How do you get your computer stuff & networking done?

[proDJtege]

How do you get your computer & networking done?

I'm talking about wireless network setups & security, building computers or doing backups, or drive recovery... to Windows re-installs, home theatre setup and general technical assistance....

do you do it yourself?
do you know someone?
do you hire nerdsonsite? geeksquad? etc?

I wanna know how many TM3 ppl double as technical support geeks.

[peterm15]

I always DIY.

[S.F.W.]

DIY a lot of stuff, network setup, security, etc . The really granular stuff, like building systems, or drive recovery I know someone.

[SomeGuy]

Do it all myself...if I can't do it, generally nobody (even the best professionals) are going to be able to do it.

Mind you I'm a software engineer, so my job is solving problems and building complicated things.

[JonsMazda]

DIY FTW!

[JD@WhitbyMazda]

Mostly on my own. My dad runs a business so if I hit a wall I bring it to him. Planning a new PC build come the fall.

[Mtl_guy]

DIY... PC hardware and support is my day job.

[asyed]

DIY except for the tricky bits like installing a new processor.
Im pretty much the tech support guy in my house for all the computers/phones/tvs/other electronics :P

[slam525i]

The great thing about messing with computers (vs cars) is that you don't need much space, and screwing it up never becomes a safety issue.

[Mitchell3]

I do fair amount myself. Generally just troubleshooting. I'm moderately tech savvy, and what I cant figure out I google. Then if its 7+ steps I say forget it.

[Sivart444]

I do it for a living, so i take care of everything myself.

[trulankan]

I do it for a living, so i take care of everything myself.

+1

i'm a systems admin. i just built a new gaming rig over the weekend. love the fact that i can crank up all the graphics without causing any performance issues :) unfortunately i know more about computers/technology than I do about cars lol

[Mitchell3]

+1

i'm a systems admin. i just built a new gaming rig over the weekend. love the fact that i can crank up all the graphics without causing any performance issues :) unfortunately i know more about computers/technology than I do about cars lol

+1 I love that. Some of the newer games are just starting to be a bit too much for mine to handle at full. Build my next one for me? Tm3 discount? haha

[Chrisinski]

If I don't know how I find out! KNOWLEDGE IS POWER :chuckle

[shift8]

+1 I love that. Some of the newer games are just starting to be a bit too much for mine to handle at full. Build my next one for me? Tm3 discount? haha

Building is the easy part. I'd build it for you for free as I can do it in like 30 mins. I usually just get my parts from Tiger Direct as they're just as cheap as anyone, and you can walk in/walk out to grab the parts. Just built a machine with 8-core AMD and 32GB of RAM for $800 with taxes in. Computer parts are so cheap compared to when I used to work in a computer store back before college.

[shift8]

How do you get your computer & networking done?

I'm talking about wireless network setups & security, building computers or doing backups, or drive recovery... to Windows re-installs, home theatre setup and general technical assistance....

do you do it yourself?
do you know someone?
do you hire nerdsonsite? geeksquad? etc?

I wanna know how many TM3 ppl double as technical support geeks.

Definitely do it myself. Been using computers since I was in grade 2, and have been an Asterisk professional (build PBXs on open source software on top of Linux) for a decade now. Went to school for telecommunications technology and protocol analysis. Used to build computers before I went to college. Sometimes though, the stupid shit I run into and feel like a complete nub makes me shake my head though :D

[SonicBoy]

Have been taught a long long time ago;

If you want something done right, you do it yourself.

If you don't know, you find out and then do it yourself.

+1 Knowledge is Power!

[Mitchell3]

Building is the easy part. I'd build it for you for free as I can do it in like 30 mins. I usually just get my parts from Tiger Direct as they're just as cheap as anyone, and you can walk in/walk out to grab the parts. Just built a machine with 8-core AMD and 32GB of RAM for $800 with taxes in. Computer parts are so cheap compared to when I used to work in a computer store back before college.

I wouldn't know what I need, I only know how to use computers :P

[trulankan]

Building is the easy part. I'd build it for you for free as I can do it in like 30 mins. I usually just get my parts from Tiger Direct as they're just as cheap as anyone, and you can walk in/walk out to grab the parts. Just built a machine with 8-core AMD and 32GB of RAM for $800 with taxes in. Computer parts are so cheap compared to when I used to work in a computer store back before college.

yeaahh buddyy AMD FX-8350 FTW :) damn intel cpus are pricey so AMD all the way. paired mine with a Radeon 7870 :) whole system for under $1k but only 8gb ram lol 32GB is crazzyy

[proDJtege]

While on the topic, does anyone run Proxmox (or VMWare) on hardware at home for the ease of having virtual servers do everything?
I've got a machine running Proxmox3 and it's a media server, torrent server, file server, SETI@HOME cruncher etc.. love having all the resources
AMD 2.7Ghz x 6 core, 95w
24 GB RAM
3.2 TB storage

[Sivart444]

I was pro-AMD forever, until i built my last rig with an i7, now there is no going back for me.

