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FitnessOgre

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Everything posted by FitnessOgre

  1. Ubiquiti Nanobeams are great for this type of application. 500+ Meter range, good speed. Easy to setup, and once in place generally maintenance free. I use Nanobeam devices on a number of outbuildings connecting back to a larger sector style antenna. No issues. Though if the distance is less than say 100M you could also just mount an outdoor grade Access Point on your exterior of your house and likely reach your garage with a much simpler installation. My Wireless AP reaches my garage no problem, and I have mine in my basement, not ideal I know but it hits the garage with full signal. I use the Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR Access point. The only real downside is that you need the Controller software to configure and secure the AP properly. I have it running on my home server and it works fine. I had it on my personal desktop as well without issue. There are other Access Points on the market so shop around. I just happen to like the Ubiquiti equipment a lot and it hasn't let me down yet.
  2. While you can install Exchange on the Same server as an Active Directory Domain Controller, for basic testing and learning it will be fine, but aside from that its not recommended. Frankly on my home server I run Vmware and have multiple guest servers running on my host. I have a Active Directory Domain Controller, a File Server, and plenty of space for test servers such as Exchange, SQL, Web and Application servers. Having a virtualization host is a whole other rabbit hole. When you create a domain controller for your active directory domain, you will also install DNS and a few other Directory Services components that will be needed for Exchange Servers Setup to even start. The Exchange 2019 install will tell you what your pre-requisites are and will help you install them. Some other gotcha's that I have learned. Disk space. Make sure you have a reasonable amount of disk to allow Exchange to "Breath". With the release of 2013 and later Microsoft has increased the amount of diagnostic logging that the server does. All these logs will be located in the install directory for exchange, so if you notice that you are running out of disk space chances are its full of logs. The IIS inetpub directory will also fill with logs so you may want to look for a log cleanup PowerShell command to run or manually go in and clear the logs... Recommend a script of some sort as this can be very tedious. Exchange Databases need to be backed up or have Circular Logging enabled, otherwise the Exchange Transaction logs are going to fill up the disk, with circular logging the logs will be committed to the mailbox database regularly. For what you are doing circular logging will suffice as this isn't an production deployment. This will keep your disk usage under control. Exchange server is a disk hungry application. If those disks fill up, Exchange stops working. Try to install Exchange on a separate disk from your OS. At least of the Install drive fills up your sever won't completely crap out. Use powershell as much as you can to do exchange tasks. This really helps you to learn how to administer the server. Yes the Web Console is functional and frankly easier for some tasks. However I find that Powershell is more "verbose" about issues, learn to use the exchange management shell. Its helped me do a lot of things that the Console and ECP just don't do. If you decide to remove it and still want your Active Directory to work after, make sure you uninstall it properly. Otherwise there is all kinds of leftover bits and issues left behind. This was my experience with 2003 and 2010 version of Exchange. 2016 and 2019 seem pretty solid, though I haven't had to uninstall either of those. Seriously there is so many little things that Exchange needs to function. Good luck with your learning.
  3. Also you need Active Directory. Exchange will not work without it.
  4. You also need to make sure that SMTP traffic has access to the outside, and also that port 25 is listening on the same ip as your MX record is pointing to. I would assume that you are using some form of firewall/router. You may need to do some port forwarding. SMTP port 25 is needed. If you plan to use OWA you will also need to open port 443 as well. But that will require an SSL Certificate. So many little gotchas for things. If you buy a domain chances are the domain registrar has DNS already in place. You can change your MX record there. I have my email going to Microsoft 365 with little to no effort with my domain name.
  5. To add hard drives to a VM you need to open either the vSphere client or go to the vSphere webpage for your server. Once logged right click on the VM you want to add disk to. Select Edit Settings. In ESXi 5.5 there will be an add button you can then add a hard disk through this menu. On 6.5 the Web Interface is a bit different but similar, in that you have to edit the settings of the VM, and add a disk. Once you add a disk to the VM, login to the VM and open Computer Management and go to the Disk Manager. Scan for new disks and viola new disk will appear. I know with servers that disk needs to be brought online, initialized and formatted.
  6. Someone above mentioned Ubiquiti AirMax however Ubiquiti has smaller wireless bridges that you can implement fairly inexpensively. I have put in dozens of these https://www.ui.com/airmax/nanobeam-ac-gen2/ across numerous locations and distances. You put one of these on your house, and the other on the shop point them at each other and you are golden. They are PoE devices and super easy to install. We use AirMax devices for bridging over long distances over 1km. While they will work, they are overkill. The nanobeams are small and easy to install and are designed for distances under 1000m.
  7. Maybe the network card is failing? Seems to be the only point that you have tried to replace with another wireless card.
  8. I would assume that he is not moving the router/modem around to test between Wifi on his phone and wired on his desktop. You've eliminated the cable as the problem. I would also assume you've rebooted the device and your computer. This leads me to two thoughts. There is a problem with the modem, from images of the device I see it has two switch ports on the device you've tried both? Do you have access to another computer or laptop to directly plug in to test the connection? That would eliminate the desktop if the problem persists. Secondly if the problem doesn't follow to a different computer you could have a bad port on the desktop which might manifest the problem this way as well. Trying with a different computer to validate the problem would be where I start if you can. Have you contacted your ISP/Provider?
  9. Without knowing what you are seeing... You won't get much help. Please be more descriptive. I configure these types of switches all the time, so I can likely help get you to a basic config, however without knowing what state the switch is in I can't begin to assist.
