I didn't think of any type of posting of this personal topic til today when @SpacemanSpiff brought up a webpage for security installers by Sean Nelson.
Grab a coke and some popcorn. As those that know me here, I talk/explain alot as I think a backstory colors the upcoming questions I have. I do not visit many webpages often (well, single dating sites of course!)....IPCT and LumberJocks (which is home to my hobby woodworking) are about it. I assume, IPCT members have more technical thoughts than wood turners
Preface:
started as a cabling tech back in 1997. The goto cable back then was Cat5e and 62.5 multimode fiber. My first job was with a crew of 30 guys wiring one of the 4 story Cisco lab buildings around the Boston area. 18,000 Cat5e drops. I learned really fast how to terminate and pull cable. I soon moved to Nevada and was picked up by a smaller scale company, Sierra Telephone System that had 10 techs. Their goto cash cow was being a Toshiba business telephone system dealer with cabling being an after thought but still necessary (much much more profit in a phone system than cabling). I eventually learned how to be a Toshiba phone tech as well (with some minor programming of various systems like Partner and Nortel). I'm that type of guy that when I watch today's movies...one of the first things I look for to know the quality of the movie is to look at what phones are sitting on the office desks Being a super awesome dude, I survive the layoffs that came with the 2008 financial crash. Now the company is down to 2 techs: me as cabling tech that can also do phones, another guy who primary is phones but helps with cabling...and 1 boss man. We limp and survive til 2012 when bossman wants to retire and sell company. Everyone thought I would become boss (the other active tech and previous techs that still stayed in touch). But at that time, my credit score at the age of a life of immaturity and partying at 38, I think, sure felt like negative 900 would not allow me that kind of money to buy company. New bossman who already owned a Data-Tech Communications, a dedicated cabling-only business, purchased my company of Sierra Telephone Systems. He kept both companies intact (one was a C-corp, other was a S-corp), mainly for tax purposes. That meant, we had 2 different webpages, 2 different email & domains. He also had a crew of 2 dedicated cabling techs so I became a floater....the do-it-all super human tech. So we had bossman, 2 cabling techs, 1 phone tech, and me doing it all. To top it off, I started doing the 3rd party tickets. Such as going to Home Depot on behalf of Home Depot Corporate to do stuff I never done before: install router, switches, WAPs, IP cameras and learning all about PUTTY and console SSH access. That stuff came naturally to me so I was good at it to the point where I began to tell the IT help desk what was wrong and how to fix it (mind you...I am not a Cisco console programmer as that's waaaay too advanced).
2017, Toshiba decided to end their business telephony so that cash cow dried up. Cabling became our cash cow with support for Toshiba still in play. If someone wants a new phone sytsem, we play with the Grandstream IP phone sytsem (which I found to be a great business phone system).
Up comes 2022. We have 1 really excellent cable tech, myself doing it all, and 1 phone tech. Well, back in August, the really excellent cable tech had a fatal accident over the weekend. It is now down to the 72 year old bossman, 65 year old phone tech, and 53 year old me. We had a hiring ad in craigslist with maybe 1 applicant every 3 months so it was impossible to hire anyone (this was at the tail-end of COVID). Bossman comes to me and says he wants to retire. Either I find a way to buy from him (at a HUGE price discount than what he would post on some business broker page) or he is closing the doors at the end of the year and I have to end up flipping hamburgers at McDonalds. Through magic and voodoo, I bought the company.
However, it was a really bad time. Our 3 biggest clients needed large projects done within a short time frame so I had to work after hours & weekends for the last 2 months. This would of been a difficult challenge for 3 wiring techs. I only had myself. Well, things are a tad calmer now for me to think as President (our company is a.... C-corp so there HAS to be a board). Which now leads me up to today and future thinkings...
1.) my email address is still with the Sierra Telephone Systems domain such as "xxxxxxxx@sierratelephonesystems.com". Old bossman (he still is presently employed due to his superior knowledge of Quicken, invoices, knowing customers by first names, etc) has his email with DataTech domain such as "xxxxxxx@datatechcom.com". I am unsure how to combine both email domains but use DataTech as primary and still receieve odd ball Sierra Telephone Systems email. As much as cabling and router/switch/ip camera experience I have, never really dabbled with email & website stuff. But did figure out how to add my own personal Gmail and STS to my Outlook so that is something I need to contact Integra to create my own DTC email address. And that started me thinking of webpage hosting price tags:
2a.) I'll share both links for folks to see how...delapitated both of these webpages are. www.sierratelephonesystems.com and www.datatechcomm.com . STS is hosted by Media Temple at $29 per month. DTC is hosted by our old Integra ISP at $120 per month. I am unsure of the webpage hosting + email hosting part. Since Media Temple hosts my STS internet webpage, does that mean they also host my email? If that is the case, great. I need to move DTC internet webpage and email from spendy Integra over to the cheaper Media Temple. Unsure how to do that or who do I call first. I know Charter Spectrum does this kind of hosting stuff too. Maybe they are cheaper out of all 3. They are our current internet provider. I am however skittish to tie myself to a provider incase I decide to move on to a different one later on, though. Who knows...AT&T could come in with a fiber connection and they become my ISP.