My Rig :

i7 2700k
Gigabyte (Model Escapes me) Motherboard
Samsung 840 256GB SSD
2 x 1TB Western Digital Black HDDS
16GBs of DDR3 Ram
2 x Radeon 560Ti 1GB DDR5 Videocards crossfired
850w Corsair PSU
Thermaltake generic oversized case

[Sivart444]

While on the topic, does anyone run Proxmox (or VMWare) on hardware at home for the ease of having virtual servers do everything?
I've got a machine running Proxmox3 and it's a media server, torrent server, file server, SETI@HOME cruncher etc.. love having all the resources
AMD 2.7Ghz x 6 core, 95w
24 GB RAM
3.2 TB storage

I use ESXi 5.1 at work for all our virtualization but i havent began to really configure my home machine for media/downloading/access for other machines since its just me

[proDJtege]

holy wow, tm3 has tons of geek cred.

Anyone interested in a LAN party?

[zoomahh]

If I don't know how I find out! KNOWLEDGE IS POWER :chuckle

This /\. /\. /\
I learned a ton of stuff since I built my first power rig. Only way to learn IMO. I buy most of my stuff at "can comp" and install/setup/troubleshoot....and when all else fails....google is my friends. However I also picked up a few "know-how's" from guys here on the forum ;)

We have 2 iPhones, a pic, MacBook Pro, iPods, my and a dlink NAS w/ 4tb of storage for media streaming and backups, my dual-band netgear router, and Rogers high speed modem.

To top it off, a 7.1 surround media room. I had the wires installed when our house was built, but I built the supports for my wall mounted screen and components. So when you look at it...it's nice n clean. No wires, no plugs.. :) luv it.

[SomeGuy]

People still use AMD chips? Go figure. Intel all the way.

I use vmware at work, actually in the process of building a crazy clustered windows server 2012 setup for a development environment. At home I've had enough of computers so one laptop and an accesspoint with my old (very old) desktop on standby is all I need.

[Sivart444]

People still use AMD chips? Go figure. Intel all the way.

I use vmware at work, actually in the process of building a crazy clustered windows server 2012 setup for a development environment. At home I've had enough of computers so one laptop and an accesspoint with my old (very old) desktop on standby is all I need.



I'm also working on a high availability 2012 enviroment right now. Having issues with my SQL server not resolving through DNS for some unforeseen reason

[SomeGuy]

Turn windows firewall off...it's a royal bitch with SQL server. Also check the configuration manager to ensure tcp is enabled (not just named pipes)...also if you're on a domain sometimes you need the fully qualified name (more so when you are dealing with multiple networks, vlans, etc).
I assume you can resolve the ip from the dns name? and you aren't using named instances?

[Metal Wing]

DIY except for the tricky bits like installing a new processor.
Im pretty much the tech support guy in my house for all the computers/phones/tvs/other electronics :P

I love installing CPU! That fantastic feeling of spreading thermal compound over it, mmmm.....



The great thing about messing with computers (vs cars) is that you don't need much space, and screwing it up never becomes a safety issue.

On that note... When I was about 12... I plugged something somewhere... Inside of the computer caught on fire, wiring melted... It wasn't fun... Good thing it was a Pentium II


People still use AMD chips? Go figure. Intel all the way.

I am not an AMD fanboy, but I find that depending on needs, AMD usually provides me with what I want for lesser cost. Especially ever since they began supporting nVidia cards. My hexacore AMD Thuban (which I got for free) has been doing great so far. Thinking of getting an octacore bulldozer some time in the next year. Incomparable to i7, but is cheaper and runs the games I need. I hope this thread doesn't turn into AMD vs Intel =(

On topic: I've worked with computer hardware before, and now do software development so I am a DYI person. Its fun.

