IT Department Discussions, Tips, Tricks, And All Around Chatter

[Enteleki]

Anybody know how go about installing it to a USB thumb drive so that I can boot it and run Win8 from there? I don't have a spare computer to install it to.

The downloady thing that lets you create a USB image actually puts the installation disc on there and then you can't install to the USB drive

How to Create a Portable Version of Windows 8 Without Extra Software

I beleive this is what you are looking for, a portable Windows desktop.

Anyone have any experience with virtual/cloud based phone systems? Consulting the Google brought up choices like RingCentral, VirtualPBX, 8x8, etc. My client wants current gen features without the upfront capital expense of going with systems from Shoretel, Cisco, Avaya, etc. My local guys aren't up on virtual systems enough to make a recomendation so I figured I'd check here.

For what it is worth, I had a conversation with a communications consultant (makes his money reviewing your contracts and invoices; finds mistakes, recommends less costly services) who has implemented several cloud-based phone systems. He says that about 70% of the implementations are very troublesome and not good at satisfying customers. He no longer recommends outsourcing your PBX as the technology is just "not there yet." I didn't go into to detail with him about his criticism, since a cloud-based system is not a consideration for me.

[MidnightGhostGF [sherpa]]

Thanks Enteleki, we actually just signed a contract with a similarly focused comm consultant to review the client's current telecom landscape. I'm not completely sold on the cloud based systems based on some other conversations I've had since making that post. We'll see how things play out after the consultant finishes their audit.

[EmptyBag (gra-fixer)]

Any of you have any experience with MediaWiki?

I'm thinking about setting up an office wiki.

[CKWendel (gra-fixer)]

A little bit.

Grab xampp: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html (website back end like db, ftp, apache, mail)
Grab mediawiki: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

if you got a spare computer laying around just install it and play with the settings some, follow the install guides as they are very useful and helpful. the hardest part i had was getting the db set up correctly. mediawiki needs a db, and xampp has a db. I'm no expert but have played around a little with the stuff.

and some other webserver software:
Grab joomla: http://www.joomla.org/ (website consul type thing)
Grab wordpress: http://wordpress.org/ (blog)
Grab phpbb: https://www.phpbb.com/ (forums)
Grab piwigo: http://piwigo.org/ (photos)

All of these are open source so no money needed.

I have all of these installed on an old server at work just to mess around with. haven't looked at it since the winter.

Give yourself an afternoon to play around with it, and don't put anything on there important untill your sure you got it working right. It took me maybe three times before I got everything the way i liked it.

[PhazeZero]

Ghost....

Do you need just a PBX, or an ACD as well, for Call Center support?

I worked on an RFP early this year in which my large IT company considered a number of Software as a Service Telecom providers. A company called InContact came out on top from a functional perspective, and they were cost competitive as well.

Phaze

[EmptyBag (gra-fixer)]

Thanks CK. We have an old MAC tower that I'm going to try this on. I'm not very experienced with this sort of thing. So, we'll see how it goes.

[CKWendel (gra-fixer)]

Curiosity question. Have you ever tried to talk your other half (wife, gf, etc..) on how to restart the internet at your house if it goes down before? Ever had any luck with that?

[Lord_Twisted]

Curiosity question. Have you ever tried to talk your other half (wife, gf, etc..) on how to restart the internet at your house if it goes down before? Ever had any luck with that?

Funny thing is, I did this morning. I ran out to do some errands and never even checked anything online this morning. My wife calls me and says she can not get to her website, I said, "Well maybe that website is down, did you try any others. " A few seconds later she says nope all of them are down.

So I started running her through the basics of rebooting the modem, and the the router. She tells me that sounds easy. She calls me back a few minutes later on her cell phone and tells me now the phone doesn't work.

I realized at that point that when we switched phone service to our cable company last year they left the old modem and just put the additional modem for the phone next to the Internet one. She rebooted the phone one first.

So I told her the phone would be back up in a few seconds once it has re-established it's service, and told her to unplug the cord from the other box and count to 20 before plugging it back in.

That is when I realized I sounded just like those idiots in the support department at my cable company.... anyways she got it back up before I got home, and now pretty much knows how to do it herself, win-win I think....

[StratyMcStrat]

Yeah, my wife and parents are able to take care of the WiFi at my house and theirs. Mine use to be a little more covulted with multiple routers/switches, but now I'm down to the one router so it's pretty simple for her.

[SquidgeyFlint (admin)]

Curiosity question. Have you ever tried to talk your other half (wife, gf, etc..) on how to restart the internet at your house if it goes down before? Ever had any luck with that?

Set the magneto to 3/4. It's the round thing with a lever and it says magneto on it. Prime the ignition by pulling sharply on the lever. Get the hand crank out of the closet. No not the dark brown straight one but the long black one with 2 bends in the middle. Insert the hand crank into the hole in the front of the internet, under the grill. No not down near the ground but higher up. the round hole just under the grill. No, the perfectly round hole, with the white ring around it. Yes the hand crank fits in there. Are you putting the right end in? You hold the end with the wood handle...