Holland Consulting was the computer support, networking and computer security company of Nick Holland, a member of the small computer industry since 1982.

In 2005, Holland Consulting stopped actively operating for customers, this website remains as a soapbox for Nick to rant and guide others in the computer world.

"My goal is to make computers like telephones. No one cares what brand
the phone on their desk is. They pick it up, use it, hang up. They
should just work and let people get on with their work they have to do."
-- Nick Holland, 1988.

"Computers are now like phones. Unfortunately, the phones came
to the computers. They crash. They are unreliable. They often barely
work as phones. They need constant updating, but none of that matters if
you have the right brand phone."
-- Nick Holland, 2007
... and this may have a lot to do with why I am no longer running my own business

The REAL "five-nines" of IT:

• Is it fast? Nein!
• Is it reliable? Nein!
• Is it secure? Nein!
• Is it documented? Nein!
• Is it maintainable? Nein!

Newer stuff:

• Recycling a Check Point T110 for other purposes. Intel Atom 6x1Gb NICs in a small, low power box. (9/23/2023)
• Nasty security bug I found. Probably doesn't impact you unless you work in the banking or medical industries. I'll have to post rest of the story on that one some day...
• Scripts, Programs and Scripting Tips MOSTLY for my reference, but you might just find something useful or educational.
• rsync notes including --filter="merge file"
• on-line password suggestion utility Updated to suggest lists of word passwords. I often have need for random, but semi-rememberable passwords. I wrote this for me. You are welcome to use it, but see the warning...

Tech Guides

• Recycling a Check Point T110 for other purposes. Intel Atom 6x1Gb NICs in a small, low power box. (9/23/2023)
• Notes on using a 4k TV as a computer monitor added 2/2/2023
• Using SSH tunnels Great way to connect to systems inside a network securely and simply -- quick and clean VPN-like thing. Added 4/22/2022
• rsync usage notes especially --filter file format. Updated 8/9/2022
• Windows 10 Installation Tips Hey, new content! Windows 10 has its downsides, and it has its features. But if you run windows, it's all you can use now. Here's some tips on doing a good install from scratch. 4/22/2020
• Windows 95/98 installation guide While only of interest to a computer historian at this point, I leave it here because I think it may have been the BEST guide to the best way of installing Windows 95 or Windows 98. Maybe WindowsME, but I never really played with it. From 1999.
• Disabling the Windows 9x login screen 11/25/2001 Getting around a bad idea, poorly implemented.
• Firewalling against "difficult" services 10/4/2003. When I wrote this, most people claimed DNS poisoning as a way to control what happened on and around your network was considered a "poor" way of doing it, even though it worked BETTER than most other firewalling solutions other than a full internet proxy. Now, there are companies providing this service for money. Well, I missed that one, now, didn't I?
• Accusys RAID box notes. This was BY FAR the best small business RAID solution I have ever worked with. Wish a modern decendant was still available now. 7/4/2006
  • ACS7500 IDE (PATA) RAID two PATA disks in one 5.25" FH bay.
  • ACS7630 (IDE) and ACS76130 (SATA) RAID5 three disk RAID5 in one 5.25" FH bay
  • ACS75170 SATA RAID1 SATA replacement for the ACS7500.
• Notes on Michael Stella's dhcp_dns 11/25/2006
• Fixing DST for Windows 2000. Hopefully, you don't need this. 3/29/2007

• Services Provided
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Billing Rates (This is a favorite of many!)
• Business Philosophy
• Technical Guides (updated 4/2022)
• Why and how I shut down my business operations

E-mail nick@holland-consulting.net ("HEY! You should know better than to put your e-mail on-line in an easy form like that!" Believe me, after having this domain for around 20 years now, every spammer and scammer in the world knows me)
 
 

since June 24, 2000

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