FRUSTRATION when other Technical People Don't Give a :@&*

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Mr_K (MMM_at_NNN.COM)
Date: 12/02/04 

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 08:15:11 -0000

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can shed some light on a really weird situation
I have found myself in.

Our company has taken over the maintenance contract for a server and a few
PC's, but the server has been done in such a way that all the people who
have looked at it, including me, are scratching our heads and all saying
"I've never seen this before", and then walking away trying to not get too
involved in it!

Things have come to a head where there are issues to be dealt with and I am
dumped right in the middle of trying to sort things out.. so see what you
make of this....

The server is a reasonable spec P4 and it had Small Business Server 2000
media with it....
When you examine the system, you find that the thing has not been installed
in a normal way.....
The system appears to be running as a peer to peer network, no domain,
active directory etc has been set up.
Then to make things even weirder, it looks like Terminal server has been
configured in some way (Application Mode), and the 90 days grace period has
expired, but there is no way to check licences, nor are there ANY of the
small business server 2000 tools installed.
I am unable to access any of the network settings, even though I'm in under
full admin rights, and the correct account... the whole setup appears to be
a shambles...

I was debating changing the Terminal server mode from Application mode to
Administrator mode, but I am unsure of the benefits of doing this, plus, I
don't want to do anything that may alter the settings of their custom
software etc that is installed on this server.

My gut feeling is that the easiest way forward here would be to just install
a new server and configure the thing correctly for them. Introduce email
under exchange (they have individual pop3 accounts on each pc) and get
everything al organised centrally for backup etc.... but, I'd appreciate
some feedback on any way I could get the current system sorted out better
before I think of going down this route.

In telephoning the people who supplied the server (I wont give their name
here because I ain't as ignorant as they are) their attitude was "I didn't
configure or install this, the guy who did, the manager is not in." When
trying to find out when he would be in, or if he had a mobile number etc,
the replies turned into a basic statement saying "Piss off we are not
interested".

I have to say that in the 20 plus years I have worked in the IT field, my
attitude has always been to help other people in the same profession, no
matter what the circumstances. We ALL need help at some point, yet, these
sort of people never really seem to grasp this idea.. they just want the
money and then sod all else.

Any help or feedback would be very much appreciated.

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