What in the world?!? How is that even possible by a corporation? Every person or lawyer I've talked to about any non compete I signed or was going to sign all said that non competes are unenforceable anyway if it would cause you not to earn a reasonable wage. Sounds like a bad one. Welcome back!

UNMS is awesome.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a VoIP based "ringer", or speaker that will literally just ring for incoming calls?

The environment is a loud shop, and you simply cannot hear the existing VoIP phones ring.

So I am redoing my basement due to water damage. Now is the time to upgrade cabling.

I am running speaker wire for surround sound, and also new CAT cable. I have a HUGE box of Cat5e. I was going to use that, or get CAT6.

Looking for opinions on 2 things.

1. Cat 5E VS Cat 6. - For home use, streaming content, etc, does it really matter?
2. If I run unshielded CAT cable, how close can I run it to the Speaker Wire. I am planning on 16 or 14 gauge speaker wire, and the wire will just be used for satellite speakers (not a lot of voltage) Is it OK to run the cables together in the same channel/conduit?

Just make sure your SIP provider supports it on their network. Some do not, and if a fax doesn't work due to any problem at all, they will not support you. It may work, but it might not.

@scottalanmiller And pushing all the data via a Zerotier. Working flawlessly so far, and FAST!

I switch between multiple workstations when working from my home office, or my actual office, or anywhere in between. Through the workday and evening, I find articles on here, or any other source (mostly tech related) that I want to read, but the content is just too long at that moment or I am interrupted and need to come back and read later. I do the same thing on my phone. This leads to either bookmarking content which I never go back and read, or having an obscene amount of tabs in my web browser. Like this:

So I've recently started using Pocket. (https://getpocket.com/)

It's awesome, works on almost any device, and is a great way to gather all the content you want to go back and read later. Check it out.

Thinking about how not having to use Putty any more, and being able to SSH into my *NIX boxes right from Powershell is so nice.

@JaredBusch

So in this case, I was able to get it working by issuing the following commands.

#Allow httpd process to make connection over the internet and send mail.
setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail 1
setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1
#Restart Apache
apachectl restart

By following these instructions: http://osticket.com/forum/discussion/77982/resolved-smtp-office365-issue

Still learning about SELINUX bit by bit.

@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Where "tanning" = "sitting in the sun". Can you call it tanning if you stay totally white regardless?

I think that might be called baking.

In case anyone else is wondering, you can easily schedule OS ticket to fetch emails, by setting up a cron job that "runs" the cron.php file in the OSTicket directory. Just open up /etc/crontab and enter this line:

***Assumes your php directory and OSTicket install are at the locations specified below.

This causes OSTicket to poll the mailbox that is defined in the OSTicket email setup area in the OSTicket GUI, every 5 minutes.

*/5 *     * * * root /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/helpdesk/api/cron.php

Good morning! Beautiful day. Home office, windows open, coffee in hand. Happy Friday!

@scottalanmiller said in Edge Router Lite vs Edge Router:

@fuznutz04 said in Edge Router Lite vs Edge Router:

@JaredBusch said in Edge Router Lite vs Edge Router:

@fuznutz04 said in Edge Router Lite vs Edge Router:

I've been recommending and installing the ER-Lite routers for small office deployments with zero problems. But these deployments were always for about 20-25 users. At what point (user count) would we recommend going to the next model up, the Edge Router (ER-8)

In this specific scenario, I am looking at a 70 person office.

It really just comes down to traffic.

How much are the users actually doing that traverses the WAN will affect how much the router will be processing.

I use the ER PoE for a main office scenario, just because I am lazy and like having the switch chip and built in PoE for any wireless gear.

At this point, so much is unknown. This is more of a general question to "get in the ballpark" They will have at least 70 PCs, 70 VoIP phones going to a cloud PBX. I don't know about onsite services or anything else at the moment.

Then don't spend extra without a need. Get the ERL and buy more capacity down the road if a need is warranted.

Yep. The only reason that I can think of to put ther ER-8 in now would be so that you don't have to go back to the client later and ask them to spend more money. The fact that the cost difference is so small, is the only reason I would question it at all. It's not like the old days where asking a customer to step up to the next model was a big investment.

With that being said, I agree 100%, to only install what you need at that point and for the foreseeable future.

Windows: "No, I will not allow you to delete these partitions because reason xyz!."
Me: "Oh really? Breaking out the big guns."
Me: (inserts ultimate boot CD USB stick with linux partition tools)
Linux: "oh you want to delete these partitions?
Me: "Yes"
Linux: "Done"

@MattSpeller Me too, but I just took a screen shot of DownDetector.com being down. Oh the irony.

woo hoo! Data caps removed from my home internet plan. Now to download ALL THE THINGS.

I'm getting quotes on new service from Comcast. Business Class cable is what we're going with. 75/15 for $99. If you want a static IP, they charge $14.95/month for the modem, plus $19.95 for 1 static, or $25 for 5 statics.

2 things:

<rant>

1. Charging this much for an IP is outrageous.
2. Making me rent a crappy Comcast modem just to obtain a static IP is ridiculous.
   </rant>

And now 1 more thing... I want to make sure I am getting the best modem from them that I can be. I am familiar with their big huge all in one gateway devices, that has wireless in it that broadcasts xfinity wifi, etc on it. I don't really like those boxes. Is there a specific, pure modem that is recommended that they can provide if you "ask the right questions?"

@MattSpeller said in CPU Cooler:

For what it's worth, my $0.02

Decent air coolers (aftermarket) run about $20-30 and will beat the pants off a stock cooler. Overclocking you can get quite high as well.

If you have the cash (or extreme noise sensitivity) then it's worth going to closed loop liquid. H100i has been my go-to with good results but I can't help but say they're unnecessary and I consider them bling. edit to add they also require a more careful cleaning regimen (gentle + more frequent).

I might make the jump to one of those when/if I get a new case. But eventually, the noise won't even matter for me. My plan is to put my PC on the other side of my office wall, into a closet. Then I don't have to hear it at all.

LOL. Fantastic.

Who here has used the automatic backup feature with Vultr? Has anyone used it to backup a FreePBX workload?