I've had several meetings around the area with mid sized companies and I've found that a lot of people have no idea what they are paying for with their Network Administrators.  Because of this I've simply copied the Wiki for "Network Administrator" here for you to see the basic overview of the job.  If your Network Administrator isn't doing the majority of the things mentioned it's time for you to start looking elsewhere.  Our Network Admin crew does a fantastic job fulfilling all the job descriptions here as well as providing it at a price that can't be beaten.  Give me a call or send me an email to find out more on the pricing.

From Wikipedia:

Network administrator is a modern profession responsible for the maintenance of computer hardware and software that comprises a computer network. This normally includes the deployment, configuration, maintenance and monitoring of active network equipment. A related role is that of the network specialist, or network analyst, who concentrates on network design and security.

The Network Administrator is usually the highest level of technical/network staff in an organization and will rarely be involved with direct user support. The Network Administrator will concentrate on the overall health of the network, server deployment, security, and ensuring that the network connectivity throughout a company's LAN/WAN infrastructure is on par with technical considerations at the network level of an organization's hierarchy. Network Administrators are considered Tier 3 support personnel that only work on break/fix issues that could not be resolved at the Tier1 (helpdesk) or Tier 2 (desktop/network technician) levels.

Depending on the company, the Network Administrator may also design and deploy networks. However, these tasks may be assigned to a Network Engineer should one be available to the company.

The actual role of the Network Administrator will vary from company to company, but will commonly include activities and tasks such as network address assignment, assignment of routing protocols and routing table configuration as well as configuration of authentication and authorization – directory services. It often includes maintenance of network facilities in individual machines, such as drivers and settings of personal computers as well as printers and such. It sometimes also includes maintenance of certain network servers: file servers, VPN gateways, intrusion detection systems, etc.

Network specialists and analysts concentrate on the network design and security, particularly troubleshooting and/or debugging network-related problems. Their work can also include the maintenance of the network's authorization infrastructure, as well as network backup systems.

The administrator is responsible for the security of the network and for assigning IP addresses to the devices connected to the networks. Assigning IP addresses gives the subnet administrator some control over the professional who connects to the subnet. It also helps to ensure that the administrator knows each system that is connected and who personally is responsible for the system.

So there you have it.  Double check to make sure you have a Network Administrator that is doing what they should be, and if you feel you need improvement in that area, or you just want to save money give us a call.

If you have an IT person on staff at your office it's very possible that they are getting bogged down with requests.  Does their office look like there's a nonstop flow of people asking for help, needing IT questions answered, or just looking for an easier way to navigate their computer?  The solution could very easily be a centralized support ticket system to handle incoming requests.

"The beauty of this is that the support ticket system can be hosted on the Internet and every time someone needs something IT related done in the church, whether its an email problem, printer not working, need something on the website, etc., they can go and open a ticket for this."  (Churchtechnologytidbits.com)

There are numerous benefits for having this system for your office, but the major ones are:

• It documents what the IT person does, so you can understand what went wrong and how it was fixed.
• Items can be prioritized by the staff or IT personnel, keeping your company running efficiently, not bogging you down with non-critical issues.
• IT person can update the status or the request, no more trips in the office to find out what's going on.
• The IT requests are centralized, no more searching inbox, calling or wondering if the problem was resolved.
• The IT personnel is held accountable.
• The overall management of the IT requests are improved.

"When a person opens a new ticket request, they get an automated response acknowledging their request, also the IT person is notified and can log in to the ticket system and update the status. Also when a request is completed the IT person can ‘close’ the ticket and move on. The staff person who created the request will be notified when the request has been completed automatically by email."  (Churchtechnologytidbits.com)

Efficiency is a beautiful thing.  Contact us if you need help setting this up for your company's IT department and we'll get you started toward a more efficient workplace.

A major component to your organizations success is work flow and efficiency, and a major part of that is having the right computer support.  A technical partner that fits your needs is an obvious choice, but how do you sift through the seemingly endless amount of providers? 

What is valuable about your company's IT?  What isn't working for you and what is?  Finding out what you need should eliminate a large majority of who you are looking for.  If a company just provides web design and hosting it could be a great fit for you, but don't expect it to cover your programming needs as well as network administration tasks.  On the other hand if you're looking for back end support a hard core programmer could be lacking in the design end. 

