Hi I’m Chris the owner of ComTech.  I am just a regular guy who loves fixing (and sometimes breaking!!) computers for a living.  I have a passion for Linux and all things open source and can quite happily spend hours ‘improving’ my network.  I also like going hiking in the mountains, snowboarding, rock climbing, motorcycles and having the odd kid.  You see I am a busy cookie!!

I believe that to be taken seriously in your chosen field you should be both qualified and experienced in it.  To this end I have studied and obtained my qualifications in Windows, Cisco and Linux which allows me to demonstrate the level of my knowledge.  I would never call myself an ‘expert’ in IT as there is always new stuff to learn but I would say I have more than enough knowledge to solve any IT issue you are likely to come across.  And as for the stuff I don’t know? There is always Google!!

Why not take a look at my professional profile on  LinkedIN

To give you piece of mind I have set up a testimonials page containing comments from some of my existing clients.

Hope to work with you soon!!

Chris

Along with desktop and laptop repairs (hardware and software) I offer the following services to my business clients in and around the Stirling area.

1. Microsoft Windows

• Small Business Server 2008 / 2011 setup and configuration.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 setup and configuration.
• Exchange Server 2010 setup and configuration.
• Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP troubleshooting.

2. Linux

• SERVERS – Ubuntu or Debian setup, troubleshooting and configuration (print servers, file servers, DNS servers and DHCP servers).
• DESKTOPS – Linux Mint, Ubuntu (and its derivatives) and Debian.

3. Backups

• I can advise on what backup strategy would suit you best whether it be NAS boxes, file servers, online storage (eg Dropbox) or something else.

4.Cisco

Do you have any Cisco switches or routers that require configuration? Maybe you need to set up some vlans? I can definitely help with that.

5.Virtualization

• Do you require a business critical piece of software that only runs on an older version of Windows? Then why not use virtual software and run it on your current system.  I can set up and configure virtual machines using either Oracle VM Virtualbox or VMWare Workstation virtualisation software.

6. Remote Assistance

• You ring up with a problem and I fix it remotely while you are on the phone using Teamviewer software.

7. Monthly System MOT

• I offer a monthly service where I come to your premises and check the status of your computers ‘health’.

To give yourself piece of mind why not check out my Qualifications?

Take a look at what my clients think of my services.

Fixed priced quotations can be provided for specific work packages otherwise all call outs are charged at the rate of £40 / hr. 

Welcome to ComTech

ComTech has been helping to solve IT issues for both small businesses and home clients throughout the Stirling area since April 2010.  I am qualified and experienced in both Windows and Linux environments and am always glad to help with any IT queries that you might have.

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COMTECH IS 3 YEARS OLD THIS MONTH!!

As a thank you to all my customers I have decided to give my time away for free!! Anyone (home users and businesses alike) who uses ComTech this month will receive a voucher worth 1 hr of my time FREE which they can use anytime within the next 6 months.

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Here at ComTech I pride myself on offering a service which is very personalised and in plain English.  You will never be charged for work that you don’t need and you will never be left stranded when your computer systems go down.

ComTech was founded on one main principal;

“Provide the customer with the quality and service they expect”

I am based in Stirling which is very convenient to cover all of Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Falkirk.  I will travel out further to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth if clients are in need of my services (there is no extra charge for this).

Take a look at what my existing clients think of my services.

When not out and about helping clients I interact with existing and prospective clients through social media making ComTech a very ‘social company’.  Why not drop by on either Twitter  or  Facebook  and say hi.  It is always good to meet new people!!

Terms and Conditions

If you look at Distrowatch there are currently 319 linux distributions listed.  Of these over 70 are Ubuntu based (please correct me if I am wrong).  There is also currently about 29 desktop environments.  How much choice do we need?  At this point people will turn around and say that choice is good and that if you don’t find what you are looking for in one distribution then try another one.  I would agree to a point but it does feel like people are reinventing the wheel to some extent.  For example how many distros do we need based on Ubuntu?

I am asked a lot by both clients and friends which distro would I recommend? Usually Linux Mint / Ubuntu for desktop and Debian as a server but then they talk to someone else and they may get Fedora on a desktop and CentOS on a server.  You can see where I am taking this.  You ask a different person for their opinion and you will get a different distro every time.

It can also be a nightmare from a techs point of view too.  When starting out in Linux it is always best to get a grasp of the universal basics (command line etc) but at some point you will want to go distro specific.  Which one? I have stuck with the deb based distros as this is what I have the most experience with.  If I came across an rpm distro in “the wild” I would not feel as confident in fixing any issues it might have.  If you take Windows as an example a tech could learn Windows 7 and still have a good crack at Windows 8.  This is not usually the case with Linux.

Also look at the resources that are currently being wasted.  If you take all the developers that are currently dispersed across 319 distros and combined them into say 5 it would make a huge difference in the way linux is perceived.  With less distros to support hardware manufacturers would start to pay more attention (more drivers available) and so would the general public.  A streamlined Linux would become a much effective force to do battle with the likes of Microsoft and would certainly start to gain market share.

