Note though, that you are making a lot of assumptions. Just because a network guy may not know how to make a T1 cable from memory doesn't mean that he/she doesn't have a fundamental understanding of how it all works together and how to troubleshoot it. Knowing pinouts isn't understanding, it's just memory. Understanding is at a higher level. It's knowing what to look for and where to look. In fact, when I put in new equipment and it doesn't work, I always check the physical network end-to-end first and go from there.
The IT industry, and networking, has changed quite a bit over the last 20 years. It used to be that it was quite a bit cheaper to patch your own cables. Today, that has changed. You can still save some money, but at what expense? What are the opportunity costs? If you weren't cabling, you could be focussing on optimizing the LAN, WAN, making sure that monitoring and alerting is set up properly, creating trending reports and making recommendations on which switches, routers, circuits need upgrading.
In small shops it may be possible to do both, but in large companies there isn't enough time in a day to create custom cables. It's the least of your worries.
"Network Engineer" is the accepted term in the IT industry no matter how much it may irk those that have engineering degrees. A little bit of a chip on the shoulder?
Some of us just don't have an encylopedic memory of all of the pinouts of all of the standards used in the network field. The only time I even need cabling information is when I need to make a cable. I get paid to understand switching, routing, firewalls, Wifi, VOIP, Security, etc, not pinouts for cabling. If I was a cabling contractor or worked as an ISP installer, I would agree with you. However, my focus is very rarely at the physical layer, and usually only when something has gone wrong. When one works as a network engineer for large company (over 10000 employees), your focus is a little bit higher than the physical layer...
As a network engineer my advice is to always buy network cables, with the one exception being when you need a custom cable.
For example, I was doing some testing that required two routers to be connected using a cross-over T1 cable. Of course, this isn't something we had on hand at the time, but we did have CAT5 cable, RJ45 ends, and a crimper. So I found the pinouts online and created what I needed.
The time that it takes you to cut, insert wires, crimp, test, and repeat (if you made a mistake), is time that you could be doing something else.
The (cost of the materials + salary cost + oportunity costs) > (cost of a new cables - hassle of not being blamed for bad cables)
What everyone is missing is that the gifts were vetted long before the President's visit. In addition, the Queen, according to all accounts, has a couple of iPods, but may not have the latest model (my guess is that the President gift was the latest video iPod). In fact, she also has a BlackBerry, same model as the President's. So it could just be that the Queen is a gadget freak, just like a lot of us and was perfectly happy with a Tech gift. After all, how many silver, gold, diamond encrusted thingamabobs do you need?
To the people saying that a Tech gift is not personal, a tech gift can be just as personal as any other gift. All you have to do is customize it for the person you are giving it to (i.e. an iPod full of Blues music to a blues fan, etc.).
I found in University that I retained more information in classes where I was half-napping (not falling asleep). I haven't heard of any studies but my thought is that the brain may find it easier to organize information when you are drifting. Then again, maybe it's just me... (grin)
The best time to make a career move is while you are working. I made a move about 3 months ago, just before things started to get really bad, to a company that is making healthy profits. I knew that the weak economy was going to hit my old company hard. They just went through a round of layoffs. However, I wasn't worried about my position as a Network Engineer. In fact, my old company is looking for a replacement, despite falling revenue. It seems that experienced Network Engineers are one of the areas that are in high demand.
If you make a career move while you have a job, make sure that you are going to a financially healthy company.
RAID is used for three purposes, to speed up access to data, to create a volume larger than any one disk, and to mitigate against disk failure. It has never been, nor ever will be a backup solution on its own. A backup solution involves making a copy of the data to independent storage, be it tape, disk, etc. Ideally a copy will also be sent offsite in case of fire, etc. In addition, the restore process needs to be tested on a seperate restoration box to make sure that the backup process and the media are working correctly.
Personally, I am not sure why this is a story on Slashdot as everyone here should have at least this basic understanding of how to protect their data.
For network gear I would recommend cxtec.com. My former company did business with them to save money. Failures were few and far between. When a piece of equipment did fail, it was replaced quickly.
The one thing to remember when buying refurbs for enterprise use is to always go n+1 (i.e. have at least one spare on the shelf).
I've bought knockoff batteries for my digital cameras and even my DeWalt tools with absolutely no problems. Of course, I only buy from people with excellent feedback on eBay and I never buy at bottom-of-the-barrel prices. Not once have I had a battery fail. This could partially be explained by the increased emphasis on quality products from the factories in China. After all, there are a small number of plants that make batteries.
