When you looked at the Cisco solution, did you just look at the bottom dollar or did you run the numbers on line savings, labor savings, etc? We're going from an all-Centrex phone system with about 420 lines spread across 21 sites to a Cisco VoIP system in the next few months. The initial cost is pretty high, but we're looking at a 2-2.5 year payoff. After the payoff, we're estimating a $7-$8,000 savings per month! Our network techs can do all the maintenance (no more $200+ service calls), all phones have advanced calling features and voicemail, we're leveraging the XML-based displays to add company directories and clock-in/out capability, etc.
Don't just look at the actual cost, run the numbers on everything else too. If it doesn't work out now, stick with current setup until either the numbers work out better or until the added features justify the cost.
Also, I personally wouldn't want to stake my company's phone system on a smaller vendor. We looked primarily at Cisco, 3Com, Nortel, and Avaya. All three have good reputations in the industry.
I would love to see a Planescape:Torment sequel though. I was thinking something along the lines of the NPC's setting out to go to Hell and rescue The Nameless One.
HP's Compaq division has the consumer line (Presario) and the business line (Deskpro/EVO). You've been able to buy Deskpros for a while now preloaded with Linux.
This is why any corporate documents that will be dessiminated outside the company should always be converted to Acrobat. It's the policy for many sites for this very reason.
Vexira from Central Command scans inside zips. We've been happy with it. We did get hit by Netsky.C and Netsky.D before the definitions were released, but those are the first two that got through in a couple of years. We have approximately 7000 e-mail accounts running through it.
WEP is kind of like locks on your doors, it only keeps out the honest people.
802.11i should fix the majority of WEP's problems. The bad news is that most currently available access points will not be software upgradeable to the 802.11i standard.
You can build it yourself I'm sure, but it wouldn't be nearly as well integrated as the Novell solution. The management tools are awesome, everything works like it supposed to from one interface. We've been using Netware since version 2.15, so we have lots of experience with it too.
My department believes in using the best tool for the job, and I still think Novell has the best file/print services and directory setup. We use Linux, Windows, Novell, Mac OS, etc. as the situation demands.
The rocking'est thing about 6.x (in my opinion) is the Native File Access. All major clients (*nix NFS, SMB, and AFP) can access the server without installing any client software. It's a godsend in a mixed environment. Some of the other features like iFolder, NDPS, etc. are also very cool once you get started with them.
They are also still rock solid. Novell's uptime compares favorably with any i386-based server OS out there.
I had a server that began sending undeliverable messages to my postmaster account that were obviously spams originating from the server itself. I use Debian with Exim set to disable relaying and could not figure out how this occurred. I finally found a couple of strange processes running that apparently were acting as an SMTP reflector of some sort. Computers were sending e-mails to it and it forwarded them out to the proper addresses.
I finally traced it back to an older CGI script on the server that had a few bugs. Luckily they only had access to the/tmp directory, so it was an easy fix after upgrading the script. I never did figure out exactly what the process was doing though and couldn't find anything about on the 'net. This occurred about a year ago.
I saw that parallel to Pham's tools in that book as well. It's mostly just a question of size I think. It makes for some very interesting possibilities.
You're definitely going to need a lot more AC and A/C.
You'll need at least one 20-amp circuit per rack in my opinion if you go with standard 110 battery backups. For that many servers though, you might be better off going with 220 service and the high voltage battery backups that APC and others offer.
Our old server room started small with a couple of servers and quickly outgrew the AC service and A/C. We heated our whole office in the winter with just the servers! Maintenance ran several new 20-amp circuits for us until we filled up the breaker box.
When we moved a couple of years ago, I made sure to get the new room right before we moved any equipment. We have central A/C fed by several outside units plus a very large auxiliary unit just for the server room. 20-amp circuits are ran every few feet on separate breakers. I don't know what type servers you are using, but large multi-processor, redundant fans, RAID, etc. boxes use LOTS of power. We use mostly Compaq DL380's, two of them will draw 50% off an APC 1400R battery backup. For extended runtimes, we made sure to not overload the battery backups, so only two servers per backup with no more than two backups per 20-amp circuit. It's slightly overkill, but I got very frustrated in our old location and resolved to never blow breakers or kill battery backups this time.