So what do you think? Would a streamlined Linux work?

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

The basis of virtualization is very simple.  It is the ability to run multiple operating systems on the same physical hardware at the same time.  So for example you could run Windows XP and Windows 7 on the same computer or even Windows 7 running on a Linux system.  Now I  hear you cry “Why would I ever want to do such a thing?” Let me give you some examples.

Imagine a business owner who purchases a Mac for his business.  He intends to use it everyday but then releases that he still needs Windows to run some software.  Now by installing a piece of virtualization software from the likes of VMWare, Parallels or Oracle Virtualbox he will be able to run both Max OS X and Windows 7 at the same time on his system and switching between the two when he needs too.  He now has the best of both worlds.

Now take another business that runs a mission critical piece of software on Windows XP. They decide to upgrade all their machines in the office to Windows 7 and then realise that the business critical software only runs on XP.  What happens now? They can install a piece of software from VMWare called VMWare converter and convert their physical system into a virtual one!! Install VMWare onto their new Windows 7 system and then upload the ‘old’ XP system as a virtual machine.

So what are the benefits of virtualization then?

1. You can run any software you want on any system you like.

2. You are able to run multiple operating systems on the same hardware which in turn cuts down on hardware costs and also electricity costs too.

3. Very easy to backup your systems.  If the virtual machine becomes corrupt you just delete it and reload a backup copy.  Very fast and simple to recover your systems.

4. The software is free.  You can use VMWare Player, Oracle Virtualbox, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Xen Server or KVM.  The choice is yours!!

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

I had the same response when talking to another “techie” person this week.  He described it as “cheap and chearful IT” and “businesses only like it because it is cheap”.  As you can imagine I totally disagreed with this.  Even though I love working with Linux, as pointed out in a previous blog, I use whatever tools are available to me.  So if Windows works it gets used.  The same goes for Macs and Linux too.  For small businesses though Linux has a lot to offer such as:

1. File sharing and backups

Linux file servers have less hardware requirements than their Windows counterparts meaning less outlay for the client.  For instance you can set up a Linux file server on a computer with only 512Mb RAM.  Try that with a Windows machine!!  The software is also free so you don’t have to pay hundreds of pounds for licences either.

Linux file servers also require less maintenance.  There is no antivirus software to monitor and less hassle with updates.  You can basically install one and it will quite happily sip electric in the corner of the office with the minimum of maintenance for a very long time.

2. Linux Desktops

Now I would place a wager that most people reading this blog use a Windows system at work.  Now there is nothing wrong with that at all but what happens when you have to upgrade your machine.  Should you go for another Windows machine (Windows 8 maybe?) or can I temp you with another option – Ubuntu.  Now there are literally hundreds of Linux desktop versions but I would suggest new users coming from a Windows environment could do a hell of a lot worse than trying Ubuntu.  It is very easy to use and while yes there is a learning curve it is no worse than going from either Windows XP or 7 to Windows 8.  With all Linux systems you also get the knowledge you will never get a virus too.

This is what your new desktop could look like with Ubuntu.  Not so scary hey?

3. You are probably already using it

There is a good chance that if you own a smartphone you are already using Linux and that is because of Android.  I bet you didn’t know that?

So to sum up depending on what your business requirements are – Windows, Linux or Mac might be better suited to what you need.  Don’t count out Linux because it is “cheap and chearful” because setup correctly it can be a very powerful tool to help your business run smoothly.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more

Now I would never say that one operating system is definitely superior to the others but instead I would say that it depends on the situation.  For example if you need a file server for your office then take a look at Linux (in my case either Ubuntu or Debian).  For sharing printers I would say go with Windows (due to availability of print drivers) and if you want graphics then go and get a Mac (I can see the appeal of a Mac but they are overpriced for me).  I could go on and on citing examples but I think you get the point.  However I seem to be in the minority.

Being an IT Engineer when faced with a problem I will use all the available tools at my disposal to fix it.  For example I use Linux Live CD’s to recover data from broken Windows installations while I always carry around (now) a wireless adapter that works on both Linux and Windows systems.  I even have a password cracker (Ophcrack – Linux based) which is very handy when Windows users have forgotten their passwords (non domain)

For me to limit myself to one OS would be foolish as I would be cutting myself off from tools I could use to help my customers.  Windows, Linux or Mac based I don’t really care as long as it does what I need it to do!!

So what do you think? Are you are purist or someone who likes to dabble in the dark side?

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling. For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

The method I am going to show you involves using a piece of software called Clonezilla, which is opensource cloning software, so you will need to get your hands on it. You can download it from the Clonezilla website.

For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using Ubuntu 12.04 installed on a 500 Gb hard drive.  I will clone the installation using Clonezilla and then set up a RAID 1 array on two new 1 Tb hard drives.  Once the RAID 1 array has been set up I will then copy the Ubuntu image onto it.

