eno2001 - you can't be serious! Consumer-grade hardware to run an enterprise? It's obvious you never had to support an enterprise. Yeah, you could do what you're suggesting, and then spend the rest of your days fixing (replacing) downed hardware, chasing security holes and dealing with the user complaints.
I work at a private college where the IT department is so inept, that people now come to me to get things accomplished (I have an extensive IT background), even though I don't work in the IT dept, and don't have administrative access to the network. My department just put up our own servers that I control, because it took the IT dept 6 months to create a share on the network for us (!), and then it was only 2 gigs... Then we found out that they only do back-ups once a month (!!), when they remember. In all fairness, I should mention that the starting pay for IT workers here is $9US/hr. You get what you pay for...
I have to agree about reconsidering getting in to this. I used to do this on the side and made a fair amount of money at it. Then I got the client from hell. She was an aquaintance of my wife's and seemed to think that entitled her to a host of "extras." I went to her house and fixed the problems (viruses, spyware, replaced the frayed cable going to the cable modem, etc.). I also cleared the cache & deleted all of the cookies (she said she didn't login to any websites and didn't use the internet for anything but email anyway). She didn't have the money to pay me and said that she would give it to my wife the next day.
I barely made it home and the phone is ringing - it's her... "You lost all of my email! I'm not paying you unless you get it back." Another trip to her house. I found the missing email (which I never touched to begin with) in her Deleted Items folder. I patiently explained that she had deleted it, and that I hadn't even opened her email client (she was right there during the entire initial process). Restored it. Her husband came home during this, so I asked for payment. He paid me.
I barely walked in the door at home and the phone is ringing again - it's her... "I knew we shouldn't have paid you! This f--king computer is doing the same things again! If you don't come & fix it right, I'm gonna sue you!" Yet another trip out to the house. I looked at the cookies, and there was a million of them from every imaginable porn site on the web. It seems that hubby has a hobby... I pulled him aside and suggested that he try to restrain himself. I also told him that I would be back the next day (Saturday) to fix it again, but only if the wife wasn't home, and only if he paid me right then and there. He did, she wasn't and I did.
For the next 3 months, every time the slightest thing went wrong, she was on the phone, screaming threats at me (or my wife). I finally told her that I am no longer in that business. And I'm not.
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eno2001 - you can't be serious! Consumer-grade hardware to run an enterprise? It's obvious you never had to support an enterprise. Yeah, you could do what you're suggesting, and then spend the rest of your days fixing (replacing) downed hardware, chasing security holes and dealing with the user complaints.
I work at a private college where the IT department is so inept, that people now come to me to get things accomplished (I have an extensive IT background), even though I don't work in the IT dept, and don't have administrative access to the network. My department just put up our own servers that I control, because it took the IT dept 6 months to create a share on the network for us (!), and then it was only 2 gigs... Then we found out that they only do back-ups once a month (!!), when they remember. In all fairness, I should mention that the starting pay for IT workers here is $9US/hr. You get what you pay for...
I have to agree about reconsidering getting in to this. I used to do this on the side and made a fair amount of money at it. Then I got the client from hell. She was an aquaintance of my wife's and seemed to think that entitled her to a host of "extras." I went to her house and fixed the problems (viruses, spyware, replaced the frayed cable going to the cable modem, etc.). I also cleared the cache & deleted all of the cookies (she said she didn't login to any websites and didn't use the internet for anything but email anyway). She didn't have the money to pay me and said that she would give it to my wife the next day.
I barely made it home and the phone is ringing - it's her... "You lost all of my email! I'm not paying you unless you get it back." Another trip to her house. I found the missing email (which I never touched to begin with) in her Deleted Items folder. I patiently explained that she had deleted it, and that I hadn't even opened her email client (she was right there during the entire initial process). Restored it. Her husband came home during this, so I asked for payment. He paid me.
I barely walked in the door at home and the phone is ringing again - it's her... "I knew we shouldn't have paid you! This f--king computer is doing the same things again! If you don't come & fix it right, I'm gonna sue you!" Yet another trip out to the house. I looked at the cookies, and there was a million of them from every imaginable porn site on the web. It seems that hubby has a hobby... I pulled him aside and suggested that he try to restrain himself. I also told him that I would be back the next day (Saturday) to fix it again, but only if the wife wasn't home, and only if he paid me right then and there. He did, she wasn't and I did.
For the next 3 months, every time the slightest thing went wrong, she was on the phone, screaming threats at me (or my wife). I finally told her that I am no longer in that business. And I'm not.