controller and they copy the config between themselves when setup.

There are some simple signal tips regardless of what wireless access point you choose. Follow them and you should be much better shape than you were previously.

  • Elevate the access point.
  • Isolate it from other electronics
  • Centrally locate near hallways when placing in rooms. Wireless signal do not penetrate walls often and while the signal may still be strong, the speed is limited. Run speedtest.net to determine speeds and ping tests to discovery latency. High latency prevents reasonable times for accessing web sites and jerky video.

WiFi Support in San Diego

When all else fails or you have determined you are in over your head, contact NetworkAntics for all WiFi support in San Diego.

 

 

The post WiFi Support in San Diego appeared first on Network Antics.

Windows 7 Installation Computer Support

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Here’s a nice collection of legitimate ways to get your version of Windows to perform a fresh install of the Windows Operating System. This article is of no use to you unless you have a Windows Product Key associated with the hardware you are installing it on. With that said, Windows 7 installation computer support can be a tricky endeavor. Please read carefully as you could harm your computer and the data on it.

Microsoft Sites

The sites above come in handy if you are downloading the ISO from the web.  Utorrent is required for downloading of ISO to occur.  Alternatively, the sites below help if you are going to purchased physical media from Amazon.  I prefer to do above if possible.

Alternate Sites

Windows 7 Home Basic
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 installation computer support – How to do a clean reinstall

Recovery Sites

Preferred Mirrored Site for ISOs
***Grab ISO from this site after Utorrent is installed***

 

ISO Guide

Used guide below to decide which version of Windows 7 ISO you use to install

 

English
(USA) Finnish
(Finland) French
(France)
Windows 7 Home Premium x86 SP1 U (media refresh)
latest and greatest X17-58996.iso X17-59007.iso  (first ISO English, second Finnish, and third is French)
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP1 U (media refresh)
latest and greatest X17-58997.iso X17-59009.iso
Windows 7 Professional x86 SP1 U (media refresh)
latest and greatest X17-59183.iso X17-59192.iso X17-59195.iso
Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 U (media refresh)
latest and greatest X17-59186.iso X17-59194.iso X17-59197.iso
Windows 7 Ultimate x86 SP1 U (media refresh)
latest and greatest X17-59463.iso X17-59477.iso
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 U (media refresh)
latest and greatest X17-59465.iso X17-59479.iso
Windows 7 Professional N x86 SP1 U (media refresh) X17-59335.iso X17-59344.iso X17-59348.iso
Windows 7 Professional N x64 SP1 U (media refresh) X17-59337.iso X17-59346.iso X17-59351.iso
WiWindows 7 Home Premium x86 SP1 (old) X17-24208.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP1 (old) X17-24209.iso
Windows 7 Professional x86 SP1 (old) X17-24280.iso X17-24284.iso X17-24286.iso
Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 (old) X17-24281.iso X17-24285.iso X17-24287.iso
Windows 7 Ultimate x86 SP1 (old) X17-24394.iso
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 (old) X17-24395.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium x86 RTM X15-65732.iso X15-65738.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 RTM X15-65733.iso X15-65739.iso
Windows 7 Professional x86 RTM X15-65804.iso X15-65810.iso
Windows 7 Professional x64 RTM X15-65805.iso X15-65811.iso
Windows 7 Ultimate x86 RTM X15-65921.iso
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM X15-65922.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium N x86 RTM X16-13457.iso X16-13469.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium N x64 RTM X16-13459.iso X16-13471.iso
Windows 7 Professional N x86 RTM X16-13548.iso X16-13560.iso
Windows 7 Professional N x64 RTM X16-13550.iso X16-13562.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium x86 RTM (not bootable) X15-79606.iso
Win7-HP-Retail-en-us-x86.exe X15-79609.iso
Win7-HP-Retail-fr-fr-x86.exe
WindWindows 7 Home Premium x64 RTM (not bootable) X15-79909.iso
Win7-HP-Retail-en-us-x64.exe X15-79912.iso
Win7-HP-Retail-fr-fr-x64.exe
WindWindows 7 Professional x86 RTM (not bootable) X15-79643.iso
Win7-P-Retail-en-us-x86.exe X15-79645.iso
Win7-P-Retail-fi-fi-x86.exe X15-79646.iso
Win7-P-Retail-fr-fr-x86.exe
WindWindows 7 Professional x64 RTM (not bootable) X15-79646.iso
Win7-P-Retail-en-us-x64.exe X15-79948.iso
Win7-P-Retail-fi-fi-x64.exe X15-79949.iso
Win7-P-Retail-fr-fr-x64.exe
WindWindows 7 Ultimate x86 RTM (not bootable) X15-79703.iso
Win7-U-Retail-en-us-x86.exe
WindWindows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM (not bootable) X15-80008.iso
Win7-U-Retail-en-us-x64.exe
WindWindows 7 Home Premium N x86 RTM (not bootable) X16-12862.iso
Win7-HPN-Retail-en-us-x86.exe X16-12868.iso
Win7-HPN-Retail-fr-fr-x86.exe
WindWindows 7 Home Premium N x64 RTM (not bootable) X16-12863.iso
Win7-HPN-Retail-en-us-x64.exe X16-12869.iso
Win7-HPN-Retail-fr-fr-x64.exe
WindWindows 7 Professional N x86 RTM (not bootable) X16-12908.iso
Win7-PN-Retail-en-us-x86.exe X16-12914.iso
Win7-PN-Retail-fr-fr-x86.exe
WindWindows 7 Professional N x64 RTM (not bootable) X16-12909.iso
Win7-PN-Retail-en-us-x64.exe X16-12915.iso
Win7-PN-Retail-fr-fr-x64.exe

Reference: http://hasibul.info/blog/2015/04/12/download-windows-7-iso-updated/

The post Windows 7 Installation Computer Support appeared first on Network Antics.

Ransomware Virus Support

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There are so many stories published in the media and frequent personal experiences I’ve encountered that I can’t help but feel obligated to write about ransomware virus support.   Ransomware typically comes in the form of a fake email posing as courier service such as UPS or important letter with a zip attachment encouraging you to open it.  The email suggests you have bad debt that must be settle or something similar with negative consequences if you don’t act.   It is all downhill from there once you open this file attachment or link.

Let’s digress into preventative steps before I go into how to possibly salvage your data

  • Backup – it’s surprising just how many businesses still don’t apply some sort of disaster / recovery process
  • Protection – Norton, mcafee, Microsoft essentials all miss signs of potential threats.   Google apps for work has built-in protection that is pretty good at blocking Trojan Horse viruses from entering.  Installing HitMan Pro Alert will be additional layer of protection.

CryptoWall encrypted my files… Now what?

You can try to recover through a couple built in features of the Microsoft Windows operating system.  Whatever you do, don’t wait, and don’t reboot.  Your window to fix this situation is very limited.

  • Previous Version. –  right click, select properties, and visit what if any prior version of files may be there before the attack occurred
  • File recovery –  using the program R-Studio to recover your deleted data before it was replaced with encrypted data is probably your last solid bet. The demo version of the software can at least test a file or two like a Jpeg file to see if the recovery worked before purchasing the complete software.

Ransomware Virus Support – The niddy griddy

No backups, no recovery…  Are you doomed?

I’m completely against paying the ransomware virus peeps because it will be encourage billions more dollars to flow into those shady hands.  However, some small businesses have no choice and their livelihoods are at stake.  They need to keep the lights on and their employees employees.  Plus, I’m evangelizing the proactive steps needs to prevents ransomware viruses in the future. The ransomware yahoos have made procedures for recovering your data particularly easy to comprehend because they want you to pay the money.  They even give you a taste of what you could have back if you follow through with Bitcoin payment by letting you select a personal file from your computer and then recovering it.

