newly hired self taught IT

So I was recently hired for a small family company who had no tech on site and needed someone to fix every day problems (printer won't print) (monitor won't turn on) stupid stuff like that. However, they also expect me to be able to learn the ropes and depend on me for backup of a server, and to be able to find an answer if something does go down. Now, I am 33 years old and have worked with computers casually myself for fun and to modify things, like an xbox or the odd electronic. So although friends and family look at me like I'm some kind of genius this is not the case! However, I do enjoy it, and I can grasp ideas and the "WHY" of computers easier than most average users (not saying much, I know.) so I think if I had some advice and was pointed in the right direction it would be extremely helpful.



The first thing I did when I started about a month ago was to implement daily scans using virus software intended for a network, there was nothing originally. They had been hit with ransomware twice before and paid the criminals once. And lost God knows how much money, both times. So that was a no brainer for the first step when I arrived. There was several viruses in the system that were found and I'm fairly confident were completely weeded out. Then I have been backing up their system....uploaded to external HD and also a cloud server. I' m still trying to work out "idrive" to figure out how to not upload 3tb every week when its time to backup again. however, my biggest concern is there is no VPN, the boss has been using teamviewer to access network from home. I know this is not good, and I'd like to know the best first few things to do to get up and running more securely. They have a Windows Server 2019 setup that i have been playing with very carefully to try to learn about what I'm looking at and how to find things that may be out of the ordinary day to day. The network is very half-assed and a (possibly soon to be disgruntled) IT employee has remote access to active directory from anywhere. No one seems to believe this could possibly become a problem in the future, but I know better. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated! I've also bought some books that I'll attach so you guys can check out and make reccomendations on where to start or what I'm missing. I'm probably deep in over my head, but it's ok I know that already, and I know that they're better off than they were when no one cared, or had ANY CLUE WHATSOEVER what was going on. Thanks!

This will be a good learning opportunity, and I think you have the right attitude.

The one thing I would do, though, is come up with a system to protect yourself from legal liability.

Carefully document every change that you make, and the rationale.

If you have any lawyer friends, seek their advice.

 

You are thinking right that a full backup of that size over a network is a problem.

iDrive has an interface that is too simple for me. Their videos say that an Exchange Server backup, for example, after the first backup is an incremental backup. But, I don't see anywhere in their Settings where we can specify an incremental backup. I'm just supposed to trust that this happens.

Learn about backups, and what can go wrong when you restore from incremental backups.

 

If you have the time to read full certification guides, that is great.

But there are heuristics and shortcuts that you can take in the short-term, so that you can find and process the most relevant information efficiently.

Get a copy of "Windows Server 2019 Inside Out"

Focus on networking services, backup and storage, and Active Directory. From what you have told us about the environment so far, you can probably put off discussion of Azure, orchestration, VM's, etc. for now. Come back to that advanced material another time.

A good CompTIA Network+ book is good, but focus on the troubleshooting aspects for now. You can review non-relevant material later.

I'm a big fan of the cert guides, even if I am not such a fan of the certs themselves - they give you a nice overview (but they also always have their limits. I can recommend three good books that cover Windows 10 from different angles, but I guarantee that not a single answer to a specific customer question here on BC can be found in any of those guides - they are "guides").

 

When a networking problem arises, you can use an OSI model approach - bottom-up (mostly) or top-down (rarely). Unless you have a strong reason to suspect some specific problem - then you can go with a "most likely" approach (you will get better at this over time).

Determine the scope of the problem - is just one workstation down, or is the entire network down for everyone.

Start with checking physical connections.

Use the 5 pings of troubleshooting, as appropriate.

 

Look at your home router settings, and see what options are there. Just observe - don't change for now.

Then look at the business's networking equipment - just observe, don't change.

 

Spend time organizing your work, so that you can save time later.

Come up with an inventory system: inventory all hardware and software running on the server. Inventory all equipment. For a very small business, an Excel spreadsheet, properly stored and protected, is a good start until you come up with a better inventory tool.

A business of a certain size can afford the PC-Doctor repair kit, ServiceNow, Solarwinds, and other fancy tools.

A very small business - not so much. Check out the free offerings from SpiceWorks - not the specific product on this specific page, but other network monitoring, inventory, and ticket software that they offer: https://www.spiceworks.com/free-network-monitoring-management-software/

If the business is small enough, you may not have the time or resources to do a full ticketing system - but have some sort of system and some sort of documentation.

 

Create some kind of test environment, however informal.

 

Since they are asking you to work on servers - think once. Think again. Then after you've thought about it twice, think again before making any change.

A simple driver change on a workstation is fairly trivial. On a server, even a driver change becomes non-trivial.

Plan how you want to manage Windows Updates.

For every change you consider, search the forums for potential problems associated with that change.

 

Over time, you will learn to become more persuasive when requesting changes, tools, etc. from your employers.

I tend to be as dramatic as possible about it, but you will find your own approach: "So, you're telling me that you don't care if you lose all of your data tomorrow? Is that what you're telling me?" :-)

Try to pitch the value of redundancy: redundant network connections, redundant servers, redundant hard drives, redundant power supplies - redundant everything. They may groan at the cost, but it helps ensure that they can carry on in the case of an outage.

 

If you wait until you "know everything," you will get old before you get anything done. You are starting at a relatively smaller and relatively safer scale. But you will have more responsibility, and you will be performing multiple roles - sys admin, network admin, etc.

 

Even good decisions will have consequences. I am always torn on this issue, but: for home users, I recommend no third-party anti-virus. For business users, I must give them "something" to cover my butt.  But even reputable antimalware products have periodic f-ups. I will never forget that we were running Webroot just fine for years. Then, one day, Webroot decided that Oracle sql databases were malware, and many businesses immediately lost access to their data.

 

Expect the best, but prepare for the worst - always.

 

Good luck!

Edited by cknoettg, 18 August 2020 - 08:44 PM.

Get everyone on standard user accounts, odds are they all have full Administrative rights to the computer they use.  This needs to be backed up by management.  If they need admin rights create a second admin account that doesn't have access to their e-mail (this stops most people from using the admin account full time).

 

Certifications are foundations, not real world.  Every Microsoft exam question should start, "In a perfect Microsoft world..."

 

Standardize on hardware if at all possible.  NEVER build for a work environment.  Use computer imaging software, make a good base image for the different computer models you have to support.  If a machine starts acting up, spend 30 minutes and then re-image.

 

All virus scans should be real time, daily scans (unless they are run on off hours) are overkill.  Monthly scans should be fine.  Once a machine has been infected you can no longer trust anything from that machine, back up data and re-image.

 

If the boss is the only one connecting to a computer remotely VPN is overkill and TeamViewer should be fine.  If more people are connecting remotely then investing in a VPN solution is a good idea.