2b.) is it true....default price tag of paying someone to build a new webpage starts around $4,000-$5,000 ? My only experience is 20 years ago with Frontpage 2000 program
3.) calling. hmm...which then leads me to smartphone business usage. I used to use a Google Pixel 3 for years and years. Upgrade to a Pixel 4 due to the VPN always on bug (that never stayed on). The Pixel 4 was the best smartphone I've ever had....kinda like Windows XP as few bugs and it did I needed it to do, except for the crappy battery time. Looking for upgrade, I took a look at what's out there. Wow...everything is as spendy as first month of rent. I saw the Samsung Fold 4 (yep, a folding phone) and thought....I want that. A phone that turns into a tablet....very handy for business purposes! Til I saw the $1800 price tag. Was about pull trigger on Samsung S22+ til I saw a Google Fi cellular plan that included 60% off Samsung phones as long as I stayed on Google Fi for 120 days. So yep, that $1800 phone came to $800 and I bought it. Sure is nice to have a battery last 5-6 days. After 120 days of Google Fi, I'll swap back to Spectrum Charter mobile plans (the cheapest I've found). Also, I'll never go Iphone... I just can't. To me, that is like being tied to Ring camera system. Locked in the ecosystem with highly restrictive proprietary way of things. And yep....VPN stays always on now for my Blue Iris/UI3 purposes To the workers/business owners out there....what do you find that you love for apps? I actually tried "JOBBER" scheduling app (at $49 per month per user). Not too shabby and after the trial period, may retain it even though has some limitations. I know there will be not that many replies out there for this app discussion but eh....
4.) side note. taxes! business taxes! just wanted to ask a simple question. Old bossman said good idea to purchase a new/used vehicle every 5 years for the depreciation aspect. I have no idea what or why. But he has superior mad skillz when it comes to understanding the IRS and tax game. He tried to explain it to me but I thought he was talking German after 2 minutes.
ok...TLDR....
how does one combine 2 different company webpages from 2 different hosting platforms, onto a one hosting platform...either one of the original 2 platflorms or a new #3 platform? Same for email domains?
** side note again. That 'create business webpage for $19.99/month hosting' looks enticing by @AJ47 . May have to jump onboard. Which leads to a new question. What does one look for in a hosting platform?
Grab a coke and some popcorn. As those that know me here, I talk/explain alot as I think a backstory colors the upcoming questions I have. I do not visit many webpages often (well, single dating sites of course!)....IPCT and LumberJocks (which is home to my hobby woodworking) are about it. I assume, IPCT members have more technical thoughts than wood turners
Preface:
started as a cabling tech back in 1997. The goto cable back then was Cat5e and 62.5 multimode fiber. My first job was with a crew of 30 guys wiring one of the 4 story Cisco lab buildings around the Boston area. 18,000 Cat5e drops. I learned really fast how to terminate and pull cable. I soon moved to Nevada and was picked up by a smaller scale company, Sierra Telephone System that had 10 techs. Their goto cash cow was being a Toshiba business telephone system dealer with cabling being an after thought but still necessary (much much more profit in a phone system than cabling). I eventually learned how to be a Toshiba phone tech as well (with some minor programming of various systems like Partner and Nortel). I'm that type of guy that when I watch today's movies...one of the first things I look for to know the quality of the movie is to look at what phones are sitting on the office desks
Being a super awesome dude, I survive the layoffs that came with the 2008 financial crash. Now the company is down to 2 techs: me as cabling tech that can also do phones, another guy who primary is phones but helps with cabling...and 1 boss man. We limp and survive til 2012 when bossman wants to retire and sell company. Everyone thought I would become boss (the other active tech and previous techs that still stayed in touch). But at that time, my credit score at the age of a life of immaturity and partying at 38, I think, sure felt like negative 900 would not allow me that kind of money to buy company. New bossman who already owned a Data-Tech Communications, a dedicated cabling-only business, purchased my company of Sierra Telephone Systems. He kept both companies intact (one was a C-corp, other was a S-corp), mainly for tax purposes. That meant, we had 2 different webpages, 2 different email & domains. He also had a crew of 2 dedicated cabling techs so I became a floater....the do-it-all super human tech. So we had bossman, 2 cabling techs, 1 phone tech, and me doing it all. To top it off, I started doing the 3rd party tickets. Such as going to Home Depot on behalf of Home Depot Corporate to do stuff I never done before: install router, switches, WAPs, IP cameras and learning all about PUTTY and console SSH access. That stuff came naturally to me so I was good at it to the point where I began to tell the IT help desk what was wrong and how to fix it (mind you...I am not a Cisco console programmer as that's waaaay too advanced).2017, Toshiba decided to end their business telephony so that cash cow dried up. Cabling became our cash cow with support for Toshiba still in play. If someone wants a new phone sytsem, we play with the Grandstream IP phone sytsem (which I found to be a great business phone system).