 

There is no guarantee once your data is recovered that the computer is free of viruses until you wipe the computer and place a fresh copy of the OS on the computer. Back up the data and software license keys on the computer and proceed with the wipe.

 

The post Ransomware Virus Support appeared first on Network Antics.

File Server Remote Access Support

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There are plenty of ways to access your remote server but not all access is equal. It all depends on roles on workflow:
• IT support access.
-Your IT team needs instant access to workstations and servers.
• Mobile device access
-Instant access to documents at your fingertips on the road
• Work at home solutions
-VPN or tunneling allows your computer to act like it’s at work but remote desktop sharing may be a less eye gouging experience. Alternatively, file sync solutions is increasingly is becoming the de facto standard.

We will discuss these options in details and sometimes provide some nitty gritty details on setup depending on the ease of use factor.

Synology File Server Remote Access Support

Synology File Server is more than just a server. It has a lot of built in remote access functionality. These remote services include mobile phone photo backup, surveillance camera footage, and access to files stored on the server and workstations of your network using Cloud Station Sync or DiskStation File.
Synology’s Quick Connect allows easy to setup access to these services. However, Quick Connect is less secure for passing sensitive data over the internet and therefore dismissed by our team as a secure way to conduct business. Application specific ports must be open on your firewall and dynamic DNS services need to be enabled for locating your workstation remotely through the preferred method of accessing the file server remotely. Below are the default ports for Synology services. Please note: It is always recommended to change the default ports. Also, the less ports you have to open on your firewall, the more secure your organization is.

Firewall Ports

Firewall Ports

You can bypass port forwarding setup on your router if you proceed with Synology’s Quick Connect. Otherwise, consider what services you need open from the list above. We are steadily building a list of remotely accessible setup instructions. Photo Station is ideal for individuals who consume a lot of space on the smart phone with photos and media and need a place to archive it. Photographers and families come to mind when using this. However, basic phone users may struggle this application. Contact for Synology file server support. The alternative iPhone app is buying more iCloud storage or tethering a cable to computer and making a local back up to your computer. With that said, here’s a quick note for a Synology Diskstation Photo Station Setup and LogMeIn

Photo Station Setup

• Initiate Photo Station Service within Disk Station Manager.
• Enable user accounts that need photo station access

Photo Station Setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Log into the accounts that need Photo Sharing Service. * Make sure you activate the user home service first before enable personal photo station service. Home Service creates Home Folders for each user account. Additional features that need to be enabled are listed below.

 synology photo station

Remote Desktop Screen Sharing Services for File Server Remote Access Support

LogMeIn Central

LogMeIn Central is the portal used for accessing remote desktops, workstations, and servers. It does not require any firewall hole poking. In fact, it contains multiple to manage users and lock down security. The agents used to create remote accessibility for these computers can be downloaded at www.logmein.com/logmein.msi LogMeIn Central offer basic remote access or LogMeIn Pro. Be careful when purchasing as most organizations do not need the added functionality and expense of a Pro account. Anyway, this service is the bees knees for remote server support.

• 5 Pack is around $300
• Central Basic: Starts at $499.00 for 25 computers, per year.
• Central Plus: Starts at $999.00 for 25 computers, per year.
• Central Premium: Starts at $1,299.00 for 25 computers, per year.

Join.me

Join.me provides instant access for conducting meetings or remote presentations. It’s pretty intuitive for most novice users but it can be frustrating to use if you provide IT support.
ShowMyPC
This is great for introductory IT support while the help desk team preps the workstation and the organization they are supporting for a more long term solution. It also can be used on Macs and basic server support.

File Synchronization Software

File synchronization software makes more and more sense these days to reference a URL in your email rather than an attachment.  The URL is a link to your box.net account and box.net can be synced to your workstation or even better a Synology Disk Station.  This is great for presenting documents to a client in an articulate manor. Attachments get lost and it’s hard to decipher within multiple attachments in an email the difference in file content between one attached file from another.

Box email links

An ideal workflow is to have your workstation as a sandbox for current projects that are backed up to the server using something like Disk Station Cloud Client if you have a Synology Disk Station. Then have the mapped drive locations for you to save the final version and or collaboration with your peers as seen on the right.

The H, W, Y, and Z are mapped drives to the server (diskstation) location.

 

Map Drive Setup

Throw on Cloud Sync on the diskstation and connect to Box.net for creating URLs to the documents you are sharing with the pubic at work and on the go.

As you read here today, File Server remote access is all what you make of it. It varies from organization to organization and person to person. Figure out what best suits your need and contact us for all your file server needs.

 

 

 

 

The post File Server Remote Access Support appeared first on Network Antics.

Email Client Settings

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Use the email client settings below to configure Outlook or similar applications for sending and receiving email.

 

Time Warner IMAP settings:

Account Type: IMAP – Time Warner Cable
Incoming Mail Server: mail.twc.com
Incoming Server –IMAP port: 143
Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): mail.twc.com
Outgoing Server – SMTP port: 587 TLS
Inbound & Outbound User Name: Enter full email address, for example:

johndoe@[division].rr.com
johndoe@roadrunner.com
johndoe@twc.com

Inbound & Outbound Password: Email Password (same as Web Mail)
SMTP Server Requires Authentication: Checked

Google IMAP settings:

Account Type: IMAP – Google Apps
Incoming Mail Server: imap.gmail.com
Incoming Server –IMAP port: 993 – SSL
Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com
Outgoing Server – SMTP port: 587 -TLS
Inbound & Outbound User Name: Enter full email address, for example:

johndoe@domainname.com
johndoe@gmail.com

Inbound & Outbound Password: Email Password (same as Web Mail)
SMTP Server Requires Authentication: Checked

Yahoo! Business POP Settings:

Yahoo! Business Mail

Your POP/SMTP Settings
Incoming Server :     pop.bizmail.yahoo.com
Port 995 with SSL
Outgoing Server :     smtp.bizmail.yahoo.com
Port 465 with SSL (requires Authentication to be enabled)
Username :     Your Business Email address
(e.g. name@mycompany.com)
Password :     Your Business Email password

Your IMAP settings
Incoming Server :     imap.mail.yahoo.com
Port 993 with SSL
Outgoing Server :     smtp.bizmail.yahoo.com
Port 465 with SSL (requires Authentication to be enabled)
Username :     Your Business Email address
(e.g. name@mycompany.com)
Password :     Your Business Email password

The post Email Client Settings appeared first on Network Antics.

Mac IT Support Tips for Apple Networks

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There’s a million and one things that could go wrong with your Mac computer.   Apple Mac IT support in this discussion centers around troubleshooting you can do before and after an Mac technical issue occurs; and the preparation involved before you go attack any issue.  This post will prevent catastrophe and perhaps provide optimization of your Apple Mac.  We will discuss Apple Mac Network IT support once you get through the basics below.

