I'm an attorney, but at every firm I've ever worked, I've always ended up as the unofficial IT guy. Since I seem to know more about IT than many of the people who are paid to provide it, I find it hard to sit by while my colleagues struggle with problems I know how to solve.

My current firm outsources its IT support to a company that's promised to keep all the systems up and running. But after several months, I noticed that every time I tried to get information out of our SQL database, my workstation would turn into an egg timer. Sometimes I'd have to restart my computer to make that hourglass go away. I decided to investigate.

The network wasn't complicated-it served only a total of seven workstations-and when I checked, I discovered that every one was running a different operating system. Those client computers had two things in common, though: the same username and password (the default settings for the administrator account). Oh, and not one was running current antivirus or antispyware software. Naturally, viruses, spyware, and worms were happily working their way toward the servers.

We had three servers, all running Win 2K without any updates or antivirus software. The server room was hot as a jungle and overgrown with a dense tangle of cables. I traced a few and discovered that a bunch of peripheral equipment attached to the server and generating plenty of heat, but doing no work. A CD-ROM jukebox (with no CDs loaded) was permanently powered up. Several ancient external modems were hot, but not one was connected to a phone line. Three UPS units were "protecting" the servers, but only one had a working battery.

Amazingly, we were paying for IT support. On the few occasions I observed them at work, I saw poorly trained technicians taking inordinate amounts of time to do basic repairs. I brought it up in meetings, but the partners insisted that they trusted these guys.