By the grace of God, Sherry and I arrived safely in Kenya yesterday.  We got some rest and attended a couples meeting in the evening.  Today, I am meeting with Junae Ndolo, the senior IT professional at the Coptic Hospital.  We are putting together a list of projects that we want to work on while I am here.  Here is the current draft:

  1. Configure network to use OpenDNS – This will help resolve downtime issues with their ISP’s DNS servers and also allow for content filtering.
  2. Helpdesk Solution – We will evaluate Spiceworks to see if it is a good fit for this environment.
  3. Firewall Solution – They are currently using a Linksys router for a firewall, but they need more advanced features.  We are going to try out SmoothWall, but are also open for other suggestions.  Here are some of the things we are looking for:
    • Fine grained inbound/outbound traffic rules.
    • Restricting per user or machine bandwidth.
    • Site to Site VPN
  4. LTSP Upgrade – They are running several thin clients and old desktops off of a K12LTSP server, we are going to upgrade it to the latest version (or maybe test out Ubuntu’s LTSP implementation).
  5. Design New Network Layout – Currently, they are operating on a single flat network and on one subnet using dumb switches.  We want to design a new segmented network and spec out how many managed switches will be needed.
  6. Active Directory Plan – Authentication and Directory Services are not centralized, we want to come up with a plan for moving to Active Directory.

The fun part is that we will only be in Nairobi for a couple of days before heading out for the mission station in Maseno, Kenya.