 

Backup and Optimization of your Mac

 

 

  1. Step one: Backup – ALWAYS back up a users machine prior to performing any maintenance. You don’t know what could be lurking, and a loss of user data could be a loss of a job for you.
    1. Option 1: Local NAS Backup
      1. In the Apple world this device is known as Time Capsule and software on the Mac is called Apple Time Machine. In our case, we had a third party NAS that offers a lot more nerdy flexibility.  The NAS or Network Attached Storage is called Synology DiskStation and it as does Time Capsule, connects to the local network. This option provides a lot of available space and a fast data transfer rates over the network when “hard wired” to the LAN.     Otherwise, WiFi tends to be hit or miss but obviously better as you are closer to the Access Point.
      2. Full backup – If time permits, and the number of files and applications suggests that a full backup be performed, the Time Machine software embedded in the Mac OS X can be easily synced to the computer. Follow the graphical directions here to perform a full backup to a DiskStation – . NOTE: The Synology software is setup to streamline a Time Machine backup. To use this, you must use a shared folder. A user folder will not work.
  • Partial Backup – Due to the Synology DiskStation being capable of reading/writing for multiple file systems, we can also perform partial backups.
    1. For example, this user was primarily concerned with her photos. Since iPhoto uses metadata to organize photos, we want to be sure to use the Export tool in iPhoto to back up the files. This can be found in iPhoto under File>Export. The option that is selected “Transfer File” is automatically set to move the entire database. When you click “Select Disk,” the DiskStation should appear as a shared device, and you will need to log in to select a shared folder to copy to.
    2. The rest of the data (documents, movies, etc.) can be dragged and dropped from one window to the DiskStation. I recommend making a list of important Applications and ensuring that they can either be downloaded or the install media is available.

 

  1. Option 2: External Hard Drive (EHD)
    1. If you have an EHD, you can do a full or partial backup with a few things in mind:
      1. Size: make sure you have enough room for all the files on the drive.
      2. Format: make sure you have the drive formatted to support the file system type that you are backing up. In this case, we had a drive with enough space, but it was formatted to NTFS and not Mac OS Extended (Journal).
    2. Full backup:

 

Start optimizing the Apple Mac

Many users don’t realize there is a folder structure to organizing their data.  You can capture a glimpse of that folder structure by clicking the Mac HD icon sometimes found on the desktop.   Click the side pain called “devices” once the hard drive is selected.  Select the Macintosh HD and it will reveal the operating system folder structure. /users/user name/  The goal of this lesson is to move excess data on the desktop or other random locations and move them to the right folder locations.  Eliminating excessive data off the desktop improves speed of the computer and load time.

a.

  • Pictures – /users/user name/pictures – Click with two fingers “photo library” and click “show package contents”.  Typically, users stash their photos on to the computer via the application “iphoto”  The raw data or original photos can be found in the “originals” when you click “show package contents.  Add any additional scattered pics to this location under a new folder name description.  Alternatively, drag and drop scattered photos into the iPhoto application itself.
  1. Documents – /users/user name/documents – Drag all Word and PDF documents to this location and organize in their appropriate folders.
  2. Startup items – Remove items from startup that have no practical use

 

  1. Optimize with Apple Mac OS utility DVD and 3rd party utilities
    1. Snow Leopard was the last physical DVD produced. Boot with the correct (holding down the C key) key stroke  to run the hard drive utility.
    2. Onyx doesn’t boot, the software utility must be downloaded and install while running your regular desktop session. It has a slew of options to run or simply execute them all.
  • Malware Malbytes release a Apple version of their popular malware removal product for the PC.
  1. Wipe the OS
    1. Unlike Windows, a refresh of the complete Operating System is very rarely needed. Please perform the backup as mentioned in step one and find your product keys for reinstall.   Alternatively, it can also be located within this file path.  /Users/account/library/application support/preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist

 

Mac IT Support for Apple Networks Unraveled

Pealing the layers back and understanding what all encompasses Mac IT support for a apple network is pretty difficult topic to grasp.  We will reference other posts to help guide you through the process of not only understanding the Mac product line but perhaps introducing you to cheaper alternatives.

 

WiFi and Storage

Apple Airport Express–  Apple Airport allows for WiFi connectivity in your home or office.  The standard term without the marketing lingo is called an Access Point.   Additional Airport Express features includes:

  • Airplay – Attached to your stereo system and play music from your iPod
  • Very basic router functionality
  • Printer sharing

Apple Airport Extreme – The Airport Express is good for an apartment but large house and organizations need a web of Access Points to span the building.  The Apple Airport Extreme is the WiFi Controller for managing all Apple Airport Express.

Apple Airport Time Capsule  – Limited storage space on your Apple Mac can not only prevent you from being productivity it can also potential ruin you if you don’t have backup.  Time Machine allows for on-site backup.  The Apple Airport Time Capsule helps provide a complete backup of your system.  However, I don’t believe Time Capsule has a backup to the cloud feature

Centralized Administration

Mac OSX server supports LDAP out-of-the-box (Microsoft’s product is called Active Directory, Apple’s version is called Open Directory). You could configure users in OpenDirectory and then configure LDAP authentication on the DiskStation.

The majority of organizations on both Mac and PC do not utilize under 25 users.  However, Mac IT support issues multiply as they organization grows and centralized administration through the use of Open Directory for Mac and Active Directory for Windows.

Mac IT Support Connectivity Issues

Any networking device these days works the way whether they are a smart phone, smart TV, Mac, PC, etc.   They all use TCP/IP.  Understanding what IP you have obtained and being able to ping, arp, and tracert devices around you or around the world will bring you a lot closer to resolving most of your Mac IT support connectivity issues.

 

.

 

 

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Surveillance Camera Setup and Remote Viewing Tips

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Disclaimer:  While we do not perform the actual mounting of cameras, we do provide surveillance camera setup and remote viewing tips from the IT support perspective.  We have partners that perform cable management, drops, the mounting of cameras, and the general surveillance setup for the cameras to not only view but record motion activated footage of situations that may be important to you.

With the disclaimer out of the way, the first thing that your IT support team is your internet connection and the router that is connected to it.    Certain providers may provide an all in one router/modem.  Others, simply provide the modem and let you purchase a generic router typically Linksys or Apple Airport for their basic routing needs.

Almost all residential users and more than 50% small businesses have internet that contain a dynamic WAN IP.  That means you have a leased IP address from the internet and the lease may last a couple days to a couple months.  The bottom line is the IP is changing and trying to find your surveillance system using a phone app or web browser from anywhere beyond being an “on-site” will be hopeless endeavor unless you get a static IP or subscribe to dynamic DNS.

Dynamic DNS Service Providers:

  • org – agnostic service but learning curve is high for a novice user
  • com – Easy setup used by some DVR surveillance systems
  • me – if you have a Synology system

 

We can proceed once you have selected a domain name.  In our example, we have chosen dvrlists.com.  We make up a sub domain or FQDN that has not been used by some other user in the same scenario that needs a dynamic DNS.  Fragglerock in this example is the subdomain we chose for a DynDNS subdomain.

http://fragglerock.dvrlists.com

 

While we have chosen a DynDNS provider and retain a FQDN, we have not placed the Dynamic DNS service into our Local Area Network.  This service can sometimes be placed on the router or the DVR system itself.  We will choose the DVR into scenario as displayed below.   Connect a monitor and mouse for initial access to the DVR and used the checklist to complete the surveillance camera setup on the DVR.

  • Provide a static IP to the system that is outside the DHCP scope to whatever is handing LAN IP addresses. Typically that DHCP range is 192.168.1.100 – 149.   So we would choose 192.168.1.150 if that IP was not already reserved by another static IP device.  Note admin access password is by default usually 1234 or 12345.
  • Add a service account in addition to the generic admin account and change the admin password. I don’t like handing out the admin password to everyone.  Therefore I create a “service account” as an alternative account for remote viewing.
  • Discover what ports are being used for streaming services and what devices you will be using for viewing purposes. The less ports that are open, the more secure your system is against hackers.  Read more about hacking surveillance cameras.  It’s scary.

