Navigating the Cloud: A Washington Law Firm’s Guide

Navigating the Cloud: A Washington State Law Firm’s Guide to WSBA Advisory Opinion 2215

The legal industry is rapidly transitioning to cloud-hosted services for document storage, practice management, and client communication. The benefits are clear: reduced IT costs, enhanced collaboration, and the ability to work from anywhere. But for Washington lawyers, this digital shift brings up a critical ethical question: Is it safe, and is it compliant?

App Passwords: Why You Need Them & How to Set Them Up

 

Your Guide to App Passwords:

Why You Need Them & How to Set Them Up

Have you ever tried to connect an older email app, a smart home device, or a scanner to your main account, only to be hit with a stubborn "authentication failed" error; even though you know you typed your password correctly?

The culprit is likely your account's modern security settings. As Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) becomes the standard for protecting our online lives, many third-party apps and older devices simply don't know how to handle that second step. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) makes users 99% less likely to be hacked. However, it can break compatibility with older software.

Enter the App Password: a specialized, secure bridge that lets these devices connect without compromising your main account's security.

Remove or Change a Microsoft Office 365 Business Subscription

Remove/Change Microsoft Office 365 Business Subscriptions

Microsoft has made it surprisingly difficult to find the option to remove Microsoft 365 Copilot from a business subscription. If you're logged into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and only see a combined subscription such as "Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Microsoft 365 Copilot", you may assume the Copilot license can't be removed separately.

How they have things setup to switch or cancel your subscription for a user, employee, etc. can be super confusing! So I wanted to make this guide to help folks out with the process.

Migrating or Installing New Meraki Access Points

Migration & Installation of New or Replacement
Meraki Access Points: What Actually Works

Wireless access point refreshes sound simple on paper: buy new hardware, swap it in, done. In practice, your Meraki AP migrations will likely turn up a few real-world wrinkles. Here is a process you should follow to get everything cut over cleanly with zero extended downtime for your end users.

Apple Business Manager: Employee & Employee Apple ID/iPad Setup

Apple Business Manager:

Add Employees & Apple ID/iPad Setup Guide

If you manage devices for a growing team, you already know that handing a brand-new iPad to an employee isn't as simple as just taking it out of the box. Security, app management, and company data protection are huge priorities. That is exactly where Apple Business Manager (ABM) comes in.

Setting up devices through ABM ensures your company retains control of the hardware and data while giving your employees a seamless onboarding experience. But if you're new to the platform, the workflow can be a little confusing.

To help simplify things, I’ve put together this start-to-finish guide on how to onboard a new employee, set up their iPad, and offboard them when it's time to part ways.

Air Coolers vs. AIO Liquid Coolers: The Truth

Air Coolers vs. AIO Liquid Coolers:

The Truth Behind the Thermals

There's a persistent narrative in the PC building world that goes something like this: if you're serious about your system, you need liquid cooling. It's the kind of advice that gets passed around forums, Reddit threads, and YouTube comment sections with an air of certainty that discourages further investigation. And like a lot of conventional wisdom in tech, it's not exactly wrong; but it's not exactly right either.

The truth is more interesting, more nuanced, and more useful to anyone actually trying to make a smart purchasing decision in 2026. So let's break it down.

Power over Ethernet (PoE): Standards, Protocols & Power Types

A Guide to Power Over Ethernet (PoE):
Standards, Protocols & Power Types

Power over Ethernet (PoE) is one of the most quietly transformative technologies in modern networking. It lets you deliver both data and DC power over a single Ethernet cable, eliminating the need for dedicated electrical outlets at every access point, camera, phone, and sensor in your environment. What started as a modest 15-watt convenience in 2003 has grown into a family of standards capable of pushing nearly 100 watts per port; enough to power laptops, LED lighting panels, and multi-radio Wi-Fi 7 access points.