Since you're just getting started, it will pay off big time in the long run to get everything setup right before you start loading in servers. It makes things so much easier to just plug in without having to call maintenance or a contractor to upgrade services.
I've noticed lots of overlap not just with gearheads, but with any type of mechanical devices. Look back at the discussion from a few days ago about ink pens and mechanical pencils!
I've always found it interesting that the guys who like the really high tech things also like vintage and/or antique items. Personally, I'm the IS Manager for a school system. I have the newest computers and gadgets you can buy, but I also have old tools and other mechanical devices. I have a Ford F-350 diesel truck (very advanced engine, drive by wire, performance chip, etc.), but I also have a 1966 Ford Mustang for pretty days. I also work on a stock car race team with a friend.
My two hobbies come together on my website TheDieselStop.Com, a website with technical information about Ford diesel vehicles. It isn't a geek/gearhead Slashdot, but we have over 30,000 users and around 1.4 million messages to search through dating back through 1997. A high percentage of our users are also in the IS/IT field in some way.
Interesting question, hope you get some answers on why this is so.
A little utility called "NetChaser" is also great on my Tungsten C for scanning available Wi-Fi network (both for my company and for curiosity purposes).
That sounds like an implementation problem for the most part. The terminals in our proposal plugged directly into Ethernet, that was one of the really nice features.
Have you looked at Kronos? It is a very nice system with lots of features. You can clock in/out via terminals, fingerprint scanning, web pages, Palm Pilots, etc. It integrates with most payroll systems to keep track of vacation/sick days and such. We were seriously looking at it for a project, but the price was fairly steep for our complexity. With some new workplace regulations regarding leave time though, you would be completely covered with a system like this.
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When you looked at the Cisco solution, did you just look at the bottom dollar or did you run the numbers on line savings, labor savings, etc? We're going from an all-Centrex phone system with about 420 lines spread across 21 sites to a Cisco VoIP system in the next few months. The initial cost is pretty high, but we're looking at a 2-2.5 year payoff. After the payoff, we're estimating a $7-$8,000 savings per month! Our network techs can do all the maintenance (no more $200+ service calls), all phones have advanced calling features and voicemail, we're leveraging the XML-based displays to add company directories and clock-in/out capability, etc.
Don't just look at the actual cost, run the numbers on everything else too. If it doesn't work out now, stick with current setup until either the numbers work out better or until the added features justify the cost.
Also, I personally wouldn't want to stake my company's phone system on a smaller vendor. We looked primarily at Cisco, 3Com, Nortel, and Avaya. All three have good reputations in the industry.
Jason
I was wondering the same thing.
I would love to see a Planescape:Torment sequel though. I was thinking something along the lines of the NPC's setting out to go to Hell and rescue The Nameless One.
Jason
Ah, I didn't know that. We have a custom order page for our company. I just saw them on there and figured they were preinstalled.
Jason
You've been able to buy their business-line with Mandrake preinstalled for several months now.
Jason
HP's Compaq division has the consumer line (Presario) and the business line (Deskpro/EVO). You've been able to buy Deskpros for a while now preloaded with Linux.
Jason
This is why any corporate documents that will be dessiminated outside the company should always be converted to Acrobat. It's the policy for many sites for this very reason.
Jason
Vexira from Central Command scans inside zips. We've been happy with it. We did get hit by Netsky.C and Netsky.D before the definitions were released, but those are the first two that got through in a couple of years. We have approximately 7000 e-mail accounts running through it.
Jason
- SSH for Windows - works great for terminal access and secure file transfers.
- Teraterm - network device access via either telnet or serial port. There is an SSH add-on, but I prefer the "real" SSH client above.
- TightVNC - for your Windows boxes
- Superscan - great port scanner and all around TCP/IP utility
- Cygwin - for all your real *nix shell and utility needs
Those are the ones I use most of the time. I have them on my main computer at work, my home computer, and the laptop I keep in my work van.Jason
WEP is kind of like locks on your doors, it only keeps out the honest people.
802.11i should fix the majority of WEP's problems. The bad news is that most currently available access points will not be software upgradeable to the 802.11i standard.
Jason
I've done the same thing, except it ended up being a 30-minute drive to reboot in my case.
Jason
My old business partner and I got a kick out of the ReadMe file included with MS-DOS v6. It told how to "upgrade" from OS/2 to MS-DOS.