You've just been hired as a new Sys Admin and do not have a lot of experience. Yet the first thing that you want to do is set up a web server and open it up to the public? As I understand it, this is not something that you have been asked to do, but something that you want to do for practice and training. Nothing like biting off more than you can chew. And possibly opening up your organization to a huge security risk. I hope that you have a good Firewall Admin...
I've been in the IT industry for about 13 years. I've been where you are now. I started out as an email administrator and worked my way into server administration. I am now a Senior Network Engineer. My advice would be to first spend time understanding the current environment and make sure that everything is being backed up and can be restored (one of the most overlooked of server admin jobs). Also, if you don't have a monitoring system, it's time to implement one. I like Solarwinds Orion, but there are a number of free systems out there such as Cacti and Nagios.
Assuming that your beyond this point, it's time to play. Like others have mentioned, VMWare is your friend. Install VMWare on a spare system. Pick an OS and learn it inside and out. Buy a couple of good books about that OS. In most cases you can charge these back to the organization as a training expense. Once you understand how to install, configure, maintain, and monitor the system, then you can get into how to secure it. Until you have a good grasp of how the OS behaves you won't have enough understanding to properly secure it. Only at this point should you build a web server.
Actually, the analyst is correct. The problem is that his editor screwed up the meaning. What the analyst actually wrote is that "his" (meaning the analyst's) mouse will be replaced in 5 years. I know that mine last about that long before I have to get a new one... (grin)
I'm sure that you are right that it could be done with enough time, effort, and money thrown at it. I'm also sure that standardization and automation will gradually be developed such that putting a network together will be like assembling a lego set. I'm just saying that it's not going to happen any time soon. And it's not because of the mindset of network professionals, it's because of the natural propensity towards proprietary standards by vendors. At least in the US, innovation is hobbled by the patent system.
The examples that you gave, diabetics testing and gene sequencing, were developed using open international collaboration with techniques being shared and disseminated between university and biotech researchers (i.e. on the open source end of the spectrum). However, the R&D of network technology is done in a closed source environment. There just isn't the same number of researchers or same level of international cooperation that is necessary to provide such a breakthrough.
In my opinion, I would rather have many more researchers working on biotech solutions than the development of network technology. Health is always more important than Tech....
How did the previous comment score any points whatsoever? Obviously the poster has no concept of the complexity of an Enterprise network.
Enterprise network equipment is difficult to configure and maintain, period. Why? Because it needs to be flexible enough to handle almost any configuration scenario thrown at it. Greater flexibility breeds complexity. Most enterprise networks have at least 3-4 virtual networks (Internet, Wifi, LAN, Management LAN, server LAN, DMZ, etc) all of which require unique security settings. In addition, the network equipment has to play nice with networkable equipment from multiple vendors, including things such as UPS systems, door security systems, cooling systems, etc. None of this lends itself to an automatic configuration scenario. Only home networks, the simplest of networks, would fall into this category.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a network engineer and I would love to have self-configuring network gear. I could then spend all of my time designing, monitoring, and tuning. I just don't see it happening any time soon.
All you have to do is remove the energy souce of the computer and you can beat it every time.
Seriously, though, there isn't much difference between this and letting a computer fly us to the moon. Give a computer and a human a confined set of parameters and rules and the computer can, with the right programming, consistantly perform at a higher level. Add any unforseen elements to the situation and the human can learn and adjust. Computers just can't do that as they are limited by their creators, and I don't see them being able to do that any time in the near future. For example, I wonder what would happen if something was added to the Air Hockey table that sped up or slowed down the puck in certain sections (i.e. spilt cola or oil).
What is cool is the advancement in video recognition.
The truth of the matter is that certificates used on web sites are indeed only used for encryption. The only reason why companies use Verisign certs (and other commercial certificate services) is because the Verisign CAs are trusted by default by IE, Firefox, etc. Most online customers do not like being inconvenienced by pop-ups when paying for their purchases, etc. SSL certificates are rarely, if ever, used for identification purposes. Even if they were, do you truly believe that users would notice a problem rather than just click on OK?
That being said, there are other certificate types that are used for identification and for which CRLs are important, such as VPN certs.