Up comes 2022. We have 1 really excellent cable tech, myself doing it all, and 1 phone tech. Well, back in August, the really excellent cable tech had a fatal accident over the weekend. It is now down to the 72 year old bossman, 65 year old phone tech, and 53 year old me. We had a hiring ad in craigslist with maybe 1 applicant every 3 months so it was impossible to hire anyone (this was at the tail-end of COVID). Bossman comes to me and says he wants to retire. Either I find a way to buy from him (at a HUGE price discount than what he would post on some business broker page) or he is closing the doors at the end of the year and I have to end up flipping hamburgers at McDonalds. Through magic and voodoo, I bought the company.
However, it was a really bad time. Our 3 biggest clients needed large projects done within a short time frame so I had to work after hours & weekends for the last 2 months. This would of been a difficult challenge for 3 wiring techs. I only had myself. Well, things are a tad calmer now for me to think as President (our company is a.... C-corp so there HAS to be a board). Which now leads me up to today and future thinkings...
1.) my email address is still with the Sierra Telephone Systems domain such as "xxxxxxxx@sierratelephonesystems.com". Old bossman (he still is presently employed due to his superior knowledge of Quicken, invoices, knowing customers by first names, etc) has his email with DataTech domain such as "xxxxxxx@datatechcom.com". I am unsure how to combine both email domains but use DataTech as primary and still receieve odd ball Sierra Telephone Systems email. As much as cabling and router/switch/ip camera experience I have, never really dabbled with email & website stuff. But did figure out how to add my own personal Gmail and STS to my Outlook so that is something
I need to contact Integra to create my own DTC email address. And that started me thinking of webpage hosting price tags:2a.) I'll share both links for folks to see how...delapitated both of these webpages are. www.sierratelephonesystems.com and www.datatechcomm.com . STS is hosted by Media Temple at $29 per month. DTC is hosted by our old Integra ISP at $120 per month. I am unsure of the webpage hosting + email hosting part. Since Media Temple hosts my STS internet webpage, does that mean they also host my email? If that is the case, great. I need to move DTC internet webpage and email from spendy Integra over to the cheaper Media Temple. Unsure how to do that or who do I call first. I know Charter Spectrum does this kind of hosting stuff too. Maybe they are cheaper out of all 3. They are our current internet provider. I am however skittish to tie myself to a provider incase I decide to move on to a different one later on, though. Who knows...AT&T could come in with a fiber connection and they become my ISP.
2b.) is it true....default price tag of paying someone to build a new webpage starts around $4,000-$5,000 ? My only experience is 20 years ago with Frontpage 2000 program
3.) calling. hmm...which then leads me to smartphone business usage. I used to use a Google Pixel 3 for years and years. Upgrade to a Pixel 4 due to the VPN always on bug (that never stayed on). The Pixel 4 was the best smartphone I've ever had....kinda like Windows XP as few bugs and it did I needed it to do, except for the crappy battery time. Looking for upgrade, I took a look at what's out there. Wow...everything is as spendy as first month of rent. I saw the Samsung Fold 4 (yep, a folding phone) and thought....I want that. A phone that turns into a tablet....very handy for business purposes! Til I saw the $1800 price tag. Was about pull trigger on Samsung S22+ til I saw a Google Fi cellular plan that included 60% off Samsung phones as long as I stayed on Google Fi for 120 days. So yep, that $1800 phone came to $800 and I bought it. Sure is nice to have a battery last 5-6 days. After 120 days of Google Fi, I'll swap back to Spectrum Charter mobile plans (the cheapest I've found). Also, I'll never go Iphone... I just can't. To me, that is like being tied to Ring camera system. Locked in the ecosystem with highly restrictive proprietary way of things. And yep....VPN stays always on now for my Blue Iris/UI3 purposes
To the workers/business owners out there....what do you find that you love for apps? I actually tried "JOBBER" scheduling app (at $49 per month per user). Not too shabby and after the trial period, may retain it even though has some limitations. I know there will be not that many replies out there for this app discussion but eh....4.) side note. taxes! business taxes! just wanted to ask a simple question. Old bossman said good idea to purchase a new/used vehicle every 5 years for the depreciation aspect. I have no idea what or why. But he has superior mad skillz when it comes to understanding the IRS and tax game. He tried to explain it to me but I thought he was talking German after 2 minutes.
ok...TLDR....
how does one combine 2 different company webpages from 2 different hosting platforms, onto a one hosting platform...either one of the original 2 platflorms or a new #3 platform? Same for email domains?
** side note again. That 'create business webpage for $19.99/month hosting' looks enticing by @AJ47 . May have to jump onboard. Which leads to a new question. What does one look for in a hosting platform?
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