 

Surveillance Camera Setup

Here’s the web interface of a generic DVR surveillance system configured for http://192.168.1.150 access.  This page would not come up if you are router network is not setup for the 192.168.1.0 network and you didn’t statically assign the correct IP above with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and whatever the gateway IP is.  Typically, it’s 192.168.1.1 but that varies as well.     The external ports are important for identify web page access.  Port 80 for http://192.168.1.150 and port 443 for https://192.168.1.150 for secure access to the console interface.  While the interfaces are important, they may not ever need external access use because most of your viewing will be done from a mobile device such as an iPhone or Android.   With that said, configure your router to reflect these suggestions.  In our scenario, we are using a Linksys router with a http://192.168.1.1 access to the gateway interface or the router interface.

 

Router Surveillance Camera Port Forwarding

 

In the above example, we enabled ports 8000 and 8554 for streaming services and used both TCP and UDP transmission protocols to stream the service.  Ports 443 and 80 are not enabled for Port Forwarding.  While port forwarding is the most critical piece to get the surveillance camera setup to work remotely, it takes a series of steps before and after to achieve the final result.

There’s an app for that.

We downloaded off the iVMS-4500 iPhone app store for free to get fantastic streaming capability.  All the hardware and software may vary but to get this example rolling that’s what we chose.  Configuring is the next step.

 

Register Mode: IP Domain

 

Server Address:  fragglerock.dvrlists.com

Port:8000

 

User Name:  admin

Password:  *****

 

Apply your own appropriate settings to the above DVR camera setup for the iPhone or Android and you should be set for services.  Obviously, there are plenty more variables in more complex environments but this NetworkAntics introduction to a DVR surveillance setup.  Enjoy!

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Network Installation Setup List

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Network installation setup is a vague description for a couple IT scenarios that generally play out within a new business.   Disclaimer:  The lovely world of cable management and IT has plenty expressions that mean the same thing or the layman only understand one expression used to describe a certain technology but it’s the wrong expression.   I will try to clarify these issues and their many expressions in this post.   Perhaps, emphasize in BOLD the IT lingo so you can hang with the big boys and girls here in San Diego.  Anyway, where was I?  Ah riiiight…. Network installation setup scenarios:

Scenario #1

The commercial space is wired meaning the network drops are installed and hopefully tested, toned, and marked with a number (1a, 1b, etc.) so that you are pretty confident that they work properly. Network drops are ethernet cables running from a central location to the wall plate where voice and data jacks are located.   Again, these wall plates with voice and data jacks are marked in numeric fashion. That central location can be the wiring closet.  The main closet MDF and the additional closet for a big office is the IDF.  A fiber drop is ran in these larger offices from the MDF to IDF to maintain optimal speeds throughout the network and network devices comprising of routers and managed switches.

This scenario is ideal if it is in fact already wired.  This means the IT guy can interpret the Network Installation setup as consultation on the ideal network devices for the organization’s processes and workflow.   Typical Network Devices include:

  • Router – The routers you should be concerned with are basic home office routers that have limited functionality and the routers that do everything else.  The most important features of the “everything else” routers are intrusion detection, segmentation, and QOS.
  • Switches – Switches come in many different sizes. 8, 16, 24, and 48 ports are  typical switches.  Managed is ideal for larger networks for managing and segmenting traffic.  Unmanaged switches are found in environments under 50 users but manage switches are creeping into these environments because the cost has dropped significantly and their features are too beneficial to pass up.
  • Access Point – The laymen has several names for this hardware. The most commonly heard expression of late is “wireless”  when referring to the access point.   “Where are you going to place the wireless”  What?
  • Tablet
  • Laptop
  • Workstation
  • Server

What is segmentation?

The average Joe thinks that they must maintain a separate internet connection from their service provider to secure their traffic from guest traffic.  The more sophisticated routers can segment or separate traffic without having to purchase another modem.  Grabbing a new modem or internet service is called a circuit and perhaps upgrading that circuit’s speed is money better spent than maintaining two mediocre circuits.

Scenario #2

The commercial is not wired or whoever did the wiring should be slapped.  You are now entering the realm of cable management.  Perhaps, some people call it cable installation but cable management is an art when done right.

Cable Management basics at the closet:

  • Enclosure
  • Rack
  • Shelf
  • Patch Panel
  • Power
    Network Instalation Setup

    Enclosure Case





The enclosure secures the equipment, the rack stacks and mounts if the equipment is “rack mountable”, and the shelf or shelves can place equipment that is not rack mountable.  Rack mountable servers come in “blades” with the smallest at 1U, double that is 2U, etc.

You can immediately tell a botched cable job when the cable drops ran did not include a Patch Panel.  Patch Panels are crucial piece to keeping a network stable and organized.

Outside the closer cabling stuff to consider:

  • Cat 5e or Cat6? – The installer can advise on this.   The amount of spool cable to purchase is obviously dependent the length of cable runs.
  • Face Plates
  • Mounting Brackets
  • Insert Jacks





The theme here is to keep it clean.  The three items above make for a pretty wall jack or jacks for plugging in your network devices.   IMPORTANT:  The more runs, the better.  Try to have a 1 to 1 ratio for network devices.  We do not want to see mini switches degrading your network’s performance.

Network Installation Setup Diagrammed

Write it out, map it out, consider everything, talk to someone, or you will miss something. You can then consider routers, switches, and Access Points once you get to this point.   Maybe you can get rid of that second circuit?  Here’s some hardware to consider if you are going for a little more sophisticated setup

  • Sonicwall TZ 215
  • 24 Port Switch
  • Access Point



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Exchange Server Support and Alternate Email Hosting Options

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Exchange Server Support comes with the territory of hosting your own email server.   It’s a serious commitment.  You just don’t know what could happen.  Just ask Hillary.  We have developed the main factors to consider when determining what to use for hosting your own email server. Essentially they boil down to two: Features and Support.  Review our post on outsourcing email if this route becomes too expensive and convoluted.  Outsourced email hosting pricing can be found at the bottom of the post.

 

  1. Features

Inbound virus scanning
Inbound anti-SPAM scanning
Type of access to server – POP, IMAP, MAPI, Webmail, ActiveSync
Support for Calendaring
Support for Global address books
Undelete function for messages

  1. Support

Support for the underlying Operating System
Support for the e-mail program(s) involved

Each of these contributes to cost.

 

There are plenty of options out there that vary on size and scope of the project but the operational cost for getting good exchange email support or whatever flavor email server you choose can be high.   The stereotypical servers that you get from Dell or some other manufacturer are the default choice but not always the best choice.  Let’s first use a real life hardware quotes and pick them apart.   The first snippet of a quote is a Dell PowerEdge R230 followed by a Dell Power Edge T430.

Exchange Server SupportExchange Server Support


 

 

 

 

Here are the main difference in Hardware Specs:

  1. The price. The Dell PowerEdge R230 is $2300.  The Dell PowerEdge T430 is $3600 you get a very good deal but normally $4500.  10k vs 15k SAS drives make the biggest difference in price or consider the very cheap SATA drive for certain basic tasks.
  2. The first email server quote is a rack mount server. Pay attention to the T and R after the Dell PowerEdge Server name. T for Tower and R for Rackmount.  The rackmount server is always cheaper but requires a rack.  Fortunately, the very basic rack was added to the first quote.
  1. The R230 is a very basic server. The second quote is an Enterprise level T430 with 8 hot swap drives capacity.  The R230 has 7200 RPM SATA Drives. You need 15K SAS drives for a lot server based products.
  1. The R230 Processor is E3-1220V5 which is workstation single socket Processor. The T430 is a Dual Socket Intel Xeon E5-2600 V3 server CPU.  Basically, the Dell PowerEdge R230 is a glorified workstation with built-in hard drive redundancy.
  1. I’m not sure which Power supply in R230 but the T430 has redundant 750 Watt PS.
  1. Windows Server 2012 CALs are missing in R230. You can’t utilize the Server 2012 without CALs. The basic 5 CAL package is additional $150
  1. The Dell PowerEdge R230 server has 3 years’ depot warranty while the T430 is 3 years NBD onsite warranty in T430.
  1. Note: Make sure if you set the RAM 8x4G option because it is more reliable that 2x16G.