Yeah, well it's their fault. The ISPs have been receiving fees from consumers for years that was supposed to be earmarked towards infrastructure upgrades. The only ISP that seems to be actually investing any money is Verizon with their FiOS service. Comcast has been doing nothing but riding the coat tails of technical innovation of being able to push more bits through the same old pipes. However, that is maxing out as evidenced by their HD service. They are compessing HD to the point where there is picture drop out and obvious compression artifacts. This is also why they are limiting bandwith.
Since most of us on Slashdot are technical in some way:
When working on a movie set, are IT professionals involved?
If so, are they hired "in-house" or contracted from local IT consulting firms? What tasks are they involved in (i.e. pc support, networking, digital storage, etc)?
I had the unique opportunity to watch a portion of the filming of the movie "This Side of the Truth" (a comedy coming in 2009). They were filming at the apartment complex across the street. I noticed that there was a lot of A/V equipment (of course) and a number of LCD displays. However, there didn't seem to be any network gear, digital storage, or PC/Mac/Laptops in use. My guess is that this is because of the type of film (i.e. lower budget, no special effects, etc.).
I enjoyed this until the slams about Saint John, NB (and not St. John, as typed in the post) and St. Johns, Nfld. Both are unique and interesting cities to visit (though I have never been to St. Johns, I want to some day). I grew up in the Saint John, NB area and, while I couldn't recommend living there, it is nice to visit. In fact, it's a cruise destination for cruise ships going up the east coast.
For the industry as a whole, the recession presents both challenges and opportunities. Weaker companies will die, stronger companies will consolidate and get back to their core products. Innovation won't slow down, but new products will not be brought to market as quickly as businesses become more risk adverse.
The corporate IT environment, for companies that survive, will go through a period of what I like to call a "breather". You get a chance to catch up on all of those little projects that you have been putting off because of constantly having to support the business through a growth period. For example, I am in the process of implementing an end-to-end network monitoring solution to replace a number of smaller implementations. Something that I would not have time to do during growth periods. It's also a good time to take classes to enhance your skills.
You could pick up a Proxim Tsunami QuickBridge 20. We use them on our campus, works great. They are good for up to 6 miles but do require line of site. You should be able to find on on eBay for less than $1000.
Slashdot Mirror
Note though, that you are making a lot of assumptions. Just because a network guy may not know how to make a T1 cable from memory doesn't mean that he/she doesn't have a fundamental understanding of how it all works together and how to troubleshoot it. Knowing pinouts isn't understanding, it's just memory. Understanding is at a higher level. It's knowing what to look for and where to look. In fact, when I put in new equipment and it doesn't work, I always check the physical network end-to-end first and go from there.
David
Then kudos...
I work for a large company (over 10000 employees) and there is no way I would get home at night if we didn't use cabling vendors and pre-made cables.
The IT industry, and networking, has changed quite a bit over the last 20 years. It used to be that it was quite a bit cheaper to patch your own cables. Today, that has changed. You can still save some money, but at what expense? What are the opportunity costs? If you weren't cabling, you could be focussing on optimizing the LAN, WAN, making sure that monitoring and alerting is set up properly, creating trending reports and making recommendations on which switches, routers, circuits need upgrading.
In small shops it may be possible to do both, but in large companies there isn't enough time in a day to create custom cables. It's the least of your worries.
"Network Engineer" is the accepted term in the IT industry no matter how much it may irk those that have engineering degrees. A little bit of a chip on the shoulder?
Some of us just don't have an encylopedic memory of all of the pinouts of all of the standards used in the network field. The only time I even need cabling information is when I need to make a cable. I get paid to understand switching, routing, firewalls, Wifi, VOIP, Security, etc, not pinouts for cabling. If I was a cabling contractor or worked as an ISP installer, I would agree with you. However, my focus is very rarely at the physical layer, and usually only when something has gone wrong. When one works as a network engineer for large company (over 10000 employees), your focus is a little bit higher than the physical layer...
David
As a network engineer my advice is to always buy network cables, with the one exception being when you need a custom cable.
For example, I was doing some testing that required two routers to be connected using a cross-over T1 cable. Of course, this isn't something we had on hand at the time, but we did have CAT5 cable, RJ45 ends, and a crimper. So I found the pinouts online and created what I needed.
The time that it takes you to cut, insert wires, crimp, test, and repeat (if you made a mistake), is time that you could be doing something else.
