Hands-on hardware and infrastructure guides covering servers, storage, virtualisation, and enterprise equipment for IT professionals.
Synology makes some of the most popular NAS devices for small businesses, and their operating system, DSM (DiskStation Manager), is a large part of why. It’s a full-featured, browser-based platform that makes complex storage tasks approachable without sacrificing capability. This is the first in a series of posts covering DSM in practical depth. Before You […]
Synology DSM Walkthrough (Part 1): Getting Started Read More »
When you connect a NAS or storage server to your network, you need a protocol to make that storage accessible to other devices. The three you’ll encounter most often are SMB, NFS, and iSCSI. They solve different problems and suit different environments. Choosing the right one depends on what you’re connecting, and what you need
iSCSI vs SMB vs NFS: Choosing the Right Storage Protocol Read More »
Every business has one. A piece of software that’s critical to operations, hasn’t been updated in years, and absolutely will not run on anything newer than Windows 7. Maybe it controls a piece of manufacturing equipment. Maybe it’s a custom database built for a client that no longer exists. Maybe it’s an accounting package that
Windows XP Mode: Running Legacy Software on Modern Hardware Read More »
Getting a printer working for one computer is straightforward. Getting it working reliably for an entire office, across Windows and Mac devices, with sensible defaults and minimal IT involvement, is a different task. Here’s how to approach it properly. Step 1: Connect the Printer to the Network For an office printer, a wired ethernet connection
Network Printer Setup: Getting Everyone Printing Without the Chaos Read More »
Most home owners and small businesses use whatever firewall came built into their router, a consumer-grade device with limited configurability and basic security features. pfSense and OPNsense are a different category of product entirely: fully featured, enterprise-grade firewall platforms that run on commodity hardware and cost nothing in software licensing. What They Are Both pfSense
pfSense and OPNsense: Open Source Firewalls for Serious Users Read More »
Virtualisation platforms all do the same fundamental thing (run virtual machines) but they’re designed for quite different environments and use cases. Choosing the wrong one means either paying for capability you don’t need or working around limitations that shouldn’t apply to your situation. The Four Platforms VirtualBox Type: Type 2 hypervisor (runs as an application on
VirtualBox vs Hyper-V vs Parallels vs vSphere: Which Should You Use? Read More »
Every time you type a website address into your browser, something happens behind the scenes that most people never think about. That something is DNS, and while it’s invisible when working correctly, it has a significant impact on your network’s speed, reliability, and security. What DNS Is DNS stands for Domain Name System. It’s a
DNS: What It Is and Why It Matters for Your Business Read More »
If everyone on your network (staff laptops, guest devices, smart TVs, security cameras, and the office thermostat) shares the same connection with no separation between them, you have a flat network. It works, but it creates unnecessary risk and performance problems that are easy to avoid. VLANs are the solution. What is a VLAN? A
VLANs Explained: Segmenting Your Business Network Read More »
It’s one of the most common misconceptions in small business IT: “We’re fine, we have RAID.” RAID is a valuable technology, but it doesn’t do what most people think it does. Treating it as a substitute for backup is a mistake that has caused real data loss for real businesses. What RAID Actually Does RAID
RAID is Not a Backup: What People Get Wrong About Data Protection Read More »
Most small businesses find out about network problems the same way: a staff member reports that something isn’t working. By that point, the issue has already been affecting productivity for some time, and diagnosing it starts from zero. Network monitoring flips that around. Rather than reacting to problems, you have visibility into your infrastructure that
Network Monitoring Tools: PRTG, Zabbix and Beyond Read More »