 

To sum up the T430 has a lot more scalability and flexibility if you wanted to host VMware on it for the option to virtualize a variety of machines on it but in our case, it’s an Exchange email server first and foremost.  Microsoft Exchange email server is very resource intensive server application as you add more and more users to.   It may or may not be ideal to virtualize it.

As you may be learning, there are many variables to consider when you are hosting and providing your own Exchange support.  However, the corporate world has evolved in the last ten years to the point it does not depend on Microsoft and its suite of products any more.

Alternate Email and Services

In the most basic scenario, you host e-mail services, you give your clients access to POP e-mail and you perform no additional services such as virus scanning or SPAM filtering.  It is quite possible to download a Linux distribution and using other Open Source software, get this up and running for essentially the cost of the hardware and a half day of labor.

There are several downside to this starting with features (clients have POP access only and there is no scanning of incoming messages) and going to support – if something breaks you’re the one that has to fix it.

VirtualMin

Virtualmin is basically a Control Panel.  They’ve put together a software package that you can use to configure a server and various server applications.  All of the underlying server programs are Open Source.  I’m not sure what all they cover in their support offerings but the price is certainly attractive.  It requires one of the recommended servers quoted above to get going.

Synology Mail Plus Server

This is new and improved mail server from Synology.  MailPlus Server was just released.  It does POP and IMAP and works with higher end NAS devices like the Synology DS1815+.  SATA drives are supported in the drive bay not SaaS.


 

Zimbra Email Server

Zimbra is an e-mail product available in both a paid and an open source version.  The software is essentially a collection of third party utilities that have been configured to work together to provide an enterprise class collaboration server for e-mail, calendars, contacts etc.  The server software runs on Linux, which means that it can be used without the added expense of a Microsoft Windows Server license.  The Zimbra Open Source edition can be used with a web interface or Zimbra desktop client software which both give full access to the collaboration features.  It can also be used with Outlook (the current e-mail client), however without the collaboration features. The paid version gives access to support and also enables the Outlook connector which enables Outlook as the full featured collaboration client.  The paid version is licensed on an annual basis.

At that time the annual per user license fee for Zimbra was $56.  Zimbra does have the Community Edition which does not include support (beyond the community/forum support) which does have POP and IMAP access.

 

Ice Warp Email Server

It essentially contains the same suite of offerings as Zimbra but with an entirely different pricing model.  Prices change, please contact the vendor for the latest price update.

 

Email server support

 

Linux Support Tools

Synology Mail Plus, Zimbra Mail Server, and Ice Warp Email Server all run on Linux.  Below are are all the Linux support tools you must configure to run your email services.

  • Postfix, to send and receive e-mail
  • Dovecot, for IMAP
  • SpamAssassin, to keep spam out of your inbox
  • ClamAV, to filter out viruses
  • Sieve, to set up mail filters and rules
  • Roundcube, for webmail
  • PostgreSQL (or MySQL/MariaDB), for Roundcube’s database
  • Nginx and PHP-FPM, to serve out Roundcube over the Web

Exchange Server Support

Today’s network environment is no longer limited to Microsoft.  While the option to continue with Exchange Server Support both locally or in the cloud is still available, it is important remind organizations the vast selection in email services that are present now more than ever before.  Do your homework and happy emailing.

 

Additional Resources:

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Server Hardware, Broken Down

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Installing the right server hardware is important when running something like IceWarp or Exchange Email Server since under sizing a server can create very poor results when run in production.  We broke down the server hardware specs.  Check it out…

 

Hard Drive

 

One of the most important pieces of the server when running mail is the hard drive. If the drive is slower (7200 RPM SATA for example) then it can cause huge disk queues and a backlog of the read/write requests which effectively cause issues with the mail processing and user experience. For this reason we recommend the following setup: 10k RPM SATA or 15k RPM SAS

server hardware

Here the biggest differences are cost and size. SATA is a little cheaper in most cases and allows for more capacity. SAS are a little faster but sizes are lower: 600GB is the highest we believe they go now while SATA 10k can do 1TB.

 

In the end the budget comes into play and will ultimately decide how far you can go. For the money however this is one of the best drives you can buy and the one we recommend.

The SAS counterparts are a little faster, operating up to 15k RPM. A slight increase in performance might be seen but it will take more drives when thinking of RAID arrays so the cost is driven up significantly.

Solid State Drives are great and would be the first choice due to the huge performance gains. The cost for this however would be very high so going with one of the other options would allow for better hardware elsewhere possibly.

 

RAID

 

This is often a highly debated topic and there is no real right or wrong answer. It comes down to two key principles in our opinion-

server hardware

 

 

 

If cost is not an issue then RAID10 is usually the preferred way to go because it couples the highest performance with the highest protection from failures. The only catch is the amount of drives required to build the array is almost double that of doing a RAID5.

 

One of the biggest pieces here is also the controller card for the RAID array. If spending money to go RAID10 then investing in a good RAID controller is worth it. Dell machines, when using the Perc h800 or higher controllers they come prepackaged with, CacheCade technology which allows for a single or mirrored SSD set to cache read/write to the array. This effectively increases the performance to an extremely high level. If you’re not using Dell hardware then you can find a different RAID controller matching your hardware vendor that can provide this same technology.

 

In the end if budget is not a concern RAID10 is the first choice while RAID5 would be the second option.

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/raid-levels-tutorial/

 

CPU and Memory

 

CPU and Memory are used by our product but we are not nearly as resource intensive as say Microsoft Exchange. For this reason you can actually go a little lower on these resources than you might think.

Utilizing the Specs for Buying the Right Server Hardware

We have created another blog post to guide you through a process of purchasing a very basic server to a standard server.   Flip back and forth between the two posts for you to get an intimate understanding of what server hardware is required for your own situation.  Then work with your Managed IT Service provider to get the most bang for you IT buck.

 

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Quickbooks Support, Setup, and maintenance

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I’m slowly building this Quickbooks support blog post out.  We always install Quickbooks without fully understanding the some of the installation processes it has in place.  Here’s the break down…

 

Quickbooks contains three methods for storing and running your company files.   Company files are typically stored in the public profile.   I’m not sure the reasoning behind this but basically the default location for windows Vista/7/8 is:

C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files

Whereas a typical user, ie Bob; Bob looks for critical data in these two locations

C:\Users\Bob\Documents
C:\Users\Bob\Desktop

As a business network grows from 10 or 20 users to 50 to 100, applications that reside on the local computer and its critical data may be separated and placed on a centralized location called a file server for the option to share and data backup.

These network locations also known as “shares” are made available to each workstation with users that have permissions to them.   The share names vary and depend on workflow for each organization.

Intuit Multi-Host Installation

Multi-Host allows for other workstations to connect to the host computer.   The host computer contain the QBW file, also known as the company file.  There are three hosting options to choose from when you choose not host on a user like Bob’s computer.

 

“Dedicated Hosting”, “Peer to Peer”  and NAS “Alternate Hosting” Method

All these solutions contain the company file at the “host” machine along with Quickbooks or just the database server manager itself.   However, the host machine does contain the option for backing up.  This is left for the administrative access machine designated in Quickbooks.  It should contain shares as mentioned before to store the Quickbooks backup file.  This ensures the organization the backup file exists on the file server if fire, theft, or computer failure occurs with the host computer.  Please make sure you have regularly scheduled backups to the cloud of the file server if you do proceed with this solution or at the very least have a thumb drive backup.

