I personally have been in the AF for about 2 years and contrary to what many have said here, I have an excellent job. I know that not all bases are like mine and I really do feel like I've gotten lucky. I sit as the top level administrator for my base on a team of 5 people. My career field is a 3C0X1 and that basically means I'm a software and computer configuration guy but I also do a lot of 3C0X2 work which includes routers, switches and what have you. I work directly with microsoft and since we have recently done a consolidation of 13 bases to one giant domain(we lost a little control over the network when they took control of the domain) there are on site microsoft, and dell engineers who help us with things all the time. I really feel like my job couldn't get much better. I handle all WINS, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, RAS, e-mail gateways, and many other things. It's really a life consuming job but the learning involved is incredible. We have about 8000 users and 5000 computers on my base and it's constantly growing. I don't think that I'll ever see another job like this in the future.
There is a downside though, not everyone gets into a good position, YOU'RE IN THE FRIGGIN MILITARY, you contantly have to bend over and take one for the team, and the pay sucks. And I almost forgot to mention temporary duty to places like Florida, this is where I'll be for the next four months:(. These are some reasons why I will be leaving in a couple years. But you have to take it for what it's worth, you get some of the best experience possible if you apply yourself.
I think that anyone decently knowlegeable could really do something good for themselves coming into the AF, you have an opportunity to really do a lot. It's funny though, since not to many people do anything with their career. I guess it's just to easy to slack off. If you are a really determined to make something of yourself then go for, come join me in New Jersey and learn. This is definately an experience that I could never have gotten somewhere else.
If anyone has any other questions to ask me or would like some more insight into how things really are just drop me a line.
I've personally used software update sevices on about 200 clients and found it to work quite effectively. I created a SUS server and then configured the clients by Kix script. The only catch was you couldn't use SUS for any os patches or service packs but not really a big deal. SUS is good also since you can decide which patches your clients pull from the server. If anyone has any interest on creating a server or would like to see the scripts I wrote to configure client machines I would be willing to donate it to anyone that needs it. Btw the script configures machines in an AD environment using LDAP and at this point is only configured for machines running 200 or xp. It also covers win2k sp1 & 2 being that it copies and installs and configures SUS on a per machine basis. Sp3 and later only need configuration.
NAV for gateways is an excellent program if you set it up as you external mail relay it will scan and filter all e-mails before you shoot it through your firewall. Then per your specifications you can have the relay delete the attachments or the whole e-mail. You can also use it for file extension filtration.
I've found the best setup to be one internal, and one external to pass all of your e-mail traffic through the firewall. It works well in high traffic situations too, my organization has about 9000 users passing tens of thousands of e-amils daily.
Anyway, just my two cents.
I used SUS for a period of time and on an organization of about 150 computers and it worked great but I found it very limited. We now use SMS and it kicks SUS's butt.
I find it funny that so many people are habing problems. I work for the government (the root of all evil) and we use NAV for gateways and it scans all e-mails and attachments for viruses. It works absolutely fantastic. It strips attachments that you specify, the whole nine yards. I've used it for about a year now and we barely ever have problems.
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There is a downside though, not everyone gets into a good position, YOU'RE IN THE FRIGGIN MILITARY, you contantly have to bend over and take one for the team, and the pay sucks. And I almost forgot to mention temporary duty to places like Florida, this is where I'll be for the next four months :(. These are some reasons why I will be leaving in a couple years. But you have to take it for what it's worth, you get some of the best experience possible if you apply yourself.
I think that anyone decently knowlegeable could really do something good for themselves coming into the AF, you have an opportunity to really do a lot. It's funny though, since not to many people do anything with their career. I guess it's just to easy to slack off. If you are a really determined to make something of yourself then go for, come join me in New Jersey and learn. This is definately an experience that I could never have gotten somewhere else. If anyone has any other questions to ask me or would like some more insight into how things really are just drop me a line.
I've personally used software update sevices on about 200 clients and found it to work quite effectively. I created a SUS server and then configured the clients by Kix script. The only catch was you couldn't use SUS for any os patches or service packs but not really a big deal. SUS is good also since you can decide which patches your clients pull from the server. If anyone has any interest on creating a server or would like to see the scripts I wrote to configure client machines I would be willing to donate it to anyone that needs it. Btw the script configures machines in an AD environment using LDAP and at this point is only configured for machines running 200 or xp. It also covers win2k sp1 & 2 being that it copies and installs and configures SUS on a per machine basis. Sp3 and later only need configuration.
what does this "Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Audientor Ito" mean. I'd really like to know.
NAV for gateways is an excellent program if you set it up as you external mail relay it will scan and filter all e-mails before you shoot it through your firewall. Then per your specifications you can have the relay delete the attachments or the whole e-mail. You can also use it for file extension filtration. I've found the best setup to be one internal, and one external to pass all of your e-mail traffic through the firewall. It works well in high traffic situations too, my organization has about 9000 users passing tens of thousands of e-amils daily. Anyway, just my two cents.
I used SUS for a period of time and on an organization of about 150 computers and it worked great but I found it very limited. We now use SMS and it kicks SUS's butt.
I find it funny that so many people are habing problems. I work for the government (the root of all evil) and we use NAV for gateways and it scans all e-mails and attachments for viruses. It works absolutely fantastic. It strips attachments that you specify, the whole nine yards. I've used it for about a year now and we barely ever have problems.