But here's the thing: the terminology around PoE has gotten messy. Between IEEE standards, vendor-specific branding, passive PoE injectors, and marketing names like "UPoE" and "PoE++," it's easy to lose track of what actually matters when you're speccing out a deployment.

This guide breaks down every major PoE standard, protocol, and power type; what it delivers, how it works, and when you'd actually use it.

Create a Secure, Password-Protected "File Vault" in Windows 11

 

Create a Secure, Password-Protected "File Vault": Windows 11 Pro & Enterprise

Are you looking for a way to keep your sensitive files hidden from prying eyes? Whether it's financial documents, personal photos, or top-secret projects, sometimes you just need a locked folder.

If you are running Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise, you are in luck! You don't need to download any sketchy third-party software. Instead, you can use built-in Windows tools to create a BitLocker-encrypted Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX).

Think of this as a secure digital "file vault" that lives on your computer. When you need it, you enter a password to open it. When you're done, you lock it up, and your files completely disappear from view.

Here's exactly how to set it all up!

Complete Tailscale Guide; Setup, Deployment, and Hardening

The Complete Tailscale Guide:
Setup, Deployment, and Hardening

If you've ever wrestled with port forwarding, dynamic DNS, or a clunky traditional VPN just to reach a device at home or a server at work, Tailscale is about to change your life. It creates a private mesh network (called a tailnet) across all your devices, wherever they are, with no open ports and no complex firewall rules. It just works.

This guide covers everything: creating and securing your account, installing Tailscale on Windows, Linux, virtual machines, and Docker containers, and hardening your tailnet so it's both maximally secure and actually pleasant to use.

Unifi Cloud Gateway WAN2 Failover Setup

Here is a complete, step-by-step guide for setting up a dual-WAN failover on a UniFi Cloud Gateway (UCG) Max or Ultra network controller!

Your Router Might Be Lying to You:
The Quiet Rise of DNS Hijacking

Over the last six months, I've been seeing more and more DNS hijack infections on routers, switches, and servers. It's a genuinely clever tactic, and it's worth understanding why: the attacker only needs to briefly gain access and very lightly maintain it. Once they've rerouted your DNS to a server they control, they can quietly sit in the middle of your traffic and analyze your traffic packets, harvest credentials, the works.

This isn't theoretical, and it isn't rare. 

My own server and three customer servers have been hit by this class of attack in the last 3 months. I'm writing this to bring some attention to what's going on, explain how these attacks actually work, and (most importantly) show you how to defend your equipment and check whether it's already been hit, without needing to be a network engineer.

Cybersecurity & IT/Networking Apps - iOS

Cybersecurity, Networking & IT Related Apps; That I Actually Use (*For iOS)

I recently put together a list of the Android apps that have actually earned a spot on my phone after 20+ years running Pacific Northwest Computers. I got enough questions about "what about iPhone?" that it's worth doing a proper companion piece.

Cybersecurity & IT/Networking Apps - Android

Cybersecurity, Networking & IT Related Apps; That I Actually Use (*For Android)

After 20+ years running Pacific Northwest Computers, I've installed, uninstalled, and re-installed a lot of "must have" Android apps. Most of what gets marketed as a "hacker toolkit" on the Play Store is either abandoned, repackaged, or outright malicious. So I figured I'd share the apps that have actually earned a spot on my phone for use all of the time, or just if/as needed. Nonetheless, these are the ones I can and do reach for during client visits, network troubleshooting, and security work.

This isn't a sponsored list. 

These are the tools I use, or have used.

Deploy Nextcloud on TrueNAS SCALE; Behind NPMplus SSL Proxy

 

Deploy Nextcloud on TrueNAS SCALE

Behind a NPMplus SSL Proxy

Nextcloud is consistently one of the most-installed apps on TrueNAS SCALE, but the official app catalog ships with a few defaults and quirks that can send a fresh install sideways; especially if you're putting it behind a reverse proxy like NPMplus. The good news is that once you know which boxes to tick (and which to leave alone), the whole stack comes up clean and stays up.

