What NAS would all of you recommend for local backup purposes? The client has VMWare 5.5 and I am using the free Veeam for now. I am not sure what long term backup solution I will purchase because I need to do more research on that subject.
So for now, I just want a NAS that I can attached to the ESX host and use as a Veeam Zip to location.

@scottalanmiller said:

I want the desk that you raise and lower so it only takes up the space of a normal desk but gives you multiple options.

Would be nice, but just working with what I have at the moment.

I grew up in a LATA with no local BBS and like @scottalanmiller I was not going to pay the phone bill to my parents to dial elsewhere.

When I moved to St. Louis in 1994, I went out and bought a 56K modem immediately and got online to a number of BBS. Spent way too many hours in there.. I remember when we first got SLIP access to the internet.

@scottalanmiller said:

I did a lot if MUD gaming and NTG maintains a production MUD server today just because we can.

+1 rep just for that!

I do think that local server will pretty much dry up and blow away. I do not see VDI getting as common in the SMB space as it will be/is in the enterprise space. It will definitely be felt in the SMB space, but just not going to get huge. Now all of the LoB applications will be shifted with the servers, but a lot of the SMB will still use desktops, just lower power ones with longer retention.

Here is a quick iPhone video of the entire room.

Youtube Video

@art_of_shred said:

The perfect combination (to me) would be a workbench (that's the term for the "standing desk" that's been in use for hundreds of years) and a drafting chair. You can stand and use it, or you can sit at a comfortable height and use it. Or, you can slide the computers to the side and use it for actual work. Go ahead and hate me; I can take it.

I believe that I will get a drafting chair for this setup actually. I'll see after I've used the current design for a few weeks.

@Bill-Kindle said:

I'm personally OK with refurb gear, as long as I can get excellent warranty support and re certified hardware.

Along with this, the key for me is getting a tech dispatch by the vendor. For our clients, there is no one besides us to handle things. We cannot be in all places so we sell them on the fact that the extra warranty for the Dell/HP to show up saves them our billable hours in the long run when there is a failure.

Now that everything is virtualized, I really have zero against refurb gear since the hardware abstraction fixes the "not exact same hardware" issues.

@scottalanmiller
No sir, sorry if it seemed that way. I've been with the company full time since December 2009. Worked part time for them since June 2008 prior to that.

@scottalanmiller said:

We run Vyatta on vSphere for one of our hosted environments.

I ran ClearOS 5.2 on a VMWare system along with most of my other stuff in my coloation space for 3 years. I dumped it for the Ubiquiti gear. A hardware Vyatta box for < $100 is just a no brainer IMO.

@scottalanmiller said:

It only saves so much as you still need hardware for it. But you can push more packets for cheaper.

you can potentially have it on your virtualization platform though. I would recommend some dedicated hardware (basic super-micro or something) though.

@scottalanmiller said:

I keep hearing great things about Autotask.

I've heard great things about them, but with only 4 employess (counting the owner) I have never bothered to look into something like this for us. The owner still does his time sheet on a paper form in a 3 ring binder. The rest of us have a basic internally wrote app to create time sheets.

@ejmillen
I use Chrome exclusively on my Windows and OSX platforms. On iOS I use mostly Safari. I have the Chrome App installed, but my understanding of it is that it is still Safari underneath. That said, Chrome on iOS does fail a Safari required test, so maybe not.

@IT-ADMIN

• What OS on the client?
• Disconnect the VPN.
• Check the routing table. Run "route print" if windows or "netstat -rn" on linux
• Note the results
• Connect the VPN
• Verify the IP lease is obtianed
• Check the routing table. Run "route print" if windows or "netstat -rn" on linux
• Compare the results with the ones posted previously

I have a box running CentOS 6.x here at home hosting my personal site just for tinkering. I chose CentOS because that is the OS I was already familiar with from using PBX in a Flash for years.

@joyfano
@scottalanmiller nailed all the technical sides of web design, but here is also the aesthetic side of web design. Just because you can build a page, does not mean you are building a nice page.
I can code a technically compliant page and use good CSS. But I make not claims to good aesthetics.
Case in point: http://www.daerma.com

My 5 year old ate all of it this morning without sharing ;(

@it-admin I've used pfSense at home for a long time and never had any problems with it. I recently switched to an Ubiquiti EdgeMax Lite at home and that runs on aversion of Vyatta

@scottalanmiller said:

I have used several softphones over the years but recently have discovered Linphone and am really thrilled with it. So far I have found it to be rock solid and I really like that it is available on nearly every platform. I am currently using in on Windows 8.1 and iOS 7 but it is open source and I know that it is available on Linux, Mac OSX, Android and Blackberry. Very versatile.

I tried this on my MacBook Pro and did not like it at all. Trying it on my Windows dekstop now.

for when I need to sit.