Best posts made by Mike Davis

Can anyone recommend a youtube video downloader that won't infect your computer?

If you do the per device or per user pricing model, you get creamed on the small shops. There are a bunch of variables that affect the cost. For instance, do the users run all the tickets through the office manager, or can anyone contact you?

Is your Windows 10 workstation joined to the same domain your hyper-V host is? It sounds a lot like it's not. If that's the case, it's a real pain to get them to connect.

I just sent out an invoice with a $500 bill for troubleshooting a white box computer. The call came in with the end user saying his monitors were going black. In the end we found out someone had installed an old gaming video card that was running at 90o C at idle and then when it would go over 95o C, would black out the monitors. The case simply wasn't designed for the card.

On one hand I feel bad that it took us so long to narrow down the problem and figure out what it was. On the other hand he told us his computer was running fine for years and only started doing this recently and didn't mention that he had a local computer shop install this card when he wanted dual monitors - and the problem has been happening since then.

I had another client in town where we swapped in a SSD drive and the computer wouldn't activate. Found out later that a local guy pirated OEM licenses of Windows from his day job and was building and selling computers with them.

Anyone else run in to these issues where white boxes end up costing way more than a name brand machine in the long run?

I'm a little confused. You want a batch file to call a powershell script that generates an email with the date inserted in to it?

What would be calling the script? As Scott says, just call the .ps1 and forget about using a .bat

@dbeato said in BSOD on virtual server 2016:

By the way what Xerox drivers do you get? Are using the PCL6

I am using the PCL 6. Not sure if it was the global driver. In the process of that driver not rolling, I also installed the PS, PCL5, and XPS. I have since removed the extra drivers and the old drivers from the Konica that the copier replaced.

Easy decision for me. I have no need to learn Cisco stuff because I don't have any clients with a Cisco router. What is your client base/environment?

@darek-hamann said in BSOD on virtual server 2016:

Have you tried removing any faulty drivers from safe mode?

I don't know what the faulty drivers are. I removed the printer drivers I don't need through print management and haven't had a blue screen yet, but only time will tell.

@scottalanmiller said in pricing on websites:

How is it rolling the dice, though? You have to roll the dice in the other case, and therefore must charge them enough to cover for that. Plus you have to charge them for figuring that stuff all out (scoping.)
It doesn't protect them, it pretty much just guarantees the worst case scenario.

I guess it changes who is rolling the dice.

@jaredbusch said in pricing on websites:

Trying to not call me out?
I clearly stated back at the beginning of this thread that I was overruled on that for our website.

You have a perfectly valid reason - you're not the owner, so it's not your call. You said that if you were in a position to change that you would. Nothing wrong with that.

IT and Customer Manager ? It's just an odd combination.

What are the requirements? Text only? audio? video? desktop sharing? free?

Has anyone else had an issue in ScreenConnect where a UAC prompt comes up and your screen doesn't show it? It just looks unresponsive. I found if I switch from single monitor view to multi and back, I can see the UAC prompt.

@dustinb3403 If he figures this one out, I'll keep him.

@DustinB3403 Just kidding, he's been full time with me since last December.

Two domains shouldn't be an issue. If both domains are added to o365, you can powershell the addition of aliases to the users mailboxes. o365 can accept email to either domain.

@dashrender said in ScreenConnect download file from script:

Why are you deploying SonicWalls? what feature does it have that ER's don't that you need?

1. Grant money paid for it
2. must have content filtering

@lakshmana Just paste your exact commands and the exact error.

@dashrender said in ScreenConnect download file from script:

So who submitted (based on what recommendation) for a sonicwall when the grant was requested?

The grantor came up with that. The agency only filled out a form that said how many full and part time people they had doing certain functions and the grant had a formula that said how many of each model number of different pieces of equipment you got. They even speced a printer that isn't available through normal channels. (discontinued) The printer was probably the dumbest thing because they already had a large multifunction copier on each floor. No need for the printer at all, but it didn't matter. Then they send auditors to visit the site and make sure it's plugged in.

These things baffle me, but at the end of the day you take them because if you accept the SonicWall you get all the other gear on the grant. It's frustrating to say the least because I can't standardize the agency because different grants specify different gear.

Like I said it's real frustrating watching money get wasted like that. Government agencies have no incentive to do things to save money. Politicians only pat themselves on the back for money that gets thrown at one group or another.