This guide walks through the exact sequence I used to deploy Nextcloud on TrueNAS SCALE Community Edition with NPMplus handling SSL and reverse proxying, with all the working settings with no detours, no "try this and see if it works" steps, and no recovery sections you'll only need if something breaks.

Project N.O.M.A.D.: Your Offline AI Survival Kit

 

Project N.O.M.A.D.: Your Offline AI Survival Kit (And How to Actually Get It Running)

If you've been following the homelab and self-hosted AI scene, you've probably heard of Project N.O.M.A.D. which is short for Networked Offline Machine for Autonomous Data. It's an impressive all-in-one offline-first AI platform built by Crosstalk Solutions, designed to give you a full AI assistant, knowledge base, and document processing engine that works even when the internet doesn't. Think Wikipedia mirrors, Stack Exchange snapshots, medical references, and a fully local LLM; all in a Docker stack you run on your own hardware.

This post covers what NOMAD is, how to install it, how to get it behind a reverse proxy with authentication, and (for those of you with AMD Ryzen mini PCs) how to unlock GPU acceleration so your AI assistant actually runs at a useful speed.

The Fragile State of Modern Tech:

Where Accountability Goes to Die

So... I need to rant about a few things.

Technology today is the most powerful and accessible it has ever been... and yet somehow, also the most unreliable I can remember. We have more computing power, more tools, and more connectivity than ever, yet reliability and accountability feel like they are going backwards. 

At some point, “good enough” stopped being good enough.

We’ve reached a stage where almost everything is “easy” to use on the surface, but underneath, it’s held together with layers of complexity that break in ways that don't make sense anymore. Updates fix one thing and quietly break three others. Features get pushed out half-baked. 

Stability has become an afterthought.

How To Setup a Desktop PC as a Server

Desktop PC as a Server:

The Ultimate Setup Guide (Windows 10/11)

Applies to: Windows 10 Pro / Windows 11 Pro (22H2 and later)

The purpose of this guide is to help folks with configuring a standard desktop computer to reliably serve files, printers, and business applications (QuickBooks, Sage, etc.) without downtime or performance lag.

UniFi Console Migration Guide:

Dream Machine Upgrade or Migration: Including Cloud Account Claiming, Cellular WAN Failover, SSH Credential Capture & Orphaned Device Recovery

This guide covers migrating all adopted UniFi devices (APs, switches, cameras) from a Dream Machine (UDM) to a Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro) with minimal disruption. It assumes you are replacing the UDM entirely and the UDM-Pro will take the same network role.

This guide has been updated with real-world field experience from an actual UDM → UDM-Pro migration, including the cloud account claiming procedure, Mesh AP tweaks required post-restore, and cellular WAN failover configuration using a designated LAN port as WAN3.

A Professional Guide For Responding to a Network Breach, System Breach, or Hack

Digital First Aid:

A Professional Guide For Responding to a Network or System Breach, and/or Hack

Discovering a security breach is a high-stakes race against time. Whether you are a home user or a business owner, your response in the first few hours determines whether the attacker is evicted or stays for the long haul.

SSD Reliability: Significant Concerns & Failure Risks

SSD Reliability:
Significant Concerns & Failure Risks

Recent data from 2025-2026 highlights a troubling decline in SSD reliability, driven by firmware-level defects and OS instability. For those accustomed to the historical resilience of flash storage, the current landscape requires a shift in strategy. Our internal data shows 5 client failures in the last 30 day; drives that were operational one day, and the next are DEAD and data is unrecoverable. 

Reported symptoms include spontaneous volume dismounting and critical failure during sustained write operations, and in some cases even issues with Windows Update installations, rendering the hardware entirely unreadable. 

This article's objective is to go over the current issue(s) trends we are noticing and things you can do to protect your data and information; JUST incase your SSD decides to call it quits!