[slam525i]

On that note... When I was about 12... I plugged something somewhere... Inside of the computer caught on fire, wiring melted... It wasn't fun... Good thing it was a Pentium II

I am not an AMD fanboy, but I find that depending on needs, AMD usually provides me with what I want for lesser cost. Especially ever since they began supporting nVidia cards. My hexacore AMD Thuban (which I got for free) has been doing great so far. Thinking of getting an octacore bulldozer some time in the next year. Incomparable to i7, but is cheaper and runs the games I need. I hope this thread doesn't turn into AMD vs Intel =(

Fire fire? Like, open flames fire? i think when I was young, I released "magic smoke" now and then, even managed to chip a corner off a CPU (pre-heat-spreader days, it still worked!), but never had a fire-fire.

Until my current one, I always went AMD, mainly because I'm cheap. My problems with AMD in the past were mainly due to poorly designed motherboards that never seemed to run on-spec with certain hardware configs. For the last one, I switched to Intel because I noticed with a quad-core, the load isn't evenly distributed and so it gets bottle-necked on a single core. I figured the problem would get worse with relatively slower but more cores (AMD's 8-core chips). I can imagine for some applications, more cores would be better.

(Not that Intel-based motherboards are flawless. I have a Z77 based mobo that twice a week or so would completely shut-down. No BSOD, nothing, just off. The mobo still has power (LED lit) but it won't turn on unless I turn off the PSU, wait for the mobo caps to drain, and then turn it back on. I even tried a different power supply and it didn't help. I tried turning down the CPU and ram clock ratios and it didn't help. I monitored temperatures and they're low. Updating the BIOS didn't help, although it did almost made me lose my RAID0 contents. It does it whether under-load or idle. The computer is fed from a UPS that has plenty of capacity left. Free beer for anyone with good suggestions that leads to a solution!)

[Sivart444]

Fire fire? Like, open flames fire? i think when I was young, I released "magic smoke" now and then, even managed to chip a corner off a CPU (pre-heat-spreader days, it still worked!), but never had a fire-fire.

Until my current one, I always went AMD, mainly because I'm cheap. My problems with AMD in the past were mainly due to poorly designed motherboards that never seemed to run on-spec with certain hardware configs. For the last one, I switched to Intel because I noticed with a quad-core, the load isn't evenly distributed and so it gets bottle-necked on a single core. I figured the problem would get worse with relatively slower but more cores (AMD's 8-core chips). I can imagine for some applications, more cores would be better.

(Not that Intel-based motherboards are flawless. I have a Z77 based mobo that twice a week or so would completely shut-down. No BSOD, nothing, just off. The mobo still has power (LED lit) but it won't turn on unless I turn off the PSU, wait for the mobo caps to drain, and then turn it back on. I even tried a different power supply and it didn't help. I tried turning down the CPU and ram clock ratios and it didn't help. I monitored temperatures and they're low. Updating the BIOS didn't help, although it did almost made me lose my RAID0 contents. It does it whether under-load or idle. The computer is fed from a UPS that has plenty of capacity left. Free beer for anyone with good suggestions that leads to a solution!)


The only thing that comes to my mind is a faulty cap. I cant think of any other reason that you would be having 'random' poweroffs under different loads. Sounds like you checked everything else.

[Sivart444]

Turn windows firewall off...it's a royal bitch with SQL server. Also check the configuration manager to ensure tcp is enabled (not just named pipes)...also if you're on a domain sometimes you need the fully qualified name (more so when you are dealing with multiple networks, vlans, etc).
I assume you can resolve the ip from the dns name? and you aren't using named instances?

All correct. Appears we had an issue with round robin, seems to be functioning properly now for the most part. Just trying to figure out how to have the users active profiles move between the systems now.

[shift8]

yeaahh buddyy AMD FX-8350 FTW :) damn intel cpus are pricey so AMD all the way. paired mine with a Radeon 7870 :) whole system for under $1k but only 8gb ram lol 32GB is crazzyy

Oh ya those AMD FX chips are nuts :) So much cheaper, and the MB ends up cheaper too. The 32GB was for a server I was building to run Openstack on for work, so I needed the RAM for virtual machines :)

[shift8]

I wouldn't know what I need, I only know how to use computers :P

I could help with that part too :) Just state the budget when you get that far.

[mParsonz]

DIY.. Especially with apprenticing to become a mechanic, I just will never be able to justify paying someone else to do anything for me, even if it takes me 10x longer.. I could NEVER pay someone to fix my car now lmao.
Me and my dad build computers quite often, for friends and family. Intel alllll the way. :) Don't do much of the intense gaming computers, no 32gb of ram crap LOL, madness