Need some advice on learning networking

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I've been studying up on One Drive and I see why Folder Redirect is considered antiquated technology. Besides the ability to access files and folders from anywhere, One Drive has features such as collaboration and even version history. Version history basically allows you to go back to a previous version of a document before any editing was done.

There's also things like safe sharing where a password is required. You can also set an expiration date for the share.


I'm just scratching the surface. More to come....

[rthonpm]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Collaboration alone is worth it, as well as the ability to keep servers for more important data that shouldn't leave the company boundary.

Between SharePoint Online and OneDrive, most of the file servers I install are for large data sets: medical imaging, gene sequencing, raw video files, blueprints, and other types of data that are difficult or impractical to store online.

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Collaboration alone is worth it, as well as the ability to keep servers for more important data that shouldn't leave the company boundary.

Between SharePoint Online and OneDrive, most of the file servers I install are for large data sets: medical imaging, gene sequencing, raw video files, blueprints, and other types of data that are difficult or impractical to store online.

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At the end of the day, this is about solving problems or addressing a need. There's no doubt that One Drive is the much better solution compared to Folder Redirect.

I don't consider learning Folder Redirect a total waste because it could be useful somewhere down the line. I also learned that, by default, documents and other information is stored under "user profile".

To anyone reading this thread, I hope y'all understand how rthonpm is saving me from wasting time. He's greatly decreasing the learning curve.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I wouldn't say that One Drive is overly complicated but you do need to learn some things. For starters, by default "File on Demand" was selected on my One Drive account and this had me scratching my head until I figured it out.

"File on Demand" is great if you don't have much disk space. File on Demands will only sync files on the cloud with your PC/device if you open the file. That's great if you're always online but any file that has never been opened will be unavailable if you're offline. I unchecked Files on Demand and now all my files and folders are automatically synced.


I could bore you guys by talking about everything you can do with One Drive but I figure if you want to know that you'll learn it on your own. I will leave you with this:

Collaboration is a key feature of One Drive. In fact, I'm about to schedule a training session with one of my clients.

[rthonpm]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

You can also right click on a file or folder to have it always on your device.

The biggest collaboration tool is the ability to have multiple people access and edit Office files at the same time. Instead of emailing multiple copies of a spreadsheet to collect information, send a OneDrive link and let everyone fill in their specific info, even at the same time.

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

It's one thing to read about what One Drive will do, it's yet another to experience it. I've spent time today syncing a couple of PC's and my laptop to One Drive.

I also tested shared documents with different users. It's very tight. I'm impressed. You can include as many users as you want and grant various levels of access. Also, they will receive an email notification when a document is shared with them and they can open it from the email. If that email gets deleted...no big deal. They can go to onedrive.com and see all of their shared files and folders.


It's head and shoulders above sharing a document on a physical server.

[rthonpm]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Like I said, I'm really only doing file servers for large files or highly sensitive data (e.g. proprietary information like blueprints or design files). I've gotten completely out of the personal network drive business thanks to this, and it also allows most of my customers a little bit of extra security, as well as speeding up the new machine process since it's just a matter of moving the folders from the local machine to using OneDrive and pulling down files.

For business Microsoft 365 customers (which is so ridiculously cheap that everyone should at least investigate it) there are additional contractual riders available, such as HIPAA, that can help to cover you if you need to adhere to any kind of compliance regulations.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Like I said, I'm really only doing file servers for large files or highly sensitive data (e.g. proprietary information like blueprints or design files). I've gotten completely out of the personal network drive business thanks to this, and it also allows most of my customers a little bit of extra security, as well as speeding up the new machine process since it's just a matter of moving the folders from the local machine to using OneDrive and pulling down files.

For business Microsoft 365 customers (which is so ridiculously cheap that everyone should at least investigate it) there are additional contractual riders available, such as HIPAA, that can help to cover you if you need to adhere to any kind of compliance regulations.

Over the past couple of days, I asked some of my customers if they're using One Drive and they all said no. I asked if they knew what it did and they didn't know. I already have an appointment with one of my clients to train them on One Drive. Between Windows Server, SharePoint, and OneDrive, there's a lot of opportunity to help out the customer. They just need someone to make them aware of what they're missing out on.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Just a quick comment. It's been a few day since I started using One Drive. It takes a little getting used to. I was never a big "Desktop" user but I did have a few things there for convenience.

