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Out of the Office Auditing
On this day we were auditing the infrastructure of a perspective client. We evaluated the number of users, server equipment, and their IT needs as well. I absolutely enjoy meeting new perspective clients and learning about their current network infrastructure and what their needs are. We use an internal auditing document which we continue to make improvements as our service adapt and when we find out ways to better support our clients. A great part of evaluating a client is first building that relationship and simply listening to them. They will share their biggest needs and concerns which is usually quite aparent. Finding the pattern of frequently mentioned issues also…
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Have You Heard the New Password Recommendations by NIST?
You have heard a longer password is better, but what if you were told you didn’t “need” a special character or capital letter? That is part of the recommendations set by NIST. They now recommend having at least 15 characters minimum since the length of a password is the most important. This is due to the amount of time a computer needs to crack a 15 character password without locking the account after a set number of failed attempts. Also, NIST does not recommend updating your password every 3 months. It may seem surprising, but users who reset their passwords quarterly will create new passwords with reduced complexity that are…
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Helping Clients & Building Datacenters! (Posted Jun 25, 2025)
We continue to expand in Idaho with Clients and also the Telco department which is the Internet Service Provider side of services that ETS provides. Depending on the size of the data center we will use racks like this for the ISP and client equipment with various racks. We have a datacenter we are building and will be using about four to five of these. I can’t wait!
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Moved to Idaho & Hired – IT CONSULTANT! (Posted April 26, 2025)
I’m am very excited to share that I have started a new position as “IT Consultant” at Eminent Technical Solutions! I know it has been a while since I posted due to relocating to Idaho and then renovating a house. The ETS company information at the bottom. I have relocated from Miami to Southern Idaho to be closer to family. I could not be happier to be filling this position with ETS doing what I thoroughly enjoy! I started back in October 2024, and it has been a great experience through onboarding, meeting everyone at ETS, and especially meeting our Southern Idaho clients! God is good! The photos below are…
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AZURE & INTUNE!!! (Posted Sep 2, 2024)
Last month in August, I uploaded profile packages for 55 student laptops for a school this week. This setup for these students allows for any student to log into the laptop using their school email and the profile will be uploaded onto that laptop. This greatly enhances the use of the laptops so they can be used by more than just one student and throughout the day any of these laptops can be used multiple times by different students. Part of the process setting up these laptops is creating a package on a USB drive. We start by resetting the laptops erasing all of the files which takes the most…
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CISCO Switch Install! (Posted Aug 20, 2024)
On this day we received new Cisco switches that would be used in areas where additional ethernet would be needed for end points. We do not want to just put in a dumb switch but in order to be security minded and proactive our approach is to always use smart switches if a wall jack installation is not feasible. The benefits to smart switches include the below list. Network Management – Creation of VLANs, implementing QoS, port mirroring, and link aggregation. Security – Implementation of Access Control Lists (ACL) and 802.1x authentication. Performance – Data performance will be enhanced
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Network Upgrade with Ubiquiti!!! (Video) (Posted Aug 16, 2024)
VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIapByJDWn4 I completed a major upgrade to my network moving from a Netgear Wi-Fi/Router combo to a fully managed network. There is a big difference!!! This video will show you what I built, how I built it, and the strategy of the implementation. May hosts are now hard lined in the house other than mobile devices. The creation of the network was a great thing to do which implements IP addressing, VLANs, Trunk Ports, and firewall rules. Below is additional information on this project. RACK – MDF The rack is a 12U which has my main components on the top, then on the bottom is labbing equipment (labbing…
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VEEAM (Posted Aug 13, 2024)
In-person team meetings happen on Friday. For sure my favorite time of the week is talking tech and solving the needs of our clients. One of the Fridays we talked about Veeam as one of my coworkers attended the Veeam conference in Fort Lauderdale. Veeam is a powerful tool for backing up our client’s information (to those who choose this option). The great thing about Veeam is that we are able to create backup jobs on client servers to back up their data. We can decide how often to back up their data, how many copies are saved of their data. The types of backups can be image level backup,…
