Re: How to choose a computer consultant to fix WinXP network?
- From: Rob Morley <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:24:29 -0000
In article <Xns978DDE30CBCFvtqj3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
if <nosp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Place where I do a bit of work has some problems with their 3-computer
network wired up via a Netgear ADSL router. Dell machines running WinXP
Pro, with 1 standalone USB drive for backup using Dantz Retrospect over the
network. Location S.London.
I don't have any experience of messing with XP or networks, and they are
wary of consultants after getting fingers burnt by the MSCE who set the
thing up, so I'm wondering how best to choose someone who we could be sure
would actually know what they were doing, without paying an arm and a leg
(not much money in the kitty). Is there any association membership or real
qualification that we could go by?
What sort of amount do people think we should expect to be charged for a
job like this:
- Reconfigure Retrospect network backup (I ought to be able to do this bit
but I would need an hour or two to wade through the helpfiles as it's not
an intuitive program, so it would be cheaper to use someone who's already
familiar with it.)
Do it cheap and consider it an educational experience, so you can charge
more next time.
- Change users setup (everyone is an administrator at present!), and give
all users accounts on all 3 machines in a way that would allow some kind of
roaming login. Improve security by checking/tweaking network shares.
Sounds like you could use a Linux server running SAMBA - software is
free, hardware requirements are minimal.
- Get rid of expired Norton on all 3 machines and put on something cheap
but effective. (I should be able to do this bit too, but people say removal
of Norton is difficult, so I'm a bit wary, as it would look bad if a half
hour task turns into a whole day or something, as my time is at a premium.)
ISTR there are tools for removing Norton.
Remove Norton first and see if it goes away.
- Fix some weird recurring DEP alert problem concerning WMI on one machine
(may be due to malware that got at least halfway installed - though Norton
didn't detect anything). Problem has been going on for months now.
Pull the CMOS battery?
Whilst I'm on the subject, any tips on getting into password protected Dell
BIOS setup? I presume the installation guy (who has disappeared) put the
password on (unless Dell put one on by default?) and there are a couple of
options that could do with changing.
.
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