Common operational misconceptions
Last updated: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:25:41 -0800
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at
North American Network Operators Group
Auto-neg, as someone already mentioned.
MD5 makes BGP peering sessions more secure. There was a nice recent
NANOG rant on that one.
One of my favorites from corporate america; if you run one application
on a server you can put in that apps port in the firewall and block
everything else and the server will be happy. Evidently folks don't
know servers need to do things like make DNS queries, have remote access
to them, contact domain controllers or software update servers. *sigh*
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell*******- CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
comment. I would venture over 90% of the engineers I work with
have no idea how to troubleshoot properly. Thinking back to my own
education, I don't recall anyone in highschool or college attempting
to teach troubleshooting skills. Most classes teach you how to
build things, not deal with them when they are broken.
The basic skills are probably obvious to someone who might design
course material if they sat down and thought about how to teach
troubleshooting. However, there is one area that may not be obvious.
There's also a group management problem. Many times troubleshooting
is done with multiple folks on the phone (say, customer, ISP and
vendor). Not only do you have to know how to troubleshoot, but how
to get everyone on the same page so every possible cause isn't
tested 3 times.
I think all college level courses should include a "break/fix"
exercise/module after learning how to build something, and much of that
should be done in a group enviornment.
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell*******- CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
in the lobby next to the one with sodas that sold Cat 5, Fiber,
SFP's, USB sticks, and so on. Even at a moderate margin I suspect it
would be quite profitable to them, and quite welcomed by customers who
show up in the middle of the night when nothing is open and need parts.
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell*******- CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
MD5 makes BGP peering sessions more secure. There was a nice recent
NANOG rant on that one.
One of my favorites from corporate america; if you run one application
on a server you can put in that apps port in the firewall and block
everything else and the server will be happy. Evidently folks don't
know servers need to do things like make DNS queries, have remote access
to them, contact domain controllers or software update servers. *sigh*
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell*******- CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
----- cont. ------
I wouldn't call it a "misconception", but I want to echo Paul's
comment. I would venture over 90% of the engineers I work with
have no idea how to troubleshoot properly. Thinking back to my own
education, I don't recall anyone in highschool or college attempting
to teach troubleshooting skills. Most classes teach you how to
build things, not deal with them when they are broken.
The basic skills are probably obvious to someone who might design
course material if they sat down and thought about how to teach
troubleshooting. However, there is one area that may not be obvious.
There's also a group management problem. Many times troubleshooting
is done with multiple folks on the phone (say, customer, ISP and
vendor). Not only do you have to know how to troubleshoot, but how
to get everyone on the same page so every possible cause isn't
tested 3 times.
I think all college level courses should include a "break/fix"
exercise/module after learning how to build something, and much of that
should be done in a group enviornment.
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell*******- CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
----- cont. ------
I've repeatedly asked $BIG_COLO_PROVIDERS to offer a vending machine
in the lobby next to the one with sodas that sold Cat 5, Fiber,
SFP's, USB sticks, and so on. Even at a moderate margin I suspect it
would be quite profitable to them, and quite welcomed by customers who
show up in the middle of the night when nothing is open and need parts.
--
Leo Bicknell - bicknell*******- CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
