Office Network Build series

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Restemayer
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:55 pm

Office Network Build series

Post by Restemayer » Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:09 am

So, I've been kind of on here for a while. I'm the CIO for my parent's dental office, which is just a fancy way of saying that my parents call me to fix all their computer problems. Outside of the work I do for their office, I'm a computer technician, network administrator, programmer, EMT, Soldier, (almost) lawyer, jack-of-all-trades. When they pulled me in to switch them over to OD, I was basically given carte blanche to rebuild their office any way I wanted from the ground up.

When I started, my number one goal was to utilize, to the extent possible, all open-source/no-cost software. Minus OD itself, our imaging software, and the workstations' OS/Software (though I'm thinking of trying my hand at a linux fork of OD in the future), I was able to get the entire office running on no-cost software. I'm thinking about doing a video series/tutorial about how I set our systems up and why I did what I did, if there is an interest in that.

Our current set up consists of an active directory domain service; smart card login; dedicated file and database server; dedicated secure email server with a groupware frontend that will both interface with outlook and is accessible by browser (employees can access email, contacts, and calendar at home... and most importantly, their schedules; I have it automatically pulling the schedules out of OD and converting them into calendar objects); an e-fax server to convert incoming faxes to email; and automated backup system to both a local and remote sites (I found this was necessary when I realized there was absolutely no way I was going to get the hygienists and assistants in our office to figure out how to do it manually... no offense, but, seriously, there's some of you alls that needs to go to a basic computer class or something). Most of the major components are virtualized on a single host to cut down on hardware costs, though, when funds allow, I'd like to get a backup host running. Whole thing was also built around IPv6, so its complaint there once that becomes more widespread.

If I were to write/record a series on the basic nuts and bolts of building an office network like that, is it something that people would be interested in?

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wjstarck
Posts: 935
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:18 am
Location: Keller, TX
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Re: Office Network Build series

Post by wjstarck » Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:37 am

Defnitely
Cheers,

Bill Starck, DDS
Big Idea Software, LLC
Developer, EASy(Electronic Anesthesia System) for Open Dental
817-807-1709
TX, USA

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jsalmon
Posts: 1551
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:33 pm
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Re: Office Network Build series

Post by jsalmon » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:12 am

That would be most generous of you to share. There are countless people that attempt what you described and you could save many hours of headache by sharing your experience. Commended.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.

Jason Salmon
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

enamelrod
Posts: 462
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:51 am

Re: Office Network Build series

Post by enamelrod » Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:00 am

UH YES and yes

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