Quickbooks Database Server Manager Installation and Administrator Access Steps

The Quickbooks Database Server Manager or Database Manager is a component of the Quickbooks installation CD that manages the file if you have a dedicated host machine.  That machine can be a simple workstation or server.  It may be good to virtualize that machine as a workstation in larger environments.  This scenario also separates the bookkeeper and or accountant from administrative duties that so often causes problems during their departure from the organization.

Step 1

Find the machine to run the database manager, close all application, and run the Intuit Quickbooks installer all the way through until you get prompted for express and custom installations.  In this guide we will select custom.  Select “install database server only”  when the option becomes available during the Quickbooks installation.

Step 2

Open the Database Manager.   It can be under programs, Quickbooks.   Click the “scan folders “ tab and “add folder” button to select the location (try looking under the default location) of your company file or it will scan for you.  Please note:  Other users won’t be able to open the company file remotely if you don’t select the file.  Click scan and close when it completes the scan.

Step 3

Go into Quickbooks, select file, utilities, and “host multi-user access” on the computer you want to use for administrator access.  Then click “company” and “setup users and passwords”.   The designated administrator access machine must manage the backups

Step 4

Select open company file once users are setup and browse to the network location of where your Quickbooks database server manager is located.  Select file and open to login.

 

Administrator Access Machine

To access company files, the QuickBooks database system user must be logged in to Windows with Administrator privileges.

To set Administrator privileges:

  1. Close QuickBooks.
  2. Click the Windows Start button and choose Control Panel.
  3. Open User Accounts.
    • Windows 7: Click Manage User Accounts
  4. Double-click the QBDataServiceUserXX for your version of QuickBooks:
    • QuickBooks 2015: QBDataServiceUser25
    • QuickBooks 2014: QBDataServiceUser24
    • QuickBooks 2013: QBDataServiceUser23
    • QuickBooks 2012: QBDataServiceUser22
    • QuickBooks 2011: QBDataServiceUser21
    • QuickBooks 2010: QBDataServiceUser20
    • QuickBooks 2009: QBDataServiceUser19
    • QuickBooks 2008: QBDataServiceUser18
    • QuickBooks 2007: QBDataServiceUser17
  1. Click the Group Membership tab.
  2. Select Other and click the drop-down arrow to select Administrators.
  3. Click OK.

 

Quickbooks Support – Workstation Setup

 

Step 1

Find the machine to run Quickbooks, close all application, and run the Intuit Quickbooks installer all the way through until you get prompted for express and custom installations.  In this guide we will select custom.  Select “I’ll be using Quickbooks only”  when the option becomes available during the Quickbooks installation.

Scratch Notes

Banking, Bank Feed, Bank feed center

  • Transaction List
  • Click “download as”
  • Payee ‘add 76
  • Account -> Automobile Expense
  • Meals and Entertainment 50% reimbursement (Batch)

Chase ->  Web Download

Business Side

Banking -> Use Register

 

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SolidWorks IT Support Hardware Specs

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SolidWorks IT Support helps if you have a basic understanding of the application, who uses it, what industries is it generally used in, and who’s its competition. SolidWorks is a solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) program running on Microsoft Windows.  SolidWorks is a 3D modeling software that uses a parametric feature based approach to create the solid model, thus easing the transition to computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software to create the finished product.  In addition to the 3D modeling software, SolidWorks also hosts several add-on “Suites” for additional engineering tasks like stress/strain analysis, thermodynamic analysis, simulations, and multiple custom operations like tool path mapping.

Used generally by designers and mechanical engineers, it crosses over into many industries, such as:  Aerospace, Automotive, Construction, Consumer Products, Energy, Electronics, Industrial Equipment, Medical, Manufacturing, and Process/Plant industries.

Competitors to SolidWorks include AutoCAD 3D, ProE, SolidEdge, and Katia among others.  What separates SolidWorks is it’s intuitive interface, logical structure, and capability to support after market add-ons.  It has a strong market share, meaning that the product has continually improved itself to provide easier use and more functionality, while maintaining a strong user network.  Online Courses are available for mechanical engineers and designers interested in their suite of products.

SolidWorks IT Support Hardware and Software Requirements

SolidWorks requires some pretty hefty hardware and software requirements to get it rolling for your business.   We got together with our Solidworks IT Support to create some specs so you don’t have to.   The Database Server and the Archive Server can be consolidated into one server in smaller environments.  Please consider fast hard disks called SAS hard drives for more robust performance.  A half TB (500GB) should be sufficient for businesses starting out and scaling for the future.  Four processor cores along with 16 gig RAM for Solidworks PDM Standard, 32 gigs for Pro.  Utilize free SQL Express with Tools and 2012R2 for DB and OS.  We have a pretty standard set of server hardware we recommend used for all sorts of hosting services depending on your budget.  Regardless, here are the specs and the services associated with them.   Supporting SolidWorks on a limited budget can be done but just be aware it will be running into plenty of problems as your business grows.

SolidWorks IT Support

 

 

 

SolidWorks Virtualization

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Hosted Mail Setup DNS Records

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Setting up Office 365 Business Premium through GoDaddy’s Hosted Mail Setup requires some DNS records to be updated.  The same applies to Google Apps for Work or whatever email host you plan to use.  Whatever hosted email provider you choose, it’s best for most businesses to keep the registrar and DNS through the same provider.  We put together the DNS records that are required to make Office 365 Business Premium email work.

NOTE:  Please save your new DNS settings in GoDaddy.  Anyone using GoDaddy for the first time will miss important option and end up waiting for email that will never come.

 

GoDaddy Hosted Mail Setup DNS Records

 

  • Locate the CNAMEs and set the following:
·  Name:
autodiscover
Target:
autodiscover.outlook.com
·  Name:
sip
Target:
sipdir.online.lync.com
·  Name:
lyncdiscover
Target:
webdir.online.lync.com
·  Name:
email
Target:
email.secureserver.net
·  Name:
msoid
Target:
clientconfig.microsoftonline-p.net
  • Locate the MX and set the following:
·  Host:
@
Priority:
0
Target:
ownattheemerson-com.mail.protection.outlook.com
  • Locate the SRV and set the following:
· Port:
443
Protocol:
_tls
Name:
@
Service:
_sip
Priority:
100
Weight:
1
Target:
sipdir.online.lync.com
· Port:
5061
Protocol:
_tcp
Name:
@
Service:
_sipfederationtls
Priority:
100
Weight:
1
Target:
sipfed.online.lync.com
  • Locate the TXT and set the following:
·  Name:
@
TXT Value:
·  Name:
@
TXT Value:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all

 

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Dell Laptop Reviews for Home and Business

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Dell Laptop Reviews

Shopping for a laptop is like car shopping; if you make a bad decision you are pretty much committed to it for the next three to five years.  I’m a fan of Dell if you steer clear of their less than desirable line of products.  Fortunately, we’ve spent some time playing around creating our own Dell laptop reviews so you don’t have to.  We have four priorities when looking for a laptop:

 

  • Does it feel cheap? Move on…
  • Does the track pad work well? Way too many people have RSS and carpal tunnel syndrome due to bad ergonomics and or hardware.  Make sure the laptop works well or at the very least buy an external mouse.
  • Does it come with a Solid State Drive with 256 gigs or better? SSD’s are necessary for laptops.  The laptop gets knocked around and you are guaranteed to lose your standard SATA drive.  SSD do not have this problem.   They have no moving parts.
  • Is it 8 Gigs of RAM or greater? Every iteration of operating systems requires more RAM.  Do yourself a favor and upgrade the RAM using Kingston.com.  NOTE:  The smaller lines like the XPS 13  sometimes solder RAM on.  Check with the manufacturer or get the proper amount before committing to a purchase.

