Top Ten Computer/ Network Items to Document in a SOHO

Whether you are a small business or just have a small home office there ten things that I recommend that you document along the way to make your life easier in the future when you have an issue that you need resolved. Seems like household computers and networks are on the same scale as small companies. I find that some households are even running their own email server and have a web site posted. All potential areas that need some documentation before the disaster happens, or you need to talk to tech support.

Step one gets going by starting with the items that fall outside your network. Specifically, I am talking about your web hosting. If you have a domain name and use that for your email, you will want to document all of your domain information. Who you use for domain registration? Who do you use for hosting? What services are you using? Do you host your web site, or just use email? You will want to document all user names and passwords, expiration dates, etc.

Step two on your list of items to document is your Internet connection and network items. Start with who your ISP is, and the username and password for that account. You then want to document the DSL or Cable Modem's information. After your main connection to the internet is done, look into your Router. Write down brand name, product name, version number, serial number. Once that is complete you will want to get screen shots of the configuration pages of your router. If your router offers the option, export the setup configuration to a file and keep that in a safe place.

Step three is to create a visual document using Word, Visio or any other graphic program to put together a diagram oh how your network looks inside your office or home. Include things like network printers, wireless access points. It is here where you will want to specify if a printer is connected to a particular computer or where your storage device connects to the network.

Step four is to document all other networking devices, such as switches, hubs, etc. So if you have a switch connected to your router, this fourth area is for that and anything else similar.

Step five is to provide documentation on every computer or server on your network. I like Belarc for this; they have a simple program that runs on your computer which then produces a report. This report shows all the license numbers of the software items installed for each computer. Whether you use software that generates a report, or do it by hand include hardware specifications, software installed, and licenses. You will also want to document anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-malware software installed.

Step six is to document your server if you have one. Start with what services are running. What server applications are installed? User name and passwords needed to access the server. Print out the IP configuration of your server. This is also a good time to refresh your recovery diskettes.

In Step Seven you will want to document how you are backing up your information. What specifically are you backing up? You might find that you need to make some changes; this is a good time to do so, as it will help keep your document up to date. Where are you storing your off-site tapes?

Step Eight will have us document all shares and printer information on local PC's and the server. If you had to create a TCP/IP port for your printer, capture that information as well. Make sure to document security permissions on each share on the server.

Step Nine is about documenting user accounts and privileges. This is especially true in the common two scenarios. One, you have setup special accounts on a server for let us say a copier unit that can scan documents and save them on the server. The second typical example is that you are working in a peer to peer network (no server) and set up an account on a computer so that someone can connect to that PC to gain access to files.

Section/Step 10 is more of a free for all depending on your network. For some, this is where they will want to document their email server or a special Data base. As for myself I use this to document things that will expire so that I have a clean and easy place to look up that information. I capture things like domain registration renewal info, hosting renewal, anti-virus expiration, DYNDNS registration renewal. Make this section work for you by documenting the things that make your network unique.

Now that you have everything documented, make sure to keep in a safe place. Make both a hard copy as well as a software copy. Here is a hint; I use a hosting company for my web site. I keep my software copy hidden under a special folder on my web site. No one can find it, and unless you knew 100 percent where it was, one cannot find it, however this is a good safe place that I can store the file off-site to my office and still know that I can get to it whenever I need to access the information.