Jason
Stay away from any of the "L" models like 4L, 5L, 6L, etc. Their paper path is terrible and prone to misfeeds. The M and P models are great.
Jason
You can build it yourself I'm sure, but it wouldn't be nearly as well integrated as the Novell solution. The management tools are awesome, everything works like it supposed to from one interface. We've been using Netware since version 2.15, so we have lots of experience with it too.
My department believes in using the best tool for the job, and I still think Novell has the best file/print services and directory setup. We use Linux, Windows, Novell, Mac OS, etc. as the situation demands.
Jason
The rocking'est thing about 6.x (in my opinion) is the Native File Access. All major clients (*nix NFS, SMB, and AFP) can access the server without installing any client software. It's a godsend in a mixed environment. Some of the other features like iFolder, NDPS, etc. are also very cool once you get started with them.
They are also still rock solid. Novell's uptime compares favorably with any i386-based server OS out there.
Jason
I had a server that began sending undeliverable messages to my postmaster account that were obviously spams originating from the server itself. I use Debian with Exim set to disable relaying and could not figure out how this occurred. I finally found a couple of strange processes running that apparently were acting as an SMTP reflector of some sort. Computers were sending e-mails to it and it forwarded them out to the proper addresses.
/tmp directory, so it was an easy fix after upgrading the script. I never did figure out exactly what the process was doing though and couldn't find anything about on the 'net. This occurred about a year ago.
I finally traced it back to an older CGI script on the server that had a few bugs. Luckily they only had access to the
Jason
I believe he means a commercial that is short it isn't worth the effort to fast forward.
Jason
I saw that parallel to Pham's tools in that book as well. It's mostly just a question of size I think. It makes for some very interesting possibilities.
Jason
You're definitely going to need a lot more AC and A/C.
You'll need at least one 20-amp circuit per rack in my opinion if you go with standard 110 battery backups. For that many servers though, you might be better off going with 220 service and the high voltage battery backups that APC and others offer.
Our old server room started small with a couple of servers and quickly outgrew the AC service and A/C. We heated our whole office in the winter with just the servers! Maintenance ran several new 20-amp circuits for us until we filled up the breaker box.
When we moved a couple of years ago, I made sure to get the new room right before we moved any equipment. We have central A/C fed by several outside units plus a very large auxiliary unit just for the server room. 20-amp circuits are ran every few feet on separate breakers. I don't know what type servers you are using, but large multi-processor, redundant fans, RAID, etc. boxes use LOTS of power. We use mostly Compaq DL380's, two of them will draw 50% off an APC 1400R battery backup. For extended runtimes, we made sure to not overload the battery backups, so only two servers per backup with no more than two backups per 20-amp circuit. It's slightly overkill, but I got very frustrated in our old location and resolved to never blow breakers or kill battery backups this time.
Since you're just getting started, it will pay off big time in the long run to get everything setup right before you start loading in servers. It makes things so much easier to just plug in without having to call maintenance or a contractor to upgrade services.
Jason
I've always found it interesting that the guys who like the really high tech things also like vintage and/or antique items. Personally, I'm the IS Manager for a school system. I have the newest computers and gadgets you can buy, but I also have old tools and other mechanical devices. I have a Ford F-350 diesel truck (very advanced engine, drive by wire, performance chip, etc.), but I also have a 1966 Ford Mustang for pretty days. I also work on a stock car race team with a friend.
My two hobbies come together on my website TheDieselStop.Com, a website with technical information about Ford diesel vehicles. It isn't a geek/gearhead Slashdot, but we have over 30,000 users and around 1.4 million messages to search through dating back through 1997. A high percentage of our users are also in the IS/IT field in some way.
Interesting question, hope you get some answers on why this is so.
Jason
A little utility called "NetChaser" is also great on my Tungsten C for scanning available Wi-Fi network (both for my company and for curiosity purposes).
Jason
That's the exact setup we looked at too. Glad it is working out for you.
Jason
That sounds like an implementation problem for the most part. The terminals in our proposal plugged directly into Ethernet, that was one of the really nice features.
Jason
Jason
Not an LDAP expert by any means. My unix tech that set it all up learned it on the go. He had everything working in a couple of days.
Jason
We're running several thousand users on OpenLDAP and Courier under Debian. It has worked flawlessly for us.
Jason