Posts made by NetworkNerd

I actually think they are having a major network outage right now. You call their support number, get a message about a network outage and that people are working on it, and then you have no other options. I guess they don't want to talk to me...or anyone.

So for anyone who uses CBeyond, they recently made a change to to their web portal that has a new online support chat feature. I logged in today to try and use it, and it looks like I have a while to wait.

@Carnival-Boy said:

I used to use Webroot's cloud based e-mail filtering service and it was awesome. By far the best solution that I found (I trialled several - Postini, Mimecast etc etc). I loved it. Unfortunately, they killed the product.

Wow - better than Mimecast is saying something. I think Mimecast is pretty awesome.

@Nic said:

@Dashrender we have a web filtering product but we don't do anything in the email space. Our approach is to catch it at the time it runs rather than while it is being transmitted. Saves a lot of resources that way, since you aren't scanning every email.

That sounds very much like the way VIPRE does it.

@Nic said:

So did you find out what happened? That reminds me of my interview with Spiceworks story. I got stuck in Houston due to weather, and they couldn't guarantee that I'd get a flight the next day. I went and rented a car and drove instead and got in at 3am for an interview the next morning. I think that story helped seal the deal

Yeah, I remember reading about your story - a very good one indeed. It certainly showed how bad you wanted to get the job and that it was important to make the interview.

In this case, I actually called the guy yesterday afternoon at 3:40 PM to see if all was well or if there was some kind of miscommunication with HR about the time (since we rescheduled once). I was only able to leave a message. There has been no word today...at all. I've been encouraged to call one more time to make sure the fellow is ok / at least find out what happened.

I'm pretty green when it comes to using Server 2012 for all it is worth, so I wanted to throw another question out to the gurus among us. My usage of Server 2012 (either R2 or not R2) will be only as a VM on ESXi with all local storage in OBR. You can assume IOPs, processor, and RAM allocation should not be an issue for the most part.

I was reading up on the built-in deduplication capabilities, wondering how many folks actually use it and in what instances it makes sense because I would really like to use it. What's your environment's read / write ratio? How beefy are the VMs you are using for this?

We may be talking about file servers for users or file servers that are more backup-to-disk targets. How much of a performance hit does the server itself take if you are using deduplication on the file server / backup target?

Any experiences you have had will be useful.

@scottalanmiller said:

He uses Elastix, it never goes down

Let's not jinx that, but I can verify that voicemail was working at the time of the attempted call. My greeting even says "if you need me immediately, press 2 to reach my cell phone."

@technobabble said:

@NetworkNerd said:

I spoke with a representative from AVG about this today and realized they can offer mail security, web content filtering, e-mail archiving, anti-virus, and even remote access through their CloudCare offering. For those that use it, do you feel the feature set is good compared to other products? Any information would be helpful.

Our anti-virus subscription will be up at the end of this year, we use LogMeIn for remote management, we do not have web content filtering at every site but could benefit from it, and we use Mimecast for spam filtering and e-mail archiving (subscription up in June). There may be a chance to save some money here if their product is good.

I am using it for a client's 3 servers and 2 desktops av protections. I am looking at the other options they offer.

Is the AV client pretty light weight?

I really like Backblaze as well and use it at home. You have no storage limits and can backup files of any size. We use a corporate account where I work and have it on about 20 workstations / laptops, and that is $50 per year per computer.

But I will say I really like Crashplan Pro too. And if you need version history storage and the ability to restore from a particular version of a file, CrashPlan is going to beat Backblaze every time. With Backblaze, you will get the latest version of the files on the machine only. The price point is more like $85 per computer per year for the unlimited storage plan.

We have been interviewing people for a part-time help desk / web developer position in the past few weeks. We narrowed it down to someone we asked back for a 2nd interview with more senior personnel who then approved of moving forward with a practical examination for the candidate. Today the person was supposed to be here at 3 PM. He did not show up and didn't leave a message with anyone. It looks like he tried calling my desk phone about an hour before the practical exam was supposed to start, but he did not leave a message.

Has anyone ever had this happen? Based on our two interviews, this seems pretty out of character for the person in question. I did call him around 3:30 / 3:45 to see if maybe there had been some miscommunication between HR and him but had to leave a message. I'm just hoping he is ok at this point. And if he is ok, I wonder what he will say if he calls me back.

@scottalanmiller said:

That's about half of the necessary volume.

Well, if we keep acquiring other companies as has been the trend, we may get there yet.

@alexntg said:

If I can get no fewer than 300 users to commit, I can build an ITAR-compliant hosted Exchange environment.

I'm stuck just under 200.

@scottalanmiller said:

@NetworkNerd said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Nothing will likely save as much as hosted email Just saying.

I agree, but I am limited by ITAR regulations here, and to get that with Microsoft is off the charts expensive.

Have you looked at Google or Rackspace.

I just talked to Rackspace. ITAR is a no for them right now.

@scottalanmiller said:

Nothing will likely save as much as hosted email Just saying.

I agree, but I am limited by ITAR regulations here, and to get that with Microsoft is off the charts expensive.

I spoke with a representative from AVG about this today and realized they can offer mail security, web content filtering, e-mail archiving, anti-virus, and even remote access through their CloudCare offering. For those that use it, do you feel the feature set is good compared to other products? Any information would be helpful.

Our anti-virus subscription will be up at the end of this year, we use LogMeIn for remote management, we do not have web content filtering at every site but could benefit from it, and we use Mimecast for spam filtering and e-mail archiving (subscription up in June). There may be a chance to save some money here if their product is good.

My boss has been having an issue with his FIOS service that really intrigues me.

He said he has 25 / 5. On wired connections, speedtests are correct...every single time. But if he tries a speed test on wifi (using the Verizon provided router), he gets 2 Mb down at most (consistently). I even suggested he turn off his wifi on the Verizon router and use a wireless access point instead. That did not change anything in terms of speed. He also tried putting a consumer grade router with built-in wifi behind the Verizon router with the same results.

He said his neighbor is having the exact same problem with his FIOS router, and if I remember right, my boss said he had even had Verizon give him a new router, which did not change anything having to do with the wifi speed.

Could he have some sort of wifi interference happening? Or is there any way Verizon could be rate limiting wifi somehow?

For us it would be ITAR compliance for e-mail at a reasonable price. It's not cost efficient unless you have thousands of users. But we enjoy the ProPlus software licensing with O365 (newly purchased).

What interview question do you like to ask prospective candidates that is different from the standard list folks might use? I had to interview someone today for a position as an IT Intern at our company, and I realized after the interview that I could have used some better questions. I do enjoy hearing what the person perceives are his / her strengths and weaknesses and how the person uses his / her weakness to better himself / herself.

Chrome on iOS has worked well for me.

I have ordered many a phone from Telephony Depot. The prices are good, and I have never had issues with something I have ordered.