Sysadmin.Express

IT blog for business

Case files, owner guides and notes on how we work — from the Sysadmin.Express engineers.

Case files

5 min read

The server died on Friday night: anatomy of a typical small-business IT outage

What actually happens minute by minute when a server fails on a Friday with no one watching, and how the same night plays out under monitoring.

monitoring incident response
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How we work

7 min read

How many attacks your server fends off while you sleep

One machine fended off nearly 3,000 RDP break-in attempts in 2.5 days. The live numbers on why 'all green' lies — and how to defend an open port.

monitoring security
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5 min read

A password manager for your business: why a shared spreadsheet isn't a system

Why browser and spreadsheet passwords are a security hole, and what a proper team password manager looks like when we're responsible for your secrets.

security backups
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5 min read

Always on watch: what round-the-clock monitoring is — and what it isn't

How automation catches a failure in minutes, when an on-call engineer steps in, and why the background noise of scanners is quiet work, not a reason to panic.

monitoring security incident response
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6 min read

How backups work when we're the ones responsible for them

Encryption with the open age standard, generational rotation ('grandfather-father-son'), two independent off-site clouds, and regular restore testing — how we build backups when we're the ones responsible for them.

security incident response backups
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Owner guides

5 min read

Who reads your website when you're not looking

AI assistants read your website to tell clients about you. How to see these readers in your logs, why llms.txt matters, and what we show live.

AI visibility SEO
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5 min read

How to choose an IT provider: 7 questions to ask before you sign

Seven concrete questions about SLA, backups, pricing transparency, exit rights and documentation, so you never end up hostage to a vendor.

monitoring backups pricing choosing a provider
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