[wplug] Homeless Shelter Help

[Wise, Jeremey]

Thanks for those who replied to my original email so far (always glad to
have more:>)
*********
Who is in need of help?
Northside Common Ministries
1601 Brighton Rd
Pittsburg, PA 15212

P.O. Box 99861
Pittsburg, PA 15233

Phone: (412)-323-1163
Fax: (412)-323-1749

Janet Holz is the Executive Director
Renee Hill is the Executive Assistant


**************
So far I have volenteer help from the following:
Sean McCune <sean at redhandsoftware.com
Brian Sammon <wplug-list at brisammon.fastmail.fm
Gentgeen <gentgeen at linuxmail.org
Tom Rhodes <trhodes at FreeBSD.org
Carl Benedict <cbenedic at pittsburghtechs.com

This help includes hardware and / or software support. I realize that
this is all provided as a gift and is greatly appreciated. I apologize
that I can not be more fully involved but I did not feel right in
introducing Linux to them when they have never heard of it. Here is a
little more details. Based on the information I supply I would like to
get a conferance call together review what they need. As in most
migrations and transitions it can only be done successfully in stages,
so the end user can assimilate the new processes. I pushed as hard as
possible to get them to some semblance of stability but it will likely
take some onsite surveys.

*********************
The count of computers that I have is as follows

Hostname Class OS Function Issues
DebXP PIII? 256MB XP Office Suite AOL,Spyware
Manager PII 32MB 98 Office Suite Virus?, Spyware
Pantry PII 500 64MB XP AccessDB PornoViruses,Spyware <100MB HDDFree
NewPantry PII 64MB 98 AccessDB PornoViruses,Spyware,<100MB HDDFree
Accounting PIV,CDburner,2x40GBHDD XP Server None when I left:>)
?Manager2 ? ? Office ?

Layout Overview:
As you can see their systems are also donations like all things they
get. The facility is in an old three floor where-house. Basement floor
is a soup kitchen and food pantry. Second floor is a homeless shelter
for ~40 beds a night. Third floor is for administrative. The two
"Pantry" computers are where all their clients information is inputed
into. Someone built a simple MS Access DB which tracks their
information. They have NO (NEVER) backed up that DB!!!!!!!! I tried all
week to simply make a backup of the DB but the 98 system had two major
porn programs fighting for control with 64MB RAM and <100MB disk space
to work with and a faulty network connection (donation of a punch-down
panel on third floor with no labels). This computer and the second
pantry computer are both in similar shape of software and virus as the
users login with full admin rights and as such their systems are messed
up. The computers on the third floor have basic issues of users loading
'crap' programs on their systems to make XP suck (yes Linux is better
but any OS is only as good as the user treats it)

The Access DB: This is the main program that keeps the place open. I
took a quick look at the structure and it looks simplistic but the data
is in major distress. As it tracks all clients it is used to justify any
government matching funds they can get and at this time has major
inconsistencies. It has about 3500 clients in it. It became very
unstable after an issue a month ago when they lost power. They have had
to revert to manual paper process for much of their reporting which is
becoming too much for them to handle. Their is another DB which tracks
food alocation (I think) which I did not get to look at because I was
scrabling as is to help them out with basics. I am sure that is also
never backed up.

Network and Infastructure: They have a punchpanel on the third floor
which seems ok but needs some help of tracking (I have a tone generator
I can loan if their is not one amounts the local group). They do have
wiring issues on the links down to the pantry systems. Their is a DSL
router and a Lynxsys 8port switch which is VERY much in need of a
cleaning and maybe some mounting to a wall or shelf. Cable quality is
actually not too bad. Some connnections may be in need of looking at.
The traffic load on the network is around 90% due to the viruses and
Pornoware. I killed several programs on the pantry computers but that
was not all of them.


*****************************
If it were local and I could help them out I would:

1) Reload the Accounting computer as a Linux server with mirrored
drives. IPtables firewall. SAMBA for file services. Second NIC one for
pluging in and doing PPPoE and the other for LAN traffic. Use the
CDBurner for backups and build a simple script to backup all /home where
each user would have data stored. Install UPS with appropriate software.

2) Bring server online and copy all data to the server.

3) Rebuild Access DB or at least make a empty copy version and import
what data is resonable. Supply both the old (for referance) and new for
going forward.

4) Add more RAM into computers downstairs to min 256MB and reload. They
now have a spare 20GB drive so migration could be an easy rotation
installation. If possible get drives larger then 2GB but the only need
base OS plus Access and IE (or ?mozilla?). Lock down administrator
account and create domain login process to new SAMBA server. 

5) Rebuild Systems upstairs one at a time until all systems were rebuilt
with good loads and viruses removed.

6) Purchase some network Print Servers and install and setup LPD to
eliminate Peer to Peer use of network.

7) Enable remote control access with critera for when, how, and how they
can feel they are not being "watched"

8) (Possibly) Rewrite DB program to add some needed functions. The youth
I took did much of the data entry one of the days and it needed a much
smoother interface (MySQL with Web Portal).
9) Build Disaster recovery plan; Spare system, Contact list, process to
recover documents or DB in case of corruption.

*****************

This is not to say that priorities may need to be different or that I am
not missing something of more criticality to them (I was their for only
four days). The sad thing was that plan above requires a minimal input
of hardware (thanks to Best Buy). 90% of what is needed is
administrative input and time. I see this as a great opportunity for the
Linux community to not only help them out but get some real word
experience. This would be great for newbies and seasoned alike. I told
them you guys were out their and that some of the help would possible be
a little "green" but as you can see they are in dire need of any help.

Thanks, 


Jeremey Wise
Jeremey.Wise at Agilysys.com
Office: (440)-519-6006
Cell: (216)-647-1121
MCSE,CNE,CSE