With One Drive, I have very little on my Desktop and instead, I mostly use File Explorer/Quick Access. It's clean and simple.


Is anyone else doing this?

[rthonpm]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

If you use OneDrive's known folder redirection, there's no real change needed: your Documents are still in your Documents folder, your Photos are still in the Pictures folder, and your desktop files are still on your desktop. The only difference is where those files live in your local profile, and the fact that they're synched to also be available online.

Many of our customers probably don't even realise that they're using it because of how transparent it is.

That said, I do have shortcuts in Quick Access to specific folders that live in OneDrive, like my server docs, or service manuals.

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

If you use OneDrive's known folder redirection, there's no real change needed: your Documents are still in your Documents folder, your Photos are still in the Pictures folder, and your desktop files are still on your desktop. The only difference is where those files live in your local profile, and the fact that they're synched to also be available online.

Many of our customers probably don't even realise that they're using it because of how transparent it is.

That said, I do have shortcuts in Quick Access to specific folders that live in OneDrive, like my server docs, or service manuals.

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Somehow I wasn't on the same page but I am now. My One Drive account is now set up for Folder Redirection and it works exactly like it did in Server 2019 except now it's being redirected to One Drive. What this means is that no matter what PC I log in on that my data/files/folders will travel with me.

It's better than Folder Redirect on Server 2019. A lot better. It's a game changer, really.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I want to follow up on One Drive. There are 2 different One Drive accounts - Personal and Business.

I had the Personal Family Plan which includes 1TB of data for 6 different users...if I remember correctly. What it didn't have was SharePoint and Teams. I wanted to have both of those because I want to be able to self-train here at the office. I'm familiar with both because I set them up for a client.

SharePoint is basically a cloud based File Server that is accessible anytime, anywhere. I have one of my clients using SharePoint because they have a couple of remote offices that need access to data that was stored only on their 2019 server at the main building. Thanks to rthonpm's suggestion, I moved that data off the physical server and on to SharePoint. It's such a great asset and you can't beat the price and all the features that come with it.


Last night I purchased the Business Plan but kept getting an error code: 0x8004deef.

I googled the error code and tried every suggestion with no success. This went on for hours. I was at my wit's end when I finally looked at the license and saw that it wasn't applied. Very frustrating.


I'm rambling here so let me close by saying this:


Microsoft 365 is a must if you work in the Server World. It's just phenomenal. I have moved all of my service manuals and other important information to One Drive and all the folders are Redirected. And that means that when I log on my PC, laptop or phone, all my information is the same. That solves a lot of problems.


Once again, thanks to rthonpm.

[rthonpm]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Make sure your customers also know the difference. There is a very different protection method and features available for business customers.

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

A couple of weeks back rthonpm introduced me to PDQ Deploy and PDQ Inventory.



I played around with them briefly and saw that they could be a powerful tool. The plan was to loop back around to them later and learn how to build my own packages.

I started that process today.


First, I want to thank rthonpm again for his help. To me, knowlegdge is better than money. When money is spent, it's gone forever. I'll always have the knowledge that I picked up from rthonpm. So, thanks for your help and I mean that.


I'm taking this in baby steps but here's what I learned today:

- I need to use PDQ Deploy in tandem with PDQ Inventory. It seems to work better that way for me.

- MSI files are a slam dunk and I've deployed many without a problem. Today, I deployed an .EXE file and there was a couple of added steps but it did work. These were simple installs, I plan to keep expanding my knowledge and work up to harder installs.

It's clear to me that I need to learn PDQ because how in the hell would I go around to 100 PC's and install all the programs needed? Wouldn't be feasible.

[rthonpm]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Truth be told, I only have one customer using Inventory. The rest just pull their machines from AD and create custom deployment groups in Deploy. They generally have different software going to different machines.

Exe files are a little tough, one thing you can try is to run the exe from command line with the flag /? This will give you any additional flags it supports. Often a search online will also give you the silent install options for many applications.

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