 

The rest of the specs depend on your work situation.  Here’s a nice narrowed down list of laptop options.  All contain solid web reviews.

 

The Road Warrior – Dell XPS 13 – 9350

  • 13” screen, small, very light and beautiful design.
    ***I think I would prefer the 15″ but I have not got my hands on it.***
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • No touch display. Don’t bother.
  • 256 gig SSD
  • 4 cell battery
  • 6th generation i3 or better processor
  • 4 Gig – Make sure it’s possible to upgrade
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Webcam
  • Works with 3rd party replication or docking stations so you can connect to a big monitor and external keyboard (view Dell dock AKA replicator below)
  • Windows 10 Home (need to upgrade for corporate use)
    Best XPS price seen $760 ( and as low as $570 w/ discounts)
    It can be viewed at Costco.  Costco has a good Warranty.  I’m not sure about price.

 

Dell Laptop Reviews

XPS 13 and Latitude E5570


Resources:

XPS 15 Non-Touch
$1,399.99

XPS 13 Non-Touch
$1,099.99

 

Dell Laptop Reviews

Latitude Docking Station

The Corporate Laptop – Dell Latitude E5570

  • 15” screen, a little more bulky but definitely not a nuisance
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • No touch display. Don’t bother.
  • 500 gig SSD
  • 6 cell battery
  • 6th generation i3 or better processor
  • 8 Gig
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Webcam
  • Windows 10 Pro
  • Docking Station – See Picture

Best price seen ($540 w/ discount)

 

The 2 in 1 – Dell Inspiron 13 -7352

  • 13” screen, very light and great design
  • 2 in 1… Can be set to tablet mode.  Note:  The 15”is not practical.  You’re better off getting a Latitude for that size.
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • No touch display. Don’t bother.
  • 500 gig SSD
  • 3 cell battery
  • 5th generation i5 or better processor
  • 8 Gig – Make sure it’s possible to upgrade
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Webcam
  • Windows 10 Home (need to upgrade for corporate use)
    ***picture can be found as our cover pic or first pic of this blog***


Best Price $700 ($500 w/ discounts)

Dell Laptop Reviews Resources:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2473725,00.asp

 

Dell Laptop Reviews Additional Notes:

Inspiron 13 7000 2 in 1 $705

Inspiron 15 7000 2 in 1 $830 on display @Costco

 

Dell Laptop Reviews Summary

Hopefully, this decreased this time consuming tasks to under 30 minutes.  The next item is how to set it up for us or your favorite tech to your liking.  Please read our post on Windows 10 support for more information.

 

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Windows 10 support FAQ

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Windows 10 support can come in many flavors.  We narrowed it down to five topics to select, get that computer going, and be assured that your data is being backed up.

What laptop?

What laptop do I choose for Windows 10?

  • We tested and reviewed a bunch of laptops. Check out the other post.

New Computer Setup

I got a new computer.  How do I setup for first time use or remote Windows 10 Support?

  • Turn on the computer and follow the Windows 10 prompts.
    • Change time zone – Next
    • Select the local Wi-Fi – Next
      • Hopefully, you have local wireless internet hotspot to select from or plug in the Ethernet cable.
    • Customize Settings (lower left)
    • Select No for the following:
      • Let apps use your advertising ID (No)
      • Let Skype connect with friends (No) – Next
    • Off for all:
      • Auto connect to hot spots (off)
      • Auto connect to networks (off)
      • Auto connect to hot spots (off)
      • Send error report (off) – Next
    • Get updates from and send updates (off) – Next
    • Who owns this PC?
      • I own it – Next
    • Make it yours
      • Skip this step
    • Create an account
      • Use your first name only for the user account unless told otherwise – Next
      • Hand off your new windows credentials you just created to your IT guy
    • Remote Support (3 options to choose from)
      • ShowMyPC work pretty well but sometimes it fails to work.
        • Run ShowMyPC from downloads after you click the link. Then click showmypc green play button to generate a code for handing off to your IT support
      • Join.me is your slower more reliable source for remote accessibility
        • Click “start meeting” and send the code to your IT guy
      • TeamViewer is your final option. You probably have serious remote issues if you are deferring to this final option or you just prefer to use TeamViewer

Cortana

What is it?  I actually find it useful once it is no longer ignored and actually setup.  Hopefully, you have a Microsoft email account to get you going.  The hot keys “windows, C”  provide a great experience from the Siri like assistant.

Backup

What’s a reasonably priced backup software?

  • Mozy Free Home Backup.
  • Carbonite
  • Synology Cloud Station Drive
    • Use this option if you want backup to a local NAS called a Synology Diskstation.

Disaster/Recovery

I want to avoid four hours recovery time from a disaster.   A complete reinstall of applications and data is usually required.  Is there a faster disaster/recovery software out there for a reasonable price?

  • Backup imaging software comes in several forms. These disaster recovery software typically provide incremental snapshot imaging of the entire Windows Operation System.  File explore can be used to recover critical files.
    • Use Veeam Endpoint backup, since it is free (even for business use), easy to install and use, it has required backup/ schedule, and works very well, at least for file level restore.
    • Alternatively, Storagecraft Shadows Protect SPX is the competitor to Veeam. $100 MSRP for a perpetual license, maintenance and support the following year will be $20

 

Protection

How do I protect my computer from malware and viruses and optimize it for fast performance?

  • Uninstall 30 day trials of McAfee and Norton software. They are guaranteed to slow down your Windows experience
  • Select these products to protect and optimize your experience:
    • Hitman Pro
    • Malware Malbytes
    • JRT

Why so dark?  Do the coders like The Cure?

  • Launch the ‘Settings’ app. From the menu, select the ‘Personalization’ tile and chose ‘Colors‘ option. Then, look for the option ‘Automatically pick an accent color from my background’
  • Remove unnecessary Start button tiles once complete.

Windows theme adjustment

How do I make sense of Office 365 and other email hosting plus productivity software options?

  • Order volume license for over 25 user office.  Buy the local desktop office software suite if you are not concerned with every Microsoft Office upgrade.  Otherwise, subscribing is the SaaS way to go.  Follow our spreadsheet for the best value and the confusing branding of services offered below.

Office 365 Services

 

Hopefully, we have improved your experience using Microsoft’s latest OS with our basic guide for Windows 10 support.  Call us for local support in San Diego or remote support nationally.  The OS is far from perfect, these pointers should lessen the bumps along the road to this latest upgrade.

 

 

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Computer and server recovery support

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Cloning your network environment has become main stream!  Hooray!   Wait, what does that mean?  Well, there’s file recovery that comes with backup software.  This is essential for bouncing back from the brink of disaster.  Not only is the file recovery important but the amount time that it takes your business to be back up and running.   Most businesses can’t afford to have a computer on standby and the computer still requires customization if they do.  So here’s the downside or the unfortunate turn of events that will play out when disaster strikes and your computer does not compute.

  • One hour to troubleshoot plus time to replace the hard drive if it is a hard drive issue
  • One hour to install the Windows OS in good working order
  • At least two hours, closer to three to customize with business applications such as browsers, Reader, Office, and additional third party apps like CAD. Not to mention mapped drives and the data recovery itself.

