I go through UpWork on an almost daily basis, I look through trying to find businesses who need my kind of help, and reach out to them for contracts.

What I have found is that there are a lot of small businesses that really just need a trusted advisor to help them navigate the complex world of IT. The owners of these businesses are trying to make the best decisions they can without having enough knowledge on the subject.

For instance, they need a new laptop or computer for their business. Almost everywhere they look they see Windows, so that is what they think they need. The gotcha here is what version of Windows do they need. Most of the time the computers sold at the big box stores come with Windows Home. For a business, they should be buying the professional version. Why?

Because if you buy the home version you cannot network in the same way you can with the professional version.

I saw a post on UpWork the other day saying that they wanted to have a single sign-on for three different computers but did not want to add a domain controller. All the computers are in a work-group mode, so how would they do that. My answer was two-fold, the best way was to add a domain controller or some sort of central log-in server/service, but the bigger question was what version of Windows did they have because if they have Windows home, there just is not much they can do.

Microsoft stripped out all the central sign-on parts of windows in the home version of Windows, you can still share drives and files, but you cannot join a domain, so there is basically no way to use it as a true workstation with central login information.

That leads to the next issue, servers are expensive, and buying a Windows domain controller can be very cost-prohibitive to a small business. My solution to that problem is Linux.

Angbert Enterprises can build a Linux server that can work as a domain controller, allowing a business to have control of user management as well as other security measures. This domain controller can integrate into a Windows Active Directory as a primary domain controller or a backup domain controller.

The advantage here is cost. The hardware needed to run Linux is much less expensive than for running Windows, the cost of the Operating System is even cheaper, and the domain controller software is also inexpensive, for the most part free. What a small business would need to pay for is support, not software or a lot of money on hardware.

This of course does not fix the issue between Windows home vs Windows Professional, so a business may incur the costs to upgrade, however on the server side they can be saving thousands of dollars, which should offset the cost of those upgrades.

Contact me if you are interested in learning more.
info@angbertenterprises.com