Most Vendors Disappoint Me
Most of the time companies I call disappoint me. Whether that is a garage door installer or a car repair company, most don’t seem to have their ducks in order. Recently I was very impressed with the support I received from an IT company, Pro-TechIT. They are an IT company I can trust
Our Studio Network Configuration
I’ve built our Aardvark Video studio network with editing and administration computers connected, three Network Attached Storage devices, PTZ cameras, routers, network switches located throughout the room, archival storage hard drive towers, and more. We also have Century Link fiber gigabyte internet service (900MB/s upload/download speed) and Cox Gigablast as a backup if the primary goes down and for non-business house needs.
The system allows any computer to access files from other computers and the network-attached storage devices.
-We use the NAS devices to hold files on current projects that we need to share between computers.
-We use Archival Storage for all the files in a project once we are finished with the project
To me, it was never too difficult to build and maintain except for one vexing problem. For archival storage of all the files associated with projects, I have 15-8TB hard drives in towers attached to one server computer. I add to these hard drives as we do more projects by putting them first on external drives that I then install into the towers. For really important projects with footage that we need to use again, I also double backup files on another set of drives.
The Problem
Though I can access computers and NAS devices from any of our network computers, I was never able to access these towers and if I need a file from them, I had to copy them physically. This was cumbersome. I suspected the answer was simple but for years, couldn’t solve it. Finally, I swallowed my stupid pride and admitted I needed help from an expert and got it from Pro-Tech IT
The Solution
I have a friend, Jeff Helvin who I’ve known for years and who runs a Webmaster company. I thought that he would be a good source for a reliable IT company and it worked out great. He sent me to Michael Marcuse at Pro-Tech IT and he was able to solve my problem in minutes.
It was a simple solution. The name of my server is “Mac Server” which you see when you go into the computer’s credentials. For years, I’ve been trying to find it on the network by typing in MacServer or the IP address which both got me to a dead end because I couldn’t log into that IP. Michael saw this error in my methodology – PROBLEM SOLVED. Now we can access any file from any of the computers on the network and I found an IT person I would trust and recommend.
