A new client needed a way to provide users in their Orange County branch office better access to company data and programs which were on a server in San Diego. They were using a vpn which worked, but
was very slow. The applications that performed the worst and needed attention were Quickbooks and MS Office (Word and Excel). The Windows 2008 server they already had in place supported
Remote Desktop Services (RDS), but it was not implemented. With RDS, all data processing takes place on the server, and
only screen images are transmitted to the user as he works with the RemoteApp program. This is always faster than running apps over a VPN. Additional RAM was added to the server to accommodate
the 4 users who would be connecting. Quickbooks and MS Office were installed as RemoteApps on the server. To install the RemoteApp links on the Orange County users desktops, they only only to click on a link emailed to them and
links to the apps they had permissions to use were created on their desktop.
Troubleshooting
A couple of years ago, when we actually had rain in San Diego, I received a call from a business in Sorrento Valley got flooded and several computers that were
on the floor were damaged. The hard drives were essentially dead. At my recommendation, they took the hard drives to a data recovery company here in San Diego. This is a company
that specializes in data recovery. They have clean rooms, etc. The quote they received to recover data from these 4 hard drives was over $6,000. My soon to be client
balked at this price, as the data was important, but could be reconstructed. They gave the drives to me and asked what I could do. I was able to take some electronics off of
some spare hard drives (same make and model as the damaged) that I had collected over the years, and attach to the damaged drives. My hope was that the platter that held the data
was still OK, but the circuits had been fried. I was able to recover all the data from 1 of the drives, and partial data from 2. The 4th was unrecoverable. I billed my client $300 for
this and they were thrilled. A lot of companies for data recovery and virus removal will bill you by how important the data is to you, not the actual hours that go into the recovery.
If you are in a situation, start with us and we will refer you to a specialist if it is warranted.
WiFi
We also do work for home users, and often for our business client who are having issues at home. One of my clients
had a new laptop computer that could connect to their wireless router, but it would quickly slow down and eventually would drop the
signal. We took signal and channel scanner to their home and ran a test. This was in a 'crowded' part of Ocean Beach and there were 8
different wifi SSIDs, all with strong signals from the surrounding houses and apartments. 6 of these were on the same channel as my
clients. The 2.4Ghz has 14 channels and many home wifi routers are configured to use the same channel. By picking a channel that was not
being used in the area and hard coding this into the wifi router, we were able to get the client a more consistent connection.
Cloud Computing Email
A longtime client was running Exchange 2003 and was bumping up against built in limitation to the mail database size.
Users were constantly archiving more data than they would prefer to PST files to get the overall database below the 70GB limitation.
They did not have the budget to invest in a new server at this time, and I didn't suggest it anyway. We advised that they consider
a cloud based system like Office 365. We started the process at 8pm on a Friday, by making the DNS record changes and setting up the
new email accounts on the Microsoft portal. We migrated all existing email, including the archived data, into their new mailboxes that night.
By 3pm on Saturday, all client PCs had been updated and email transferred into their new mailbox.
There was ZERO down time. The users were also very happy with the enhanced SPAM filtering provided by Office 365.
Office 365 also eliminates the need to backup the email if you have an inhouse email server.
Application Development
Client was a freelance Nurses Registry and needed a system to schedule their nurses at various hospitals throughout San Diego.
System required a secure web based app that would allow nurses to sign on and enter their preferred schedule. i.e. days and
times that they wanted to work. Hospital admins needed their own secure interface that would allow them to request nurses for certain days and shifts. The app we
developed allowed our client to match up the Nurse and Hospital requests and quickly assign a nurse to that hospital/shift.
The system allowed for hospitals to request specifically trained nurses (RN, LVN, emergency room, etc.), and to request a
specfic nurse (if they had a favorite they had worked with previously). The app allowed our client to generate an invoice
for each hospital, with details showing the nurse, shift, and billable rate. Application was developed using PHP, HTML, MYSql, JQuery.
Networking
A client who did government contractual work had 25 computers that were running windows XP or Vista.
For security reasons and to remain compliant, my Client needed to upgrade to Windows 7 before support for XP ends in April, 2014.
He wanted a standard setup and PCs locked down to prevent users from installing
software from internet and prevent copying company files to flash drive.
He was concerned that a rollout would take too long and be too expensive. We came in on a Friday afternoon, and setup 4 PCs
to the client's specifications (each make/model requires it's own image). We then created disk images of these PCs and then cloned this images to other 24 PCs in a 4 hour process.
