In 2015, my family sold off the assets to M.L. Kishigo, and began a new venture, B.R.W. Safety & Supply. I returned to the fold in 2017 after my stint of owning and running Orange County Legal Video. At this point, BRW was essentially a startup. The budget was very tight. It was running an ad hoc wireless network with little security and unreliable networking. The router supplied by the ISP had limited access, and network devices such as printers and file servers were not properly configured. An embroidery machine that ran off a PC needed to be isolated on its own network segment.I acquired and configured a high end consumer wifi router with v-lan support. This allowed me to isolate our SCADA device on its own network segment without needing extra routers or switches, saving the company money. Utilizing the new router’s capabilities, I setup the firewall to reduce exposure to the internet, strengthened the wifi credentials, and configured VPN to securely facilitate remote access.With these new processes in place, BRW is now able to access the network and operate like a real company, despite its limited budget.

As OC Legal Video Services was my first entrepreneurial exercise, I had to start from scratch. I proceeded to upgrade my home router to enable VPN, since I spent most of my working hours offsite at law offices and needed a way to connect to my home office. As in many of my other jobs, I wore many hats. In fact probably even more so as I was by myself. I was sales, customer service, technical support, videographer, and billing all rolled into one.

Upon relocating to Orange County, California, I began work for the family business. When I first arrived at M.L. Kishigo, the company was still using a centralized network based on a high end Unix PC equipped with a multiport serial board, connected via serial cables to Wyse ASCII terminals. By the late 90s/early 2000s this technology was way past its prime. The terminals were breaking down, nearly impossible to replace, and growing more difficult to repair. This led to interruptions in the workflow of our service reps. Prior to my arrival, the company had started to purchase PCs with windows pre-installed to replace those terminals that were no longer serviceable. These PCs simply ran terminal emulation software and continued to connect via serial cable, creating more confusion and difficulty in maintenance. Moreover, the producer of our accounting software, MAS90, was moving toward a Windows based client server model called MAS200.I set out to modernize the company completely over to a Windows environment. The high end Unix PC was re-tasked as a Windows NT Domain controller, as well as a file and application server for MAS200. Our budget was rather tight. I arranged for the serial cables to be replaced with CAT 5 ethernet cables. I ensured that all the remaining Wyse terminals were replaced with PCs running Windows. To further save money, I implemented a local email server using Postfix, an open source email server running on Linux. While this process resulted in a rather large initial capital expenditure, it laid the groundwork for more efficient communications for our service reps. They also had access to Windows based software that could interact with the accounting software. Each had access to email on their own desktops. We now had infrastructure that could expand with networked printers, copiers, and even time clocks. With this new level of efficiency, M.L. Kishigo Manufacturing became a multi-million dollar company.

This was essentially my first job. Weinstein & Eisen was a law firm that specialized in bankruptcy law. I was hired on as a file clerk but quickly moved into the role of a Network Administrator due to my passion for technology. We initially used Novell, but as the popularity of the internet grew, so did the ubiquity of the TCP-IP stack. As such, we migrated to Windows NT, and I learned how to configure a domain controller. We didn't know it back then, but the 90s were certainly a less complicated period, at least from the perspective of network security. Internet traffic comprised far less of a percentage than it does now, and security, while important, was less of a concern as it is now.