Looking for an IT guy for "side" work

[FESTER665]

So we have a tiny network here at work, and the "IT" guy we use here is an older gentleman and likely not working much longer, so I'm hoping to find someone who does IT networking stuff on the side.... We use someone two or three times a year at the most, just setting up new PC's with email addresses and the like.


The thing that gets me is we just bought the owner of the company a new laptop so she can work from home as needed, so we were going to use her desktop elsewhere for a new hire in a few weeks.


The guy is here now and is saying that the only way she can work remotely from home is if she keeps her desktop here in her office and then puts GoToMyPC on it....


I can't believe this is the only way to accomplish allowing her to have remote access to the "server" here?


Keep in mind our "server" is a desktop running Windows XP and we all just share drives from it, I don't think it's like a true server by any means.


So are there places that will come out and charge by the hour to do random IT type work? Anyone know of any places ?!?!?

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[Chester Copperpot]

We used to use an IT company called Mindsight (gomindsight.com) to do basically anything network related before I took all the networking stuff over. I’m not sure how much end-user work they do but worth it to give them a call. Steve Edelman was/is our contact over there and always got what we needed.

 

[ZXMustang]

We used to use an IT company called Mindsight (gomindsight.com) to do basically anything network related before I took all the networking stuff over. I’m not sure how much end-user work they do but worth it to give them a call. Steve Edelman was/is our contact over there and always got what we needed.

They are alright. The school district I worked for used them for UCS and Cisco CM problems. Their network people are good, but very expensive.

As for remote access, she would need some sort of VPN hardware or software for old fashion remote access. Or you can use the gotomyPC or Teamviewer. There are other options, but none as graceful as a VPN tunnel. Then she can hit a network drive. Otherwise those other solutions, she will need to do file transfers through their interfaces if she wants to move something back and forth. There should be some sort of cheap appliance BB sells you can get to setup a VPN tunnel to your network. Sonicwalls come to mind.

 

[Bruce Jibboo]

We used to use an IT company called Mindsight (gomindsight.com) to do basically anything network related before I took all the networking stuff over. I’m not sure how much end-user work they do but worth it to give them a call. Steve Edelman was/is our contact over there and always got what we needed.

YOU IT GUY. WHY YOU NO TAKE THIS SIDE WORK!

 

[nytebyte]

I currently run a pretty good size network and am about to retire in a couple weeks. I wouldn't mind doing some small jobs on the side to keep busy. From what you've described, I could handle that work in my sleep.

It sounds like you could use someone with a lot more experience. Using GoToMyPC for remote access is just a bad idea.

Where are you located?

 

[EmersonHart13]

[MENTION=73]tinfoilhat[/MENTION]

 

[FESTER665]

We're in Streamwood.



The owner is calling a few places now as well, but I have no clue what shes going to end up doing....


It just didnt make any sense to me that we would need to keep her desktop here just so she could work remotely.


I'll keep everyone in mind, and see what she wants to do.


tinfoilhat told me to look into doing the VPN at first and when I mentioned it everyone looked confused. I think the IT guy is past his prime.

 

[Bruce Jibboo]

So is that network .. Is the owner ready to spend any money to upgrade?

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

[MENTION=73]tinfoilhat[/MENTION]

My issue is I don't have anything official to work under if I want to do it the right way.

But all cash side stuff is good too

 

[FESTER665]

So is that network .. Is the owner ready to spend any money to upgrade?

It seems like she is finally getting to that point, we shall see though.


I picked up a nice switch that [MENTION=73]tinfoilhat[/MENTION] and I discussed if that counts.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

VPN hands down. then have her spend some money on a cloud vendor to dump that xp machine

remote work accomplished with minimal setup

 

[Kaeghl]

you can use an easy VPN service like globalprotect that should give her access to the network drives, email and internal messaging.
there was a time that the only way to remote in was to literally remote into a box on the local network, its a form of network tunneling that stills works just fine but is a little clunky with the entire "needs a second box".

 

[Fish]

Im not knowledgeable with everything, but I love setting up hardware. LOL.

As tinfoil said, a VPN would be your best bet. I mean if you really just need a network storage server, those can be build pretty decently and a few of us have done those.

Hell, if you wanted to be even cheaper, build an unRAID machine and it can host its OwnVPN server.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/09/how-i-made-my-own-vpn-server-in-15-minutes/

 

[sickmint79]

So we have a tiny network here at work, and the "IT" guy we use here is an older gentleman and likely not working much longer, so I'm hoping to find someone who does IT networking stuff on the side.... We use someone two or three times a year at the most, just setting up new PC's with email addresses and the like.


The thing that gets me is we just bought the owner of the company a new laptop so she can work from home as needed, so we were going to use her desktop elsewhere for a new hire in a few weeks.


The guy is here now and is saying that the only way she can work remotely from home is if she keeps her desktop here in her office and then puts GoToMyPC on it....


I can't believe this is the only way to accomplish allowing her to have remote access to the "server" here?


Keep in mind our "server" is a desktop running Windows XP and we all just share drives from it, I don't think it's like a true server by any means.


So are there places that will come out and charge by the hour to do random IT type work? Anyone know of any places ?!?!?

mm good thing he's retiring

 

[Bonj87]

VPN and then RDP into her desktop if need be.. 21 year IT manager here.. wish it wasnt just for side work, as i am looking for a new gig.

 

[cap42]

VPN hands down. then have her spend some money on a cloud vendor to dump that xp machine

remote work accomplished with minimal setup

I'm prohibited from doing side work with my employment agreement and my company would be way too expensive based on what I'm seeing here.

I'd go the route Tinfoilhat is recommending, but it sounds like someone needs to take a look at your environment because it's (no offense) shaddy as fuuuck.

Xp machine is end of life, recommendations of go to my pc, it also doesn't sound like you have a firewall protecting your network (just a guess).

 

[Dasfinc]

[MENTION=7435]BADAZZTEALCOBRA[/MENTION] Did this ever get Solved?

I could get them setup with Hamachi in an evening for just my cost of time... Less than 6 computers the software is Free, if they need 6+ connected its $50 a year....

Text/Call me if you want, will PM you my number if you don't still have it handy.

 

[FESTER665]

Thanks guys, we're in the process of using a company that's going to do virtual hosting for us and taking care of everything. Theyve come out to look at the machines are and now in the process of making sure our programs will run in a virtual environment before we proceed.


They are also going to take care of our email issues along with our website hosting and everything of that nature.


It should be nice just to have one company for everything and the ability to do all of our work from outside the business while we're at conferences or out of the office.