This document will help you host your own nonprofit technology roundtable.  Please post your questions, comments and experiences here!

[I'm reposting this message because it's worth a look - and worth a revision.  Smoking Goat.] 

There are lots of these lists of listservs and forums. But this one can be contributed to by anyone. So feel free to edit this mess. I just dumped something in here. Would you be so kind as to help clean it up a little?

In no particular order:

riders-talk
Circut Riders general discussion

riders-tech
Circuit Riders technical discussion

I'm categorizing this fairly widely because I think it could be a failry valuable tool for consultants who run their own websites (for marketing and biz dev) and/ or who consult for websites that are trying to reach a broader (read non-English-speakng) audience.  I'm also posting this here because I think this (or something like it) could be a very handy tool for Consultant Commons it self, as we try to reach out to a broader audience, and really distribute all of our "knowledge" far and wide.

 Please comment if you have found a better implementation of this code (see my notes at the end)

The attached document is a set of step-by-step directions for attaching a Windows computer to a VPN using the tools built-in to Windows. These documents may need to be tailored to fit your organizations needs.

The attached document is a review of different Virtual Private Networking (VPN) technologies. This document is intended to provide guidance to organizations considering or planning to implement a VPN.

This review focuses on solutions appropriate to small or medium sized organizations.

Bay Area Examples of Partnership in Action [document also attached]

TransAccess

  TransAccess is a nonprofit agency working in partnership with Silicon Valley businesses and the community to prepare people with disabilities for competitive employment. Through adaptive computer access technology and career transition services, TransAccess creates opportunities for significant advances in universal access, social integration and employment for people with disabilities.

Remote administration using terminal services in Windows Server.

Requirements:

- permission from the client to implement this service
- high speed Internet connection
- Windows 2000/2003 Server (or Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Services edition)
- router capable of port forwarding

1. Enable terminal services in remote admin mode.
- Click start, settings, control panels, add/remove programs.
- Click Add/Remove Windows Components, install Terminal Services.

2. In Active Directory Users and Groups, disable permission to log in
via terminal services for all users except those authorized to do so.
Right click on the user, choose Terminal Services Profile tab, uncheck
Allow log on to terminal server.

Step 1: Open Notepad.

Step 2: Paste the following block of text into Notepad and replace the values with the information for your printers. If you don't wish to set a default printer, remove that line.

Set WshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\server\printer1"
WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\server\printer2"
WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "\\server\printer1"

Step 3: Save your new VBScript as "addprinters.vbs".

This comprehensive network information record template is attached.

Let’s say that a computer cannot access the Internet. Here are a series of steps to discover where the problem lies.

 Does the computer have an IP address?

In Windows 2000 or XP, click Start, then Run. Type cmd and click OK to open a command window. At the command prompt, type ipconfig and press enter. If the TCP/IP address that appears starts with 169.xxx.xxx.xxx, the computer does not have a routable IP address. In Mac OS X, check the network control panel in System Preferences.

Laptop - Personal laptop (with local dial-up setup, VPN access, firewall and virus defs) - so we can use our computer if need to be research (w/ dial-up) but also make sure it's protected if we need to plug it into the network.)

Tools

Megapro 15-in-one screwdriver (bits for phillips, slot head, torx, etc.)

Pliers

Flashlight

External firewire boot drive (Mac OS X) - with Disk Utility (Mac OS X) - ?

Network Information

Type

1.      Does the main client site have a network?

2.      Is it a client/server or a peer-to-peer network?

This guide was designed to help minimize the challenges faced after implementation of a Windows 2000 Server based network. This guide is devoted to describing the tasks that a network administrator is most likely to face working day to day with the Local Area Network (LAN).

This guide is by no means an exhaustive list of the responsibilities of a network administrator. However, the intent of this guide is to provide assistance to those who are not trained in network administration but are faced with the responsibility of managing a Windows 2000 domain.

Attached is a network documentation template, in MS Word format. We've found it useful for documenting small and medium size single-site networks.

Appletalk is an obsolete network protocol once used with Apple Macintosh computers. It does not use TCP/IP.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is used to automatically provide TCP/IP settings to computers on a network. Computers that receive their configuration this way are said to have a dynamic IP address.

DNS (Domain Name System) is a technology to match up a computer's name with its IP address. Names are easy for people to remember, but computers and network equipment only understand numbers.

TechSoup Community Discussions
These are a great place to ask questions and get answers from professionals and your peers.

Networking Forum
http://tinyurl.com/6yweu

Wireless Networking Forum
http://tinyurl.com/5t5l9

Your Internet Service Provider
You pay for technical support each month. If you have trouble with your Internet connection, don’t be shy about asking for help.

Books
Networking by Example, by Barry and Marcia Press. A little dated, but an excellent introductory guide to the practical side of networking a small office.

1. Locate CD and installation key. Don't assume you know where these items are. ;-)
2. Configure RAID if necessary.
3. Boot from CD and install Windows 2000 Server, preferably from pre-patched installation files.
4. Install Windows Updates.
5. Install and configure Windows Components (DNS, DHCP, Terminal Services, etc).
6. Install anti-virus software.
7. Download and install decompression utility such as FreeZip.
8. Download and install Word Viewer 2003 for those gripping Microsoft White Papers.
9. Download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader.