Joe and Jamie’s Blog

Apparently for a reason that has yet to be told to me my server was down for 8+ hours today. I have never been so frustrated before. I asked many times and never received and answer besides “hardware issue” which annoys me even more. I mean don’t they have a fail-over routine or and sort of BDR device. No reason why if it was going to be 8 hours and I complained as many times as I did that I couldn’t have been moved to another server temporarily. True more work for them, but that’s what I pay for.

I apologize to all my readers out there, this was beyond my control.

So after all this, as soon as my plan comes up for renewal say bu-bye to this host. This was the last straw.

Mozilla will eventually be launching the awaited Firefox 3. There is already tons of hype about it everywhere.

Mozilla is taking this to the extreme and setting the precedent for a new category in the Guinness World Records. They want everyone to download it on the first day it comes out. Their download logs will be picked apart by Mozilla and Guinness and the record will be set for anyone else to try and break from that point on.

When Firefox 2 came out, there were 1.6 millions downloads in the first 24 hours. Let’s help make 3 even more.

Go to http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord or either of the buttons below and pledge!! They’ll even remind you to download it when it is released, which the date hasn’t been made public yet. You know you’re going to download it anyway, so pledge and help keep America #1 on the pledge list!

Don’t cheat and download it many times, let’s all be a part of a legitimate World Record.

I decided to go with forums rather than blogs for the network administration help sites that I was designing. Forums are just easier for people to sign up and post their own topics, as well as making it easier to categorize everything.

For the last five days I have configured the phpBB forum that I have running now on NetworkAdmin.INFO. Please visit the site and feel free to ask any computer or technical question you may have. If I cannot answer it I surely have the resources to get the answer.

I hope this venture turns out well. I spent some pretty price money on old domain names to try and help this out and I would like to see it prosper. Over the weekend I will be posting as many help fixes as I can to try and fill the forum up a bit and make it look alive. I have some minor tweaking to do still and some SEO work, but nothing that will change or affect the forum.

VISIT NETWORKADMIN.INFO

I bought some more domain names this weekend. I was bored and stuck in front of a computer which never leads to anything good. I have had some idea of creating informative blog sites on basic computer and networking troubleshooting tips and guides. I started snooping around GoDaddy for some catchy names and found that they were all taken, like always. Some domain names were available for a premium price of two grand, but I don’t have that kind of cash to blow right now, especially when I don’t have time to make the site bring that much money in fast.

Here’s some of the names that I purchased that were surprisingly available for regular price:

• networksystem.us
• systemnetwork.us
• techadmin.us
• networktechnician.us
• systemtech.us

I picked up the same domains with different TLD’s (top level domains) along the way, whatever was available.

I wanted to get a few other domains, but they were too pricey. I searched around and found Sedo.com, a huge domain name aftermarket. Sedo.com allows you to actually bid on the site with the owner, rather than just pay the price posted on GoDaddy. After a few days of haggling with owners that wanted thousands for sites with absolutely no traffic at all out there, I obtained these two sites this morning:

• networkadministrator.org
• networkadmin.us
• systemadministrator.biz

What is great about networkadministrator.org is that it is seven years old and had a page available, it was not just owned without a site up. This means that it should be known to search engines and possibly already bookmarked by others and have links out there. You don’t make it in this business without links. I am in the process of getting the domain transferred to me now. There are a few more I am interested in, just have to keep beating the price down, hoping the owner doesn’t close the negotiations. [UPDATE] Just bought systemadministrator.biz while I was posting this for a fair price for a four year old domain, made for a fun night.

For these sites, I think I will start out using blogs to host the content. They are easy to set up and use, as well as free. The person who created this blog here as a whole slew of blogs, some free and some really nice premium templates. I really like a few of the templates at Blog Oh! Blog. You can check out the templates here.

I am out for now, going to start uploading the main templates now!

On Friday I was working for a new client in Albany. They are getting a brand new server, APC and network switch.

My job was to mount the new switch and connect the data cables from the punch down that was done by the telephone company.

The first picture is what was done by the phone company.

Here is what it looks like after I mounted the switch and 2 wall mount racks. These racks are really neat. They hug the wall saving space, especially good for this project since the closet is going to be used as a kitchen and storage area. They are pretty inexpensive too, only $200 for each. A 4 post 8 foot rack with shelves costs anywhere from $1,250 - $5,000 or more, depending on brand, number of shelves, accessories, etc, etc. You can check out these wall mount shelves on Dell’s page here.

The wires on my side are a bit of a mess, but that’s only because we didn’t receive 1/2 the cables we needed. We have small cables coming so we can make it look neat, had to use 15 foot cables in the meantime. Just waiting for the server and APC unit to finish their setup then it’s on to configuring the desktop machines on the new network.

It’s been a very busy week for me, haven’t had much time to post and further develop any of the other sites. I did notice I finally got my first comment, so at least 1 person is reading this every so often!

I just got a 40″ plasma TV for free…with one hitch; I have to repair it first. I was given all the necessary parts, but these things are like computers now. I have a box full of new circuit cards and chips that need replacing. I hope this isn’t too difficult, would be nice to have a 40″ TV for free.

Over the weekend I will be configuring a few more sites and getting them up and running. Hoping to have overstock-market.us and electronics-market.us at least configured and maybe even formatted correctly.

I added a few blog pages today. I am going to post a lot of computer/network troubleshooting tips to the Network Admin page. I will be useful for people searching google to maybe hit my blog and find the answer to some common problems I have come across in my line of work. I also have a websites page that lists all the sites I own and operate. Maybe I will get some hits off of that, and if not, at least its one place on the web that contains links to my sites.

Went a little crazy with more domain names, but it’s a hobby of mine. I bought out the rest of the personal ones that I own under the .info, .us, .org domains. Bought toy-market.us, beauty-market.us, and networkadmin.info. I am planning on turning networkadmin.info into a help forum with answers to error codes and tech questions I have dealt with in the past. Hopefully that will bring some people to the site, pretty easy name that explains it all…info for network admins…ain’t I just clever!?!? If I don’t wind up doing a forum I will look into pooling other tech help sites and just displaying their information. We’ll see how it goes, have to find some forum templates first.