Some of these talking points can be expedited the more fancy of a network you have.  Ultimately, the best solution is to find an affordable and easy to use imaging system to apply incremental backups or snapshots of the entire operating system, application, and drives.  Perhaps, I should introduce Veeam.  IT’s golden child…

Veeam Image Disaster – Recovery Process

  • The software itself is very easy to install just make sure you make the recovery media on a USB stick to recover from whatever disaster occurs with your computer.
    • Recovery Media -The Veeam Recovery Media just takes the basic hardware drivers from the machine.  And then uses them after it gets booted to the recovery media.  Now it shouldn’t  distort any current hard drive setup of the machine itself.  But if there are any drivers being used that are specific to said hard drive setup, then it could cause issues if the recovery media is being used on a machine in which said drivers are not compatible.  Otherwise, any generic hardware drivers being used should have no other issues on different machines.

Utilizing Veeam Recovery Media

The tricky part comes when you are performing a “bare metal recovery”  I got a little hung up in a solid state drive replacement.  I wanted to make sure the old C volume is restored to the new C volume. The Veeam mapping used in the recovery media completely threw me off.    Here’s the system setup prior to recover:

C: Disk 0 125GB SSD
D: Disk 1 250GB SSD
E:  Disk 3 1 TB SATA

Here’s the hardware setup after:

C:  replaced with 250GB SATA

c: Disk 0 250 SSD
E: Disk 1  TB SATA

 

Veeam – Disk Mapping  (yes, I’m aware of the crummy pictures.  I will fix that later)

server recovery support

 

It’s important to customize disk mapping by clicking in the right hand corner because the default setup does not make since

veeam server recover support

As discussed before, the 250 gig is planned to be the C drive replaced for the old 125 gig failed drive.  I clicked “apply disk layout” and pointed it to disk 0 for the migration of the old C drive to the new C drive.  Below is the more ideal disk mapping layout.   Even though it doesn’t show it, I expanded the C drive from 125 gig to 250 gig.  The duration of the image migration took five minutes.  A wee bit shorter time than a complete reinstall of the OS. server recovery support

Veeam has their own documentation that can assist you in the recovery process.  It unfortunately fell short of me understanding some critical features that could potentially eliminate important data on the other drive.

 

 

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Small business Windows support

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Small business Windows support is vague terminology for umm, whatever you want it to be.   This post a stepping stone to drilling down for whatever needs you have in your small business environment.   We deal with plenty of businesses in San Diego that are small enough to not have a Microsoft domain environment but large enough that something like twenty machines or workstations becomes incredibly hard to manage in a Microsoft Windows workgroup environment.  So we will start there.

 

Small business Windows support – Workgroup environment

Workgroups are decentralized.  Every machine manages itself and there’s no central location to authenticate or manage your credentials with.  That requires a Windows Active Directory Domain environment.   That’s another post.  small business windows support

Creating a new user

 

 

NOTE:  Please make the windows user account and email the same for new employees.  Ie jsmith or johnsmith.  For security reason, we will call for passwords.

 

Example:

 

Exchange Email – jsmith@acme.com

Windows – Create john’s windows account called jsmith

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It makes Synology setup a lot easier for everyone involved.  We will add the same user account when setting up the Synology.

 

 

Synology NAS:

 

Most small businesses have some sort of small business file server for centralized file access for all their employees.  In our scenario, we use a Synology NAS as that file server.

 

Synology – Create jsmith Synology account using the Synology DiskStation Manager.  It also known as DSM.  DSM provides remote access to your NAS.

 

Mapping drive letters in Windows is effortless from that point forward.

 

Mapped Drives

 

The drive letters vary from company to company but typically you will found an H drive as your home directory, an Admin or HR drive, a public drive for general data for collaborating across the organization, and a departmental drive for working on data within the department.

 

Setting up Outlook

 

Some environments may have file size limitations on their C drive of the desktop workstations.  Others, may not know what all their hosting and client app options.  Fortunately, we have a pretty extensive Outlook support blog that explains this.

 

 

Third Party Apps

 

Obviously, these applications vary from organization and their might not be many or none at all if your environment mainly works with an Office suite or Google Apps.  Here’s a short list by industry:

 

Architecture or Construction

  • AutoCAD
  • BlueBeam
  • Sketchit
  • Google Earth
  • ArcGIS
  • Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Premier Pro, and Acrobat

 

Engineering

 

Legal

  • Worldox
  • Abacus

 

Medical

  • Allscripts
  • eClinicalworks

 

Financial or Wealth Management Advisors

  • EZ Data

 

Licensing

 

Keeping track of all the licenses you accrue in your industry can be tricky but setting up a license manager on your server, a spreadsheet to document the licenses, and migrating to a volume license approach can make life a little better.

Backup and Imaging

Make sure you have a fail safe way of recovery from any disaster.

 

 

 

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eClinicalworks Support and Training: Staff, Insurance Plans, & eCW Pricing Model

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Our eClinicalworks Support and Training Staff pulled together some practice basics. We show how an EMR integrates with overall workflow of a practice.  As many of you know, roles and interaction with eClinicalworks becomes diminished the larger the practice, the medical group, or hospital becomes.   In the series of posts,  we will comprehend the workflow for a medical practice and groups plus dabble a bit into the eClinicalworks interface itself.

First, let’s begin with roles and titles within a small practice.

Medical Assistants:

  • Front Desk
  • Referrals – Referring to specialist
  • Vitals – Taking pulse, blood pressure, height, weight, and medication list.

Administrative Assistants:

***Administrative Assistants are not MAs.  They cannot do injections and vitals.
Physician Assistant:

People choose the path of Physician Assistant because it’s a lot of what the doctor does without all the extra schooling requirements.  They cannot perform surgeries and are always under the supervision of a doctor.

Doctor:

There are so many types of doctor specialist.  Here are just a few we work with and their specialties.

  • General Practitioner or Family Practice.
    • This is your primary care physician before they redirect or refer you to a more specific specialist if you need more care.
  • Otolaryngologist (ENT)
  • General Surgeon
  • Urologist

 

Eclinicalworks Per Provider Model

eClinicalworks EMR software pricing model is based on how many providers are at the practice.  Both Doctors and PA’s are considered “providers”.   The eClinicalworks cost associated with these providers may vary.  Look in the attachment below at the cost per provider and you will see it’s $10000 for one provider running eCW and $15,000 for two in a locally hosted eCW environment,  not SaaS.  Practices make the mistake of having ten year on-going subscription when they should have bought the service out right.  Call our eClinicalworks Support and Training to find out how to reduce your costs of owning the licenses and hosting on-site or off-site with a third party hosting provider.

eclinicalworks support and training

eclinicalworks pricing

 

Insurance Carriers

Understanding a member’s insurance really gives insight on who gets what treatment at a practice.  Here are some popular insurance names and plans in the San Diego region:

  • Care First HMO
  • Molina HMO
  • Health Net HMO
  • Community Heath Group (CHG) HMO
  • Aetna Health HMO
  • Sharp HMO
  • Cigna HMO
  • Blue Shield HMO
  • Medi-cal (low income) HMO
  • Medicare (65 and older) HMO

Certain individuals carry the PPO plan.   PPO plans are more expensive insurance plans that allow the patient to choose whatever doctor he or she wants.  Practices general give priority to PPO unless the HMO carrier is bleeding out because the compensation for the visit is better.
– Commercial and PPO $80
– HMO $20

 

Capitated Contracts

A healthcare plan that allows payment of a flat fee for each patient it covers. Under a capitation, an HMO or managed care organization pays a fixed amount of money for its members to the health care provider.

Medi-cal  (HMO) is under a Capitated Contract.  This particular practice receives Medi-Cal members on an annual basis.   2,000 members are received and Medi-cal requires the practice to contact them.  While this is done by the practice, calling 2000 members is incredibly time consuming especially when the practice is basically being compensated a fixed amount by Medi-Ca.

Eclinicalworks Support and Training Staff Continued:

 

 

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