Issue should be resolved now per Cool Ideas. Mine seems to be.
2 Likes
Thanks for the replies guys. Seems sorted here as well now.
But, for future reference…
Is there any significant downside to changing your routers DNS settings? Is it worth just plugging in the Google DNS numbers and leaving it set to that?
1 Like
No downside that I’m aware of. I’ve found that Cloudflare and Google seem faster than my ISPs DNS. So I hardcoded 1.1.1.1 as my primary and 8.8.8.8 as my secondary.
1 Like
Change ISP, if they can’t deal with a fucking DDoS attack they’re incompetent.
3 Likes
No, in fact I recommend it
1 Like
SO that is what is going on, I couldnt figure it out either - now the question is how do I do what you suggest
I would change but the drama attached to changing in this household is not worth it
2 Likes
Off-season advice needed if anyone is around with any ideas…
Our guests from Zim are looking for a reasonably priced office pc setup that will allow them to run dual monitors (extended desktops, not duplicated). The machine will be used for general office work - nothing overly cpu intensive.
With the extreme lack of IT support and the heavy import duties on IT products in Zim, they’re wanting something that is reliable and will work for them for a good couple of years, and that is as plug-and-play as possible, not components.
I have no idea where to even start looking for a solution for them. Are there even options with onboard graphics that have two video outputs? Or is something with a dedicated graphics card the only option here? Would a budget “gaming” rig actually be a possible solution?
2 Likes
Lots (most that I know of) of motherboards have VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs, and can easily do 3 monitors. If you’re going with an Intel chip, just make sure the CPU has the graphics on board, some don’t and the motherboard outputs will be useless.
3 Likes
I know Wootware and Computersonly has a service for prebuild.
3 Likes
Buy a Dell. There’s 3rd party support for dell in Zim
2 Likes
Have a new tech support issue that’s brewing - Telkom are pulling the copper cable infrastructure in our area in the next couple of months, taking our analog landlines with them. They’re transitioning the system over to 4G-based devices, which is where the problem is. My house and (more importantly at this stage) the wife’s business office are in a cellular dead spot. We barely are able to manage 3G signal strengths, and then only on good days.
Despite me telling them all this, a Telkom/OpenServe tech was here on Wednesday with a bunch of meters to test signal strength for himself. He was suitably amazed at just how bad it is in the house, and when he saw that it’s even worse in the office he laughed nervously. There was a marginal improvement when he tested using one of their booster antennas, but still not enough to guarantee a strong enough signal.
So where we are now is an acceptance that we’ll probably have to switch to a VOIP connection using the fibre network. I know I can have one line and the Telkom number ported to a VOIP provider so that should be doable. The problem is that we need access to 3 separate lines (or only the 2 business lines if need be - I can live without the home line).
My research so far seems to suggest that the only way to do this is through something called a VOIP SIP Trunk system. All the acronyms started giving me a headache, so I gave up and came here to ask:
- Does anyone have experience with VOIP SIP Trunk systems?
- If you have, any service providers you have experience with?
- Any alternative suggestions to help solve my issues? (my telephone line issues I mean!)
Grazie in advance!
2 Likes
Do you want 1 line with the option to transfer the call elsewhere and then receive another call?
We use Voys at our office for VOIP. We only have 1 line and 3 extensions. And currently, we pay R1000 per 2 or 3 months for all the calls and line subscriptions. Only thing we have noticed is the yealink phones needs to be setup properly or there will be issues.
1 Like
Thanks Wyz! We’ll ideally need it to work for 3 different incoming numbers. Or at very least just the 2 business numbers. They’ve both been used for 12 years with her clients and on all her marketing materials. She could probably get away with 2 handsets per line so that both lines could be used at the same time at different desks.
If you get a call and send it to one of your extensions does that free up the incoming line for a new call? i.e. can there be three different calls happening on your three extensions at the same time?
So far we don’t handle that many calls to be honest, but yes thus far we can have 2 people on extensions and I will receive a call. Just get the company to port the numbers for the business and remember to cancel with telkom. Business lines cancels easily - voys did that for us. We were under the impression they cancel the land lines for you - but they only do business numbers not landlines, we are struggling to cancel the home landline.
We also have the home number that rings on my extension, but it just flashes and I ignore it and our switchboard handles that as another extension. So we just have 1 switchboard for office and home and they are 2 different locations.
1 Like
We got a basic VOIP system installed at our Church office, replacing the 2 telkom landlines we had previously. We were able to keep the 2 telkom numbers and they run off of one VOIP base station. We’ve kept it pretty simple in terms of use but I’m pretty sure there is the capacity to have automatic switching to the free line etc.
This all works on our Fibre line. I’ll send you the name of the company that set it up for us, they should be able to find a solution that will work for you.
2 Likes
Thanks Darth - sounds like that’s exactly what we need. Appreciate the insight.
1 Like
Anyone have any experience with Synology NAS units? I’m looking at a cheap single drive unit
Basically, I’m mostly interested in regular security updates and what their EOL is like. From what I can tell, all their DSM units share an O/S, kind of like RouterOS, so I’m thinking this might meet my needs…
1 Like
What are you using it for? How do you upgrade? Is it overkill (would a simple external hdd suffice)? Is it actually not sufficient (ie. your lying to yourself)? Do you know how to fix problems when something goes wrong? Have you looked for any problems related to Synology, to get an idea of what issues there actually are currently? Do you want an external closed os on your network, doing unknown things? Can your roll your own solution? Do you care? Is it worth it financially? Educationally? Las much?
Just some questions to ask yourself before deciding. Questions I ask myself before my retail therapy tick kicks in.
2 Likes
Thanks. I need to provide a couple options. There was a split with the organization I volunteer with so one half is probably losing access to the Active Directory and File servers.
There’s only 5 or 6 PCs. I’m hoping they’ll go with a linux server to do everything, but an out of the box NAS is one option I need to present.
1 Like
Single drive is NOT worth it in the long run. However the Synology brand is excellent for SOHO use
2 Likes