Aldo,
I am going to be extremely honest with you, and your IT guy isn't going to like it. I pay my IT guy $140.00 an hour. Your IT guy must be very gracious. Here is the thing. Let's say you are sitting around the table one Saturday afternoon deciding Cloud vs In-house. Then it would look like this:
AC Cloud:
Advantages: They do backup and support. They do all upgrades. No need to keep a server going, etc.
Disadvantages: All of the above.
In house:
Advantages:
Complete control of your data. All issues related to your infrastructure. Can fix and maintain (maybe some extra work but how difficult is maintenance on a very small SMB). Mine and the doctor next door has it does remotely. No increase in per line cost to AC. NEVER WORRYING ABOUT HAVING YOUR DATA.
Disadvantages: Needs closer IT support. Possibly costs more.
Now this decision is about 50/50 IF YOUR AC CLOUD WORKS. BUT IT DOESN'T WORK!! Therefore it has no advantages and all disadvantages.
You have made the biggest mistake happy customers make when using the cloud. No plan as to what to do in a situation like this.
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I don't blame AC as much as you do. The only thing that bothers me about AC support in general and in this particular issue specifically, is the lack of speedy communication and one person working on it all.
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This started on 12/17/19. Fourteen days without a working AC network. With no end in site. You have computers, monitors, cables, Internet. I imagine a switch and a router. You can either get a server or for now use a decent computer for a server. Install AC on the server (you would need AC to do or use one that already has it installed), turn on DHCP, and start using AC. See patients. Then call AC and tell them you want you data. Close your AC cloud connection.
Here is what would happen if I walked in at 7 am and all 10 of my computers weren't working. Dell, for whatever reason, just remoted in and shut off every computer. I would make one phone call to Dell, and then after a screaming match between Michael and me, I would open a box, take out 10 refurbished Lenovos all with more power than my computers I have now. And, I would:
1. move power cords to refurbished computers
2. move monitor cable to new computers
3. change the ethernet cable from Dells to Lenovos
4. connect mice and keyboards to new computers
Turn them on and wait for my server to give them IP address.
Start seeing patients my 9 am. In reality with a few issues probably by lunch.
This is all due to planning ahead of time. I am not saying you didn't. But, while in an in house network has more moving parts to prepare for, a cloud connection, is one big bottleneck that MUST be prepared for. What if the whole thing goes down. We already have an example of that. And, AC was extremely accommodating in helping there.
The step by step troubleshooting with you and AC and all of us who really are not trained enough to figure it out. You need someone trained with AC and networking, etc. to look at your setup.
It all depends on whether you wish to stay with AC, warts and all. If you do, then no more pinging and testing of speeds, etc. Just change and deal with the support situation later.