Lets get started.  First thing to do is to BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA.  Even though you are effectively backing up your data when you image it I always recommend you backup your data using a different method just incase something happens.

Now onto imaging your system.  I have already written a tutorial which covers the required steps so rather than repeat myself please refer to the Clonezilla Tutorial for the method.

Once you have imaged your system connect your two new 1 Tb hard drives and disconnect the old 500 Gb one and again reboot the system using the Clonezilla Live CD.  Go through the menus the same as before until you get to the screenshot below.

This time instead of choosing Start_Clonezilla choose Enter_Shell.  Once at the shell we need to check our two new disks so type:

sudo fdisk -l

Write down the designations of the two disks (e.g /dev/sda) as we are going to need these later.

Now we need to create partitions and filesystems on the two disks and we do this by using fdisk.  The steps required to accomplish this are covered in How to format a hard drive on Ubuntu 12.04 using fdisk.

Now we need to install a package called mdadm which we shall use to set up the RAID 1 array so type:

sudo apt-get install mdadm

Once installed we can go about setting up the array.  In your terminal type the following:

sudo mdadm –create –verbose /dev/md0 –level=1 –raid-devices=2 /dev/sda /dev/sdb

NOTE: There are two dashes infront of create, verbose, level and raid

In the above command:

level=1 is the raid level (in this case Mirror)

raid-devices=2 is the number of hard disks in the array

/dev/sda and /dev/sdb are the disks to be used (obtained earlier using fdisk)

If successful then you should get mdadm: array /dev/md0 started

Now we just to check the array so in your terminal type:

mdadm –detail –scan (again using two dashes)

This command should return details of the array we have just set up.

All that is left to do is to exit the shell and resume Clonezilla so in your terminal type:

exit

which should return you to the screenshot we had earlier.  This time choose Start_Clonezilla.

Follow the wizard to install your saved image onto the new RAID 1 array.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Next stop was ebay and I managed to find a new SSD hard drive (16 Gb) for the lovely some of £25 – not to bad.  It arrived the next day and after much rejoicing was fitted.  Now what software to run on it? Initially it had a mighty 8Gb SSD so Windows XP fitted but Windows 7 was a struggle.  Turning to Linux I settled on Lubuntu and it ran smoothly until the hard drive started to fail.  This time around I wanted to see how it would cope with Windows 7 installed so I installed Home Premium first.  With only a 900 Mhz processor under the hood the eepc 701 was never going to be a speed freak but it does run Windows 7 smoothly enough (it is upgraded to 2 Gb RAM) but it is restricted to a resolution of 640 * 480 which is not great.  Due to this limitation I turned back to Linux and currently run it on Linux Mint 13 with the XFCE desktop.  It runs quickly enough for the tasks I need to use it for.

Now why would I go through all this hassle for a netbook which is now 5 years old? A couple of reasons:

1. I hate throwing out old kit.  If I can reuse a piece of computer equipment I will.  The Eeepc 701 still has life in her yet!!

2. Configuring routers and troubleshooting wifi issues.  This is the mainstay for the eeepc 701.  It is great for configuring routers on existing networks and troubleshooting wifi issues. As much as I love my Blackberry Playbook this is one area the netbook trumps it.

3. Sometimes I just want to type.  Surfing the internet on a tablet is great but sometimes I just want to type instead of using a touchscreen keypad.  Yes my Blackberry Playbook has a bluetooth keyboard which is great but it is not the same is it?

4. It is very portable, light and has very good battery life.

Now I could use a laptop but since I don’t own one I would have to go out and spend hundreds of pounds to get one.  The eeepc 701 cost me £25.  No contest is it?

Do you own one of these wonderful little machines?

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

I choose Lubuntu 12.04 as it runs very fast on older hardware.  The install went smoothly enough and before I knew it the software was installed.  There was one problem though – the wireless card was not recognised.  After checking the type of card, it was a Broadcom, I went hunting on the internet to find the driver.  I found the driver in question and set about trying to install it.  I had to unpack the file, after first installing all the required tools for the job, and then make the file.  Do you think it would play – would it hell!!  After numerous attempts it still would not work so I decided to change distributions and went with Linux Mint 12 instead.  Linux Mint is known as one of the best distributions in regards to drivers but still I could not get the wireless card to work.  In the end I resorted to reinstalling Windows XP.

I have the same issues with my antivirus software.  I use either BitDefender or Kaspersky rescue disks to remove viruses from clients computers.  As these are both Linux based I can’t connect them to wireless networks but have to resort to using a cable to connect instead. This is not usually a problem unless you are on a desktop which is in one room connected wirelessly to the router in the next.

This is the 21st century where everything is moving online into the cloud.  People are becoming more mobile everyday but I still have issues getting wireless cards to work on Linux.  This really needs to get addressed or forget using ‘Desktop Linux’ in the future.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more