We used the open source cloning software called Fogg. All PCs were fully functional by Saturday morning, with no downtime for client.
Troubleshooting
Key employee's home hard drive was serious infected with viruses. Fake antivirus warnings, redirected webpages, and pop ups.
He had taken his computer to a "Big Box" retailer who advertises tech support and they did a clean up and said
it was free of viruses, but the symptoms were back the next day. They said they couldn't do anything else for him but reformat the hard drive.
I determined that he had several trojan and a rootkit viruses. Rootkit viruses are very hard to detect and even harder to remove.
Essentially they take admin control over your PC. I booted up to propriatary disk with a utility partition, bypassing the infected
hard drive, but giving me access to the registry on the infected drive. I was able to manually copy in clean registry entries.
Computer was able to boot up with no sign of viruses. Essentially this was a manual system restore.
Troubleshooting
A prospective client in a manufacturing environment needed better wifi coverage throughout their 1 acre property. Another IT company had come in before they hired us and had them
purchase a new 801.11AC wifi router. They placed another AC access point in a different part of the property. AC is the specification that will eventually replace 801.11N. It does offer
better range and more speed. My client was disappointed with the coverage after this upgrade. It seemed
about the same as it did previous to the AC router. What the previous IT company neglected to inform them was that you need an AC compatible network card to take full advantage
of the AC specification. We purchased some usb AC wifi adapters no bigger than a keyboard/mouse transceiver for their laptops, and disabled the onboard N wifi adapters. Range and
speed immediately improved. In an area where previously they had been connecting at 72mpbs, they could now connect at 300mbps.
Application Development
We originally developed a DOS based system in the 1980's for this client. It tracked Financial, Work on Hand, and Bond information for general contractors.
It also provided analysis of the data collected to access the financial health of the contractor. This allowed our client
to make informed decisions as to whether to issue a bond to the contractor. In the mid 1990's, the program was still in use and the
client approached us about updating the application to a windows version, which we did. We are currently updating the program to a web based app that will
offer many improvements over the current system. Contractors will be able to securely logon to view their information. Being web based, it will be accessible
from any location that has internet access. Client has stated that the system gives him a "competitive advantage" over sureties who don't have access to the
analysis features in the program. New web based system will be developed using PHP, MySQL, html, and JQuery.
Troubleshooting
A client referred us to a fast food restaurant chain that has the main office and 8 retail locations in San Diego.
The main office had a windows server that was acting as a VPN endpoint
for the 8 retail locations. The retail locations' managers needed to access files on the main office server.
The main office unfortunately could only get bonded T1s for internet
(A total of 3mbps). Cable or fiber was not available. They complained about extremely slow internet speeds
at both their retail and main office. Everything looked fine with the setup at the main office.
We went to a retail location and looked at the setup of the GMs computer. We determined that the
vpn client on the GM's PC had been setup incorrectly and all internet requests from the GM was going
through the main office network. Every retail location had the same incorrect setup. Much more traffic
was going through the main office network than was necessary. This was slowing the internet down for everyone.
We fixed the VPN configuration so that vpn traffic went to the main office network, as it should, and general
internet requests did not. Problem solved.
Troubleshooting
Voice over IP systems have taken off in the past couple of years. One of our clients invested in some VOIP phones and everything worked
fine for the first 3 months. They added a couple of users and they started having dropped calls. Every user would have a dropped call
at least once a week. The router that was installed was fine for the number of users, but it didn't have any QOS settings (quality of service).
We suggested that they invest in a newer router that allowed us to prioritize the network traffic. On the new router, we gave VOIP a higher priority over other
internet traffic and they stopped having dropped calls, with no noticable slowdown in pulling up webpages. VOIP is a great way to save money over traditional
analog phone/pbx systems.
Client wanted an inexpensive way to track internet usage and block sites.
We implemented an open source firewall/router appliance called Untangle.
Essentially, you use a computer with a 2nd network card, and install Linux based Untangle.
Untangle comes with some free and some "pay for" apps. The free version
was sufficient for this client's needs. The free apps included a web filter, web cache,
spam and virus filter. It gave him the ability to see reports that show how bandwidth was being used
by the employees on his network. We used the web filter to block sites that were not work related and were
the source of a lot of internet traffic. Untangle is a great product that offers many of the features
of a much more expensive router.
Dedicated to troublefree IT
There is a reason our clients stay with us.
We deliver value!
At the end of the month, you'll recognize that you received superior support at a fair price.