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New Devices – Ubiquiti (Posted May 27, 2024)
These are new devices that Ubiquiti has recently put into their line up. After purchasing them I made these videos of a brief unboxing of these devices that will be used in my home network. Take a look! GATEWAY MAX VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5kZfMjocvk After purchasing the gateway max, I was setting this device up and realized this device does not have a local controller. This was really a major deal breaker for me. The 3 options for the control would then be 1) pay $20 for their cloud subscription, 2) use a controller on another Ubiquiti device, and 3) download the controller software onto a PC. After I looked more…
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Client Praise!!! (Posted May 18, 2024)
The point of contact for our biggest client praised myself and my coworker for the customer service that we provide to them and to the other clients of Fox Technology. This specific client we have an agreement that one of our technicians will be on site 4 days a week. Therefore, we will be assisting users on site (commercial and industrial setting) for their requests, but in addition we answer calls from our other clients helping them remotely. She will overhear conversations that we have helping our users and of course she personally receives help from us directly when she needs it as well. She mentioned the value of our…
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A Field of VoIP (Posted April 17, 2024)
Our largest client is transitioning to a different VOIP provider. This will include transitioning the whole office and the industrial work area. These phones that you see in the photo are the Cisco 7960 VOIP phones, these specific ones are not currently in use and serve as spare phones. The are being grouped together as we inventory and prepare for the new phone provider. We will be returning approximately 100 phones to also include several Cisco 7960 conference room phones as well. The main reason for the change in phone providers is the price. Our client found a better priced vendor where they will save a great amount of money…
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Disposal Time – Networking Equipment (Posted March 7, 2024)
We completed a major clean out in addition to decommissioning a site for a big client of ours. As you can see by all the equipment behind me. The equipment right next to me are all massive server specific UPS’s. Additionally, as you can see further behind me there are switches, pile of servers, in addition to other NVR equipment. With the amount of equipment needing to be disposed we are completing the load outs in waves as we are completing very specific paperwork on the assets of the devices needing to be recorded on their value and approval for being disposed of. I really enjoy projects which are part…
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Installing Ubiquiti Antennas
VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDkCY5To_rg Happy Leap Year!!!! This is my leap year post On this day (back in October) we installed several NanoBeam 5AC access points . These were installed in order to have several camera systems on different buildings conntect to the internet and the main office. There were three appartment buildings, we needed to replace the key link on the center building which connects to the office/internet. Construction had taken place on the roof and the roofers disposed our Ubiquiti devices. Therefore the client was charged for the new devices plus the installation. I really enjoy working with Ubiquiti devices. Ubiquiti provides excellent products which is why they have…
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The Daily Drill, the Daily Thrill! (Posted Feb 26, 2024)
My other desk!!! I have not shown off this beauty yet on my blog. This desk is similar to my other desk at the Fox Tech office, however it is located at one of our client sites (our biggest client), this office space is assigned specific to me. Our contract includes an on site technician most days of the week. This includes assisting users which is both a commercial and factory setting. Normally I am assigned to this location most days for Fox Tech. This is really a great move for me to grow in more opportunities and obtain direct IT experience in a corporate environment. My overall mission at…
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JSON in AZ-104 Study (Posted Feb 22, 2024)
Now that I have completed the massive CCNA exam, I keep pressing on towards growing my skill set. I have started working on AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator now in order to grow my cloud knowledge. Microsoft programs consume the PC industry and I want to learn more and verify my cloud knowledge. Also to further refine my understanding of Microsoft products. While AZ-900 provides an intruduction of Azure Fundamentals, the AZ-104 exam covers what is already included in AZ-900 and much more. My goal was to complete AZ-104, so taking AZ-900 was something that I didn’t think was best to focus my time. I am working through chapter 2 of…