What's the support company's history?  You can find out a lot about a company by its history.  If they have shining reviews from their entire client list you can trust that they're going to continue to deliver as they have in the past.  If they have a very large client base it can be good for your company because of their capabilities to service multiple customers, but will you get the same service as a small company, probably not.  Also ask if they will be able to handle your business's growth, or if their intentions are to help facilitate growth or just to maintain a certain level.

The most important thing is do you connect?  Businesses are built on successful relationships where both parties have the same goal.  Whether your company is looking to grow, maintain, re-work its image, or even possibly shrink, there is a company out there that will fit your needs.

For a free consult send iTP an email here to see if we are the right fit for you.

Every organization is aware of the importance of security – security of the building, security for employees and financial security are all a priority; however, an organization comprises many other assets that require security, most notably its IT infrastructure. An organization’s network is the lifeline that employees rely on to do their jobs and subsequently make money for the organization. Therefore it’s important to recognize that your IT infrastructure is an asset that requires top security. The question is, what should one secure against?

Spam

The No.1 enemy to all email users has got to be spam. Having your inbox fill up with useless messages that promote fake designer goods, bogus get-rich quick schemes and insinuate that you need to improve your love skills is not fun and is definitely not the reason for which you signed up for an email account. Unfortunately spam is a growing problem with research claiming that up to 94% of all emails that are sent are actually spam! That is a huge number when you consider just how prevalent email usage is nowadays. Spam presents an even bigger problem than just being irritating; it can also be harmful. Whilst some spammers do nothing more than direct you to websites to try and sell you things that you don’t need, there are spammers of the more spiteful variety who will include malicious links in their emails that when clicked on will download spyware, malware or other harmful files onto your machine. Therefore one of the first security solutions that you want to have on your server or workstation is anti-spam software.

Viruses

If a virus hits it’s always bad news. A virus can copy itself and infect other machines without the user even knowing that the machine has been infected until disaster strikes. If a virus hits the network then it’s likely to propagate to files on other machines that are connected to the network. Viruses can also spread via email, instant messaging, an intranet and other shared networks causing networks and machines to overload or crash. They can also capture keystrokes which is where the problem of security lies because passwords and banking details can be revealed in this manner. Viruses can cause major security risks and start a cycle of problems for an organization. Implementing an anti-virus solution can save your network and all your files and emails that could easily be lost and corrupted.

Malware

Malware comprises a variety of malicious software types such as Trojans, worms and spyware which will infiltrate your machine without you even realizing. Once your machine is infected it could easily spread to executable files on other machines that are connected to the network thus causing an IT epidemic. Whilst some malware is created simply to disrupt a system, other malware is used for financial gain. Spyware, botnets and keystroke loggers all have malicious intentions as they take control of infected machines and use them to continue proliferating the attack; they also track user’s login details for the sites that they use thus violating their privacy, as well as taking note of credit card details if the user buys something over the Internet. Furthermore if the user has an online banking account, those login details are also tracked and reported back to the host of the malware. Malware encompasses more than just viruses; however, an anti-virus solution is the solution to this ever-growing problem. Keeping your anti-virus up-to-date is key to keeping your machine clean and malware-free; failure to do so will leave you open to attack.

Network monitoring

Networks, servers, workstations – they all need to work seamlessly together for an organization to run its day-to-day tasks. If a server crashes, then the workstations are affected and people can’t carry on with their work. If the network fails the repercussions will affect the entire organization, and in turn affect production levels. So monitoring the network and servers regularly is a main task for any IT administrator; using network and server monitoring software this task can be automated with reports being generated on a regular basis. Server downtime equals business downtime which leads to a loss of profits – which all organizations want to avoid.

Vulnerability scanning and patch management

Vulnerability issues, patch management and network auditing are all security features that need to be addressed when dealing with networks. Leaving ports open is one of the most common security liabilities and attackers are aware of this. Scanning your network for open ports, machines that are vulnerable to infection is the first step to security. Once the scan is complete, patches must be deployed on all machines that are at risk of infection. By assessing your network and keeping up-to-date with all patches you greatly reduce the risk of security attacks occurring.

Written by Giselle Borg Oliver, August 3, 2009, care of www.gfi.com