On-site when it has to be, remote when that's faster and cheaper. Networking, computers, storage, and backup for small businesses. Laptops, phones, email, passwords, theater, and automation for homes.
Kuhn Consulting is a technology practice based in Eagle, Colorado, and this page covers the local half of what I do. Alongside the software consulting work, I handle hands-on technology for homes and small businesses across the Vail Valley, which sits in Eagle County. I cover it end to end, including the smaller towns most services skip: EagleVail, Minturn, Wolcott, and Red Cliff. For a business that means the network in your office, the computers your staff actually use, the NAS holding your files, and the backup you hope you never need. For a house it means the laptops and phones, the email and passwords, the theater, the automation, and everything else that is supposed to just work. Anything physical gets done on site. Configuration, software setup, and most troubleshooting happen remotely, which is faster and costs you less. Either way it is the same person: a 25-year engineer, not a dispatch queue.
I have been building production software for over 25 years, including enterprise systems for DaimlerChrysler, GM, Ford, and Aetna, and I have run Kuhn Consulting for most of that time. The same judgment applies to a small office network or a rack of home theater gear. I'll tell you when something is worth fixing, when it is worth replacing, and when you should leave it alone.
The work splits cleanly down the middle, so each side has its own page with the full detail.
For offices without an IT department. The network everyone complains about, the workstations your staff actually use, the file storage holding your records, and the backup you hope you never need.
For the house. Laptops, phones, email, and passwords, plus theater, automation, and the everyday electronics that are supposed to just work.
The whole Vail Valley, in Eagle County, Colorado.
Up-valley work skews toward second homes and the businesses that serve them. Media rooms that have to work the first time a guest hits play, networks covering a big footprint through a lot of stone and timber, and remote monitoring for houses that sit empty between visits. Scheduling usually has to fit around occupancy, so evening and weekend visits are normal here.
The mid-valley is where most of the small business work is. Offices, shops, studios, and clinics running on a handful of machines, a router that came from the ISP, and a backup nobody has tested. This is the stretch where a proper network refresh and a real backup pay for themselves fastest. Minturn is small enough that most jobs there arrive by word of mouth.
Down-valley is home base. Kuhn Consulting is in Eagle, so Eagle and Glenwood Springs usually get same-week scheduling, and short jobs that wouldn't be worth a trip up-valley are easy to fit in. Wolcott and Red Cliff are both small and both routinely skipped by valley-wide services, so if you're there and you've been told you're out of range, ask.
Straight answers about coverage, scheduling, and how to reach me.
I cover the Vail Valley end to end, in Eagle County, Colorado. That means Vail, Beaver Creek, Avon, EagleVail, Minturn, Edwards, Wolcott, Eagle, Glenwood Springs, and Red Cliff. Kuhn Consulting is based in Eagle, so the down-valley towns are the shortest trip, but the up-valley side is a normal part of the week and there's no travel surcharge for it. If you're somewhere in Eagle County I didn't name, ask anyway. The valley is small and the answer is usually yes. For anything outside the county, remote support still works fine, and a good share of this work doesn't need anyone standing in the room. If you're not sure whether a job needs a visit at all, describe it in the form and I'll tell you before you commit to anything.
Both, and the split usually saves you money. Anything physical happens on site: running cable, mounting a TV, racking a NAS, replacing a failed drive, or tracking down why the Wi-Fi dies in the back bedroom. Anything that lives in software can usually be done remotely, including backup configuration, email and account setup, operating system updates, and most troubleshooting. Remote work is faster to schedule and cheaper per hour because nobody is driving I-70. In practice a lot of Vail Valley jobs start with a remote look to work out what is actually wrong, then one on-site visit that fixes it, instead of two visits where the first one is just diagnosis. If you would rather I simply come out and look at it, that's fine too.
Yes, and on the gear those machines talk to. Macs, Windows PCs, iPhones and iPads, Android phones, NAS boxes, business and consumer routers, mesh Wi-Fi, printers, receivers, projectors, streaming boxes, smart switches, thermostats, and cameras. Most Vail Valley homes and small offices are mixed, and the interesting problems are almost always at the seams: the Mac that won't see the shared drive, the phone that stopped getting mail after a password change, the smart lock that quietly dropped off the network. Kuhn Consulting works across the whole stack rather than one vendor's ecosystem, so there's no handoff to somebody else when a problem crosses a brand boundary. If you run something unusual, mention it and I'll tell you honestly whether I know it.
Usually yes, and it's a common request. Bring whatever passwords and account details you have, and if you don't have them, say so early, because recovering access is often the longest part of the job. The first pass is documentation: what is actually installed, how it is wired, what is out of warranty, what is quietly failing, and what is costing you a subscription you forgot about. After that you get a plain list of what is worth fixing, what is worth replacing, and what is fine as it is. I'm not going to tell you to rip out working equipment because I didn't choose it. Plenty of Vail Valley homes have good hardware that was simply set up in a hurry.
Yes. The number is (970) 331-5526, and you can call or text it. Kuhn Consulting is one engineer, so if I'm under somebody's desk with a cable in my hand you'll get voicemail, and a text usually gets a faster answer than a call does. The contact form on this site works just as well, and it comes straight to me rather than into a queue. There are request buttons for home and small business work further up this page, and either one takes you straight to the form. Tell me what is going on, roughly where you are in the valley, and when you're available, and you'll get a real reply with a straight answer about whether I can help and when.
A short note about the problem and where you are in the valley is enough to start.