The (cost of the materials + salary cost + oportunity costs) > (cost of a new cables - hassle of not being blamed for bad cables)
David
What everyone is missing is that the gifts were vetted long before the President's visit. In addition, the Queen, according to all accounts, has a couple of iPods, but may not have the latest model (my guess is that the President gift was the latest video iPod). In fact, she also has a BlackBerry, same model as the President's. So it could just be that the Queen is a gadget freak, just like a lot of us and was perfectly happy with a Tech gift. After all, how many silver, gold, diamond encrusted thingamabobs do you need?
To the people saying that a Tech gift is not personal, a tech gift can be just as personal as any other gift. All you have to do is customize it for the person you are giving it to (i.e. an iPod full of Blues music to a blues fan, etc.).
David
I found in University that I retained more information in classes where I was half-napping (not falling asleep). I haven't heard of any studies but my thought is that the brain may find it easier to organize information when you are drifting. Then again, maybe it's just me... (grin)
David
The best time to make a career move is while you are working. I made a move about 3 months ago, just before things started to get really bad, to a company that is making healthy profits. I knew that the weak economy was going to hit my old company hard. They just went through a round of layoffs. However, I wasn't worried about my position as a Network Engineer. In fact, my old company is looking for a replacement, despite falling revenue. It seems that experienced Network Engineers are one of the areas that are in high demand.
If you make a career move while you have a job, make sure that you are going to a financially healthy company.
David
Yes... Kids do it all the time...
Oh.. you meant computer games...
David
It's also got Electrolytes...
RAID is used for three purposes, to speed up access to data, to create a volume larger than any one disk, and to mitigate against disk failure. It has never been, nor ever will be a backup solution on its own. A backup solution involves making a copy of the data to independent storage, be it tape, disk, etc. Ideally a copy will also be sent offsite in case of fire, etc. In addition, the restore process needs to be tested on a seperate restoration box to make sure that the backup process and the media are working correctly.
Personally, I am not sure why this is a story on Slashdot as everyone here should have at least this basic understanding of how to protect their data.
David
For network gear I would recommend cxtec.com. My former company did business with them to save money. Failures were few and far between. When a piece of equipment did fail, it was replaced quickly.
The one thing to remember when buying refurbs for enterprise use is to always go n+1 (i.e. have at least one spare on the shelf).
David
I've bought knockoff batteries for my digital cameras and even my DeWalt tools with absolutely no problems. Of course, I only buy from people with excellent feedback on eBay and I never buy at bottom-of-the-barrel prices. Not once have I had a battery fail. This could partially be explained by the increased emphasis on quality products from the factories in China. After all, there are a small number of plants that make batteries.
Want to know where to take your used batteries, two words: Radio Shack
You've just been hired as a new Sys Admin and do not have a lot of experience. Yet the first thing that you want to do is set up a web server and open it up to the public? As I understand it, this is not something that you have been asked to do, but something that you want to do for practice and training. Nothing like biting off more than you can chew. And possibly opening up your organization to a huge security risk. I hope that you have a good Firewall Admin...
I've been in the IT industry for about 13 years. I've been where you are now. I started out as an email administrator and worked my way into server administration. I am now a Senior Network Engineer. My advice would be to first spend time understanding the current environment and make sure that everything is being backed up and can be restored (one of the most overlooked of server admin jobs). Also, if you don't have a monitoring system, it's time to implement one. I like Solarwinds Orion, but there are a number of free systems out there such as Cacti and Nagios.
Assuming that your beyond this point, it's time to play. Like others have mentioned, VMWare is your friend. Install VMWare on a spare system. Pick an OS and learn it inside and out. Buy a couple of good books about that OS. In most cases you can charge these back to the organization as a training expense. Once you understand how to install, configure, maintain, and monitor the system, then you can get into how to secure it. Until you have a good grasp of how the OS behaves you won't have enough understanding to properly secure it. Only at this point should you build a web server.
David
Actually, the analyst is correct. The problem is that his editor screwed up the meaning. What the analyst actually wrote is that "his" (meaning the analyst's) mouse will be replaced in 5 years. I know that mine last about that long before I have to get a new one... (grin)
David
I'm sure that you are right that it could be done with enough time, effort, and money thrown at it. I'm also sure that standardization and automation will gradually be developed such that putting a network together will be like assembling a lego set. I'm just saying that it's not going to happen any time soon. And it's not because of the mindset of network professionals, it's because of the natural propensity towards proprietary standards by vendors. At least in the US, innovation is hobbled by the patent system.
The examples that you gave, diabetics testing and gene sequencing, were developed using open international collaboration with techniques being shared and disseminated between university and biotech researchers (i.e. on the open source end of the spectrum). However, the R&D of network technology is done in a closed source environment. There just isn't the same number of researchers or same level of international cooperation that is necessary to provide such a breakthrough.
