Does your household have a network administrator?

or does it need one?

In addition to being a dad & husband, I am also our households network administrator.

Like many houses, we have a ton of devices:

• 4 smart phones
• 2 tables with wifi and 4g plans
• 2 laptops
• 2 PC’s
• 4 monitors
• 3 TV’s
• 1 modem
• 2 routers
• Apple TV
• Multiple DVR boxes
• 1 Wii
• multiple other smaller devices

Add this all up and you have yourself a computer network that rivals many small business offices.

But we aren’t that unique. As a matter of fact, I bet many of you are thinking “I have twice as many laptops / DVR’s etc.”

And you are right! Even modest homes in the US has just as many devices.

Devices need love

Devices need love and care. You cannot simply buy a device and expect it to function indefinitely.

Take the average cell phone. After a year of use, the following problems might come up:

• tons of bloated apps get installed
• texts messages hog memory
• phone call logs pile up
• photos hog space on drive
• contacts need to be merged
• and lots more

Now, this is just a few tasks on 1 device.

Cameras need a solid redundant backup plan. Phones need contacts backed up. Devices need cleaning. Hard drives need defragging. PC’s need malware scanning.

The list goes on and on. 100’s of tasks must be performed almost every month if you want your “home system” to run properly.

What if you don’t live with a hacker?

I wonder what some households are like that don’t have hackers living there.

I’ve visited some of my friends house. I see them browsing their PCs, 4 toolbars installed, a “bookmark” application opened and something that appears to be a virus scanner but is obviously malware.

I wonder what sort of digital chaos they live in. I think about the fact that they have to take their PC’s to circuit city when something bad happens.

I wonder if they’ve ever rebooted their DVR.

Does their wifi have a strong password with a firewall?

I worry that they aren’t backing up their photos locally and on a cloud storage platform.

It is our job to help

As a savvy user, I try to help out when I can. Last year I had to buy a domain because a friend lost their Facebook password and their @last-name.com was the password reset which they let expire.

I try to help out my Mom if she has issues, and remotely debug my Dad’s network of 4+ PC’s and devices.

As time goes on, devices become more user friendly and users get smarter but their will always be maintenance and administration to be done.

We must help our friends and families with these issues because lets face it, when it comes time to get a personal trainer, get your roof done, or do your taxes you might need help too. 🙂