  10. https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX67909?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtLT1BRD9ARIsAMH3BtXBb94nGtCq1bllaENa__9zeN1XpPBc3UPgU7yvnxJv9xxMzpPGvisaAqm9EALw_wcB keep in mind this is Canadian site. Not sure what availability is where you are. Also the Nano Station is only 2.4Ghz. so not the fastest but will give good range.
  11. Its an Access Point, plug it into your network, configure the security and it will broadcast sweet sweet wifi for your phone, laptop, xbox, whatever you want to connect to it.
  12. Was going to suggest the same thing. Windows Firewall... Why I prefer a Hardware Firewall. On a side note Share Permissions and Folder permissions are two very separate things. Typically for a LAN setting unless you want to restrict access to a shared folder, share permissions you set Everyone to Full Control. And use NTFS permissions to grant or deny access. More control that way, but for home file sharing likely overkill.
  13. What kind of distances are we talking here? AirMax devices are more for connecting two buildings together so not quite what you are looking for. You would be better served with a Ubiquiti NanoStation which you can get for about the same price. Easy to configure and generally provides about 200 - 300Ft of solid connectivity on both the 2.4 and 5Ghz frequencies. And is outdoor weather sealed.
  14. Some things I would check. 1) Networking isn't likely your problem however can you ping each computer in the network? 2) Share Permissions - When creating a windows Share make sure that on the share permissions everyone has full control. This seems contrary to security but it is what it is. 3) Windows Firewall could also be blocking access if the one computer isn't in the same "Zone" as the other. Try turning the Windows Firewall off and see if that makes a difference. 4) Make File and Print Sharing is on. Though that seems like a most unlikely part of the problem.
  15. Exchange Setup will not allow you to get to that point of the install is at without those pre-reqs in place. Having installed Exchange numerous times its quite demanding about the pre-reqs.
  16. If I was doing a raw hypervisor I would go with ESX 6.7, mainly due to having the most experience with that product. Keep in mind most of the configuration of the host is done via the web interface. Installing on a workstation make sure that Virtual Machine support is enabled in the BIOS. Hyper-V is second as most people have Windows 10 and it is a reasonably capable Virtualization platform as well. Multiple Network ports help, Keep VM Traffic isolated from the Management Traffic. Though you can do everything with one Network Port, it works better with at least 2.
  17. A couple of things you could check; Things I would look for; 1) Exchange Setup Logs. There is a log file generated in a folder on the C:\ that will have detailed information as to why you may be having an issue. 2) Make sure that you are installing the latest RU of Exchange Server. You can download this direct from Microsoft. 3) Make sure that the version of Windows you are installing on is up to date. 4) Without knowing more about the environment its hard to troubleshoot further. There are a number of variables that can impact the successful install of Exchange Server.
  18. Yeah likely... Man whomever installed this needs to have their head examined... That reminds me, during this wonderful lockdown/work from home. Might be time to re-do the network lines in my basement... The line guy who did the lines here was another hack from the local telco... I swear these guys are semi-trained apes in coveralls.
  19. I know in one of my old jobs we used to give network devices such as printers and some of the servers names that were recognizable for the users if they were having issues. The helpdesk named all the printers with fun names. We had a colour printer that consumed toner like crazy it was called Sauron. We had some new at the time Dell Printers that were different than our normal off-white HP printers, they had black plastic, so we named them after things that were black (Vader, Onyx, Carbon). The server folks named the server racks after spices... Some of the Unix boxes had Greek god names. It was a fun. Being military IT now, naming standards are very strict and tied to function and such.
  20. I am trying to figure out where the yellow cable goes... Good luck, this looks like such a hack job. I am sure that there are a number of different ways to fix this. Just make sure you know where each line goes before you cut it.Nothing worse than trying to fix something that broke because you cut the wrong line.
  21. Cat5 can be used for phone lines. Done all the time. Its not pretty but it works. Just don't use all the pairs.
  22. My security alarm uses cat 5 cable as well... Don't assume without testing the lines. Based on the pictures you've provided it kind of looks like that but I would break out the tester and start checking which lines go where and label them and go from there. Take lots of picture so that if you mess something up you can fix it.
  23. You need to follow where the blue cables go. If they go to network connections in the house then you can re-patch them and plug them into a switch. What should you charge? Depends on time and effort. $30 - $40 an hour would seem about right, probably a few hours of work here tracing, reterminating and testing.
  24. Oooh didn't think of a security system. Mine just comes off the alarm panel to my network switch... I think that you are right though.
  25. So not being a Fiber customer, however I can guess on a couple of things; 1) The verizon box feeds the Internet, TV, and Telephone for the house. 2) The cables going out the top of the panel box go to the various rooms in the house? How are they terminated? Are they going to Keystone blocks or to RJ45 ends? 3) The green thing with all the lines going into it looks to be like a hub or something or a punch down plate of some sort. I have honestly never seen one like that but I just seems so unnecessary. In all the years of doing networking and more recently cabling and infrastructure installations this looks like some proprietary shit. I am making some educated assumptions here, verizon customers can correct me if I am wrong. The box has a network cable coming out of it, Assuming that it has a router built in, you could then plug that cable directly into a switch. I would then either terminate the blue cables with keystone blocks and install a patch panel that accepts the blocks. Then plug in network cables from the patch panel to the switch. Or you could terminate the ends of the blue cables as RJ45 and plug in to the switch. That would be the simple way to do it. Seriously though if an installer came into my house and created that rats nest I would be pissed.
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