In my opinion, I would rather have many more researchers working on biotech solutions than the development of network technology. Health is always more important than Tech....
David
How did the previous comment score any points whatsoever? Obviously the poster has no concept of the complexity of an Enterprise network.
Enterprise network equipment is difficult to configure and maintain, period. Why? Because it needs to be flexible enough to handle almost any configuration scenario thrown at it. Greater flexibility breeds complexity. Most enterprise networks have at least 3-4 virtual networks (Internet, Wifi, LAN, Management LAN, server LAN, DMZ, etc) all of which require unique security settings. In addition, the network equipment has to play nice with networkable equipment from multiple vendors, including things such as UPS systems, door security systems, cooling systems, etc. None of this lends itself to an automatic configuration scenario. Only home networks, the simplest of networks, would fall into this category.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a network engineer and I would love to have self-configuring network gear. I could then spend all of my time designing, monitoring, and tuning. I just don't see it happening any time soon.
David
All you have to do is remove the energy souce of the computer and you can beat it every time.
Seriously, though, there isn't much difference between this and letting a computer fly us to the moon. Give a computer and a human a confined set of parameters and rules and the computer can, with the right programming, consistantly perform at a higher level. Add any unforseen elements to the situation and the human can learn and adjust. Computers just can't do that as they are limited by their creators, and I don't see them being able to do that any time in the near future. For example, I wonder what would happen if something was added to the Air Hockey table that sped up or slowed down the puck in certain sections (i.e. spilt cola or oil).
What is cool is the advancement in video recognition.
David
The truth of the matter is that certificates used on web sites are indeed only used for encryption. The only reason why companies use Verisign certs (and other commercial certificate services) is because the Verisign CAs are trusted by default by IE, Firefox, etc. Most online customers do not like being inconvenienced by pop-ups when paying for their purchases, etc. SSL certificates are rarely, if ever, used for identification purposes. Even if they were, do you truly believe that users would notice a problem rather than just click on OK?
That being said, there are other certificate types that are used for identification and for which CRLs are important, such as VPN certs.
David
Yeah, well it's their fault. The ISPs have been receiving fees from consumers for years that was supposed to be earmarked towards infrastructure upgrades. The only ISP that seems to be actually investing any money is Verizon with their FiOS service. Comcast has been doing nothing but riding the coat tails of technical innovation of being able to push more bits through the same old pipes. However, that is maxing out as evidenced by their HD service. They are compessing HD to the point where there is picture drop out and obvious compression artifacts. This is also why they are limiting bandwith.
David
Since most of us on Slashdot are technical in some way:
When working on a movie set, are IT professionals involved?
If so, are they hired "in-house" or contracted from local IT consulting firms? What tasks are they involved in (i.e. pc support, networking, digital storage, etc)?
I had the unique opportunity to watch a portion of the filming of the movie "This Side of the Truth" (a comedy coming in 2009). They were filming at the apartment complex across the street. I noticed that there was a lot of A/V equipment (of course) and a number of LCD displays. However, there didn't seem to be any network gear, digital storage, or PC/Mac/Laptops in use. My guess is that this is because of the type of film (i.e. lower budget, no special effects, etc.).
David
I enjoyed this until the slams about Saint John, NB (and not St. John, as typed in the post) and St. Johns, Nfld. Both are unique and interesting cities to visit (though I have never been to St. Johns, I want to some day). I grew up in the Saint John, NB area and, while I couldn't recommend living there, it is nice to visit. In fact, it's a cruise destination for cruise ships going up the east coast.
For the industry as a whole, the recession presents both challenges and opportunities. Weaker companies will die, stronger companies will consolidate and get back to their core products. Innovation won't slow down, but new products will not be brought to market as quickly as businesses become more risk adverse.
The corporate IT environment, for companies that survive, will go through a period of what I like to call a "breather". You get a chance to catch up on all of those little projects that you have been putting off because of constantly having to support the business through a growth period. For example, I am in the process of implementing an end-to-end network monitoring solution to replace a number of smaller implementations. Something that I would not have time to do during growth periods. It's also a good time to take classes to enhance your skills.
David
You could pick up a Proxim Tsunami QuickBridge 20. We use them on our campus, works great. They are good for up to 6 miles but do require line of site. You should be able to find on on eBay for less than $1000.
David