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Help me learn to be the sysadmin I need to be!

Reverend John — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:34:00 -0800

What do I need to know and how should I learn it? I am the "IT" guy at my company, a small supplier of building materials, with an office staff of about 10, and a warehouse crew of about the same. Problem is I'm underqualified. Before I arrived here the network and all workstations were set up and supported by an outside consultant. When I arrived my primary responsibility was maintaining our web site, hosted elsewhere, and minor IT support when I could answer or fix immediate problems without having to call the consultant. I was A+ and Network+ certified around 4 years ago, but obviously thats not all that impressive, and really I haven't done much in depth there, haven't been building or fixing machines or doing significant network administration.

Unfortunately over the past year or so the consultant has gradually become less accessible to the point of being essentially useless, and I have recurring nightmares about something disastrous happening to our server or network and not being able to fix it, losing all of our business data, etc. I chatted with my bosses, the owners, last night and they've OK'ed me to upgrade my skills in order to make sure everything here is working well and secure.

Currently we have a single server running Windows 2000 server. The workstations are an amalgamation of Win XP pro and Win 2000 workstation. We have a 24 port switch tying it all together, and some networked printers, and a DSL connection to the internet. The server provides a shared directory, Active Directory services, DHCP, and hosts our business application server.

Given what we have my current plan is to self-study towards becoming an MCSA on Windows 2000 server. Some of the win 2k tests are discontinued, but since thats what we're running I figured I would work first on the tests which aren't discontinued yet, like 70-270 Admining Win XP, then working thru the self study books on Win 2k Server like 70-215 Adminning Win 2k server and 70-218 Managing a Win 2k Server network, as if I was going to try to take those exam. Then after I was up to speed on what we're currently running I might want to learn more on what we might want to move to in order to make sure our network is not too obsolete or insecure.

So, what I want to know from you technical mefites is, is my plan reasonable? Am I being foolish to consider studying for obsolete tests in order to fill out my knowledge of the stuff we already have? Is there a better way I should approach this?

Help! I feel overwhelmed and I live in constant fear that I'm going to come in one day and be told "nothing works, fix it" and not be able to.

What was that password again?

al_fresco — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:02:03 -0800

In Windows XP, is there a way to see the password that is stored in the system to log into a wireless network? In OS X, this is easy – one just goes to Keychain Access, looks up the entry, and by entering an administrator password one can see the given password. Is there a way to do this in XP? I'm not a Windows person, so don't know where to look.

This is for a client for whom I set up a wireless network over a year ago. She created the password and it's stored in her system, as she connects fine to the network. She now wants to get another computer onto the network. I guess I need to start saving clients' passwords.

'Network' management improvements for a small business needed.

wylde21 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:28:55 -0800

Suggestions to improve 'Network' management for a small business? See for more details. I just started working for a small company and need some input on better system/equipment for the company "network". Everyone is using Windows XP operating system.

Current hardware:
- One wall-wart CAT cable highspeed internet connection into the office.
- One D-Link wireless router with the CAT connection inputed. The router is then CAT cable connected to (a) a ‘network’ printer (which is then shared by all the workers via wireless router), (b) a stand alone enclosed 250GB Netdisk harddrive (which is then shared by all the workers via wireless router), and (c) the older desktop computer described below.
- One older (Pentium 3) desktop system that is ‘hardwired’ into the D-Link wireless router. This system is the extra computer that is used as backup if someone leaves their laptop at home.
- Five newer (all Centrino) laptops that each worker brings home every night. Some of the workers wirelessly occasionally backup key files to the 250GB Netdisk harddrive, but the connection is so slow that it is done infrequently.

Current shared network:
- The above mentioned wireless connection to the 250GB Netdisk harddrive
- The above mentioned wireless connection to a shared printer
- The company has a service that hosts the company’s website, operates the email service, and also provides some drive space to store files. The service is a couple cities over, and those stored files are accessed via SharePoint. Unfortunately, SharePoint over our connection is horribly slow and does not seem to be a real option for common use.

How things currently work:
- Each worker maintains all current work on their individual laptops, with rare backups to the 250GB Netdisk harddrive (if in the office), or through SharePoint (if on the road).
- The in office wireless connection speed is slow. I am not sure if this is a limitation of the wireless (newer D-Link system), the number of connected laptops (up to 5), some combination, or something else.
- The way the 250GB Netdisk harddrive is set up (via wireless) is such that it hs to be mounted everytime the computer is turned of or leaves the office. This mount is often lost (not sure why), so the drive has to be remounted several times a day. The connection to the Netdisk harddrive is also slow….but this may be a fuction of the wireless connection, as opposed to the drive itself, being slow.

What I would like to have:
- Fast connection to the internet for all the office computers. Does this mean we have to run CAT cables all around the office and manually plug-in?
- A common drive(s) that everyone in the office can read/write to and have fast (as fast as connection to individual computer harddrives) connection to. Do I need to add a server to the office to do this, or can the current 250GB Netdisk harddrive somehow be hardwired to do this?
- I want to insure security of the system. I’m not sure if the current wireless arrangement does that. Can people outside the office pick up the signal, and if so, how do I secure it?
- I want to insure that all work is backed up on a regular basis, but to get everyone to do that will require making it simple (software suggestions?) and easy (faster network connection).

I appreciate your suggestions. Being a small company, costs are an issue. But to get the right system I am willing to push for needed improvements.

How can I easily get info on our networked computers?

criticman — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:00:17 -0800

What is the best enterprise quality software & hardware inventory solution? I have been looking all over trade journals, Google, etc to no avail. The solution needs to be as follows:
-"Server" that can run on non-server OS...preferably WinXP pro, but if it needs to run on Linux or Win2k3 Server, that will be fine.
-Client needs to run on Win2k, WinXP Home (don't ask) & Pro

It needs to provide the following info:
-Machine name
-MAC address
-IP address
-Full OS version (w/ key used)
-hardware specs: processor, ram, video, hard drive, etc
-hardware system ID (such as Dell support code/#)
-software installed (w/ license keys)

The goal is to be able to have a good picture of our company's computers and software. That way we can see what hardware needs to be replaced first, what OS's need upgrading, what software needs to be upgraded, and to see if we are compliant with our purchased software license keys.

Although I could setup a database to house the info and could use something like the free Belarc Advisor to go to each machine and gather info, I am faced with a large work load, so going to each machine and manually inputing data is not an option.

Our network consists of approx. 30 "clients", 5 "servers", plus a handful of networked printers.

And since I do have a long list of links to products, I am looking for info from users who have actually implemented and used a solution to give me examples of how it worked and whether or not you would suggest I try it.

Much appreciated in advance!