@scottalanmiller said

Oh man, WTF!!!

I HATE that activation crap. It should be illegal. I've not tried to install it recently.

Pretty much all modern software relies on this activation crap now. Brave new world.

None of it actually stops software piracy though, only irks the paying customers.

How do the big boys do it for client machines I wonder? I've heard the argument that a Linux admin can manage more servers than a Windows admin but what about client machines?

@JaredBusch said

No reason that your should not be able to just connect them. TCP/IP does not care about a switch.

Depends on the switch too There are some horrible cheap bits of tat out there.

Also if the switch has developed an intermittent problem leading it to drop-outs, it might be worth looking at.

What do you need for recovery time for that box if there is a hardware fault.

Also, I bet you can get a better performing server chassis for that money.

The trade off is, time to build and configure a server, versus an out of the box Synology with a higher risk factor.

You should be able to make yourself owner, then change the permissions. It will warn you about breaking permissions before you do it.

Getting original workflow apps made is really easy these days. If you don't want to learn it yourself you can get a developer to create it pretty quickly.

I spun up a 2012 R2 box and a 2003 box this evening for a test.

Identical VM specs, ram, CPU the lot.

Man oh man is that 2003 box slow. The 03 box was still shutting down by the time the 12 box had restarted and come back.

I love the FBI statement of surprise, "attacks have doubled in the past year!" yes when you tell people to just pay the ransom, of course more bad guys are gonna do it.

Having said that, I won't be buying the commercial version of this product,

@nadnerB said

I think this app falls in the latter category.

Not really.

It's the typical case of a new "thing" that a young company has just launched, been pulled apart and scrutinized and finding a big problem but their response has not been evasion or corporate BS, it's been "We're so sorry, we never intended xyz, we're fixing it NOW, here's what we've done"

Picked up a client.

2 epic dumb-assery things done by their "MSP"

Single server environment, 10-15 user office, very small. The original provider left RDP open to the internet with no AD security, no account lock outs, nothing.

Bad guys brute forced in, dropped ransomware on the server, took them down for a day and a half.

Same client, the outside company decided that UAC was causing issues, so they disabled it on every machine. So, I'm working remotely, nothing is responding to me when I give instructions whilst logged in as standard user, Can't log out....because....I can't elevate the session t'o run as admin....because I can't elevate anything to run as admin.

@scottalanmiller said

ZeroTier is one of the easiest and most effective means of security RDS systems for a wide variety of deployment scenarios.

But not ready for deployment....yet.

Had lots of very hit and miss reliability issues with connecting to machines over RDP. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not and the portal shows all machines as online and working every time.

Going forward there is going to be an internal use tool for documentation, credentials and various other things. Locked down on a server, and encrypted up the wazoo, with all manner of permissions and restrictions so you can be specific who can see what for each client.

So excited, I've not found anything else like it IT Glue comes close on a few features but is over-priced and lacking in areas.

@coliver said

vSAN is just block storage. It is presented no differently then iSCSI or Fibrechannel.

Yes but they read one of SAMs posts about of context and now anything with SAN in it is bad.

@StuartJordan said in HelpDesk Ticketing System:

I setup Freshdesk for a company about a year ago, still working to this day..very nice product.

Oh it really is a nice product. I am seriously considering going back to it on their Estate plan because actually, enough work is done now to justify it. The reporting and the automation tools are handy.

@Veet said

I have a way of doing this, but works if UAC is off... .

No, don't do that ever

I nearly went apocalypse on a vendor who did just that, completely broke my ability to work on the client machines remotely because I could not elevate anything as admin and you completely disable the sandbox protections which have been in place since Windows Vista.

https://woorkup.com/install-fonts-without-administrator-access/

Nice work, really good find.

Will remember to try this in the future.

@Breffni-Potter said

http://www.faveohelpdesk.com/online-demo/
Quite liking this UI and style at the moment, check out the helpdesk.

This product is a complete joke. Stay away and avoid.

Just from a reliability point of view, it is built so crudely and poorly, reliability issues are gonna come your way down the line with this. We looked at it and decided a firm nope nope nope, avoid.

@scottalanmiller said

So $15 for nearly useless vs. $4 for very useful is a big deal.

Well....we can always ask them what their solution is to that. Nothing is hurt by asking.

@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:

@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:

@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.

I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!

Then demonstrate to the client what they are missing out on. You are their technical adviser, present them the business losses by continuing with this method.

How many downsides can you think of by not going virtual? Help them make an informed choice with all the facts.

@FrostyPhoenix said in HelpDesk Ticketing System:

Why not build a ticketing system?

Development costs a fair bit of money.
Someone has to then maintain and support it.
Further dev if you want to add features which also costs money.
Is the cost of a premade tool over the course of a year more or less than building and hosting your own?

Now, a ticketing system is the hub of your business as an IT support firm, so whilst you could build it factoring in budget, features and project managing it to make sure it is secure, reliable, fast for years to come. Is it really worth it?

I've had the exact same conversation in house but with a documentation/client management system which we've chosen to build in house but not after exhausting every other option. It's a very very expensive project but nobody else has built a tool that we really need.

Remember that in terms of cost

This is the per hour cost for 160 hours of working time across a month to have a pre-built product which works amazingly well. So the math has to be done to build a new one from scratch.