What do YOU do?

[Garion]

I've communicated with a lot of you on this board, at varying levels. I've certainly learned a lot of tricks reading this forum, but I'm really curious - What do you all do? I've come to know a few of you through conversations and general smart-ass remarks, but you're the exception, not the rule.

I'll go first - I'm a (roll your own title here) "Senior Network Architect" for a large bank (One of the top 5 in the US). I'm pretty much a Layer 1-4 jack-of-all-trades but lately I've been specializing in external connectivity - Internet, business-to-business connections, firewalls & security, etc. Another role is Network Consultant (Note the caps - That makes it official) for the rest of the bank. "Yous gots a network problem, you comes and sees me and I make it better fo ya"

Ok, I've bared my soul - Now you! Doesn't matter if you're a student or Vince Cerf, we're all equal under the gaze of the all-powerful Anand. Just keep it generic enough not to specifically identify you or your company.

- G

 

[minendo]

I'm a junior at Purdue University. I sleep a lot.

 

[Mucman]

As many of you have probably seen, I have a position that I probably should not I am labeled "Network Architect" but of a company consisting of 4 people it doesn't mean much . We primarily do webhosting for about 1500 clients and we also have a dozen col-located machines and we provid internet access for about 20 companies in our building. My responsabilities involve :

- cabling our server following structured cabling standards
- basic Cisco switch and router management
- Windows 2000,NT administration which involves keeping up with
patches, security and making sure we can keep the uptime high
- linux admin for our nameservers and BSD admin for our other nameservers
- mucho script writing for our customer controll panel, and utilities
to make most mundane tasks a little easier.
- Tech-support

It is been a great learning experience, but I wish I could aprentice from somone who really knows what they are doing instead of mean just fumbling about and relying on you guys to fix my goof ups.

This was a great idea for a thread! I am really interested in who does what here.

 

[stash]

I'm a senior in college and for the past two years have worked part time as a network/systems admin for one of the biggest defense contractors in the country.

We are mainly a Microsoft shop, though I have dabbled in a little Unix. Currently I am working on migrating the network at my plant (about 3500 employees) to the new corporate wide Active Directory. With 135000 employees, it's a massive undertaking to say the least.

I'm also working on MCSE. While having the cert will be a great thing to add to my resume, the skills I've learned hands on in the past two or three years have taught me much more than these MS press books.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Im disgruntled and I watch blinky lights to make sure they continue to blink. Well, thats the easy part. I also write scripts to keep myself from having to do real work, and I "analyze network data" for "attempted security breaches". So I take a lot of cigarette breaks, and if I drank coffee Id drink a lot of it. Preferably with scotch

 

[NzAnE2K]

Im still a High School student.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Im still a High School student. >>



Stay there as long as you can! And enjoy it. It gets worse on the "outside"

 

[Mucman]

n0cmonkey - My ignorance keeps me busy . I am not sure what I would do in your case where everything is working great!

Garion - how many other people do you work with that have your level of knowledge? Are you like the only man who knows every in and out about the network or is it segmented to other administrators? How many people take care of a network of that size?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< n0cmonkey - My ignorance keeps me busy . I am not sure what I would do in your case where everything is working great! >>



Not everything works great. In fact I like it when things go a little wrong becaue it makes me do something

But like I said, I write scripts to automate my job. I wrote a quick script that will temporarily fix a problem, so all I have to do is hit up (or connect to the box and type ./script.sh) and I can go back to reading or whatever. Ive almost gotten myself in trouble with that script though. If you have the solution (however temporary it may be) to a problem, let the new boss know before he spends his day on the phone with tech support

 

[dexter333]

I'm a junior in high school but I work for this ghetto company: Iceoplex. I do all kinds of junk. I'm a Disc Jockey, Sanitorial Engineer, Tech Support, System Administrator, and I just became the new Networking Architect:

Thursday and Saturday night I rewired all of the ethernet in the office and the connection from the office to their DSL modem in another room. Running cable in a dropped ceiling or whatever they are called is a pain in the butt. You know, the drywall panels in most offices. Especially when you can't trace any of the existing cables in the building. I ended up re-running all of the runs in the office except for one. I just wish the cables had more descriptive names than "x-over" and "ADMIN." I still can't figure out where two of the wires run. When I plug a certain cat-5 cable in (that was pre-installed) I get mad collisions and the external traffic to the DSL modem skyrockets. Another guy at work is going to bring in what he calls a "pinger." I hope he's talking about a device you can plug into one end into and start plugging the other half of the device and it will tell you if it's the same cable and test the cable at the same time. It's been a learning experience and I'm getting better at making cat-5 cables. But it's not over.

I can't wait until I get my license. Then I can get a better job dealing with computers down in Carmel Mountain Ranch or Rancho Bernardo (Northern San Diego County, big computer area). Less than 3 months to go! WOOHOO!

 

[mboy]

Well, this is my first official IT gig. Before this past summer, I had never even opened a comp before. I am a Network Admin/ PC support specialist for a plastics manufacturer. Maintain network of 4 NT servers, 2 Linux(for proprietary machine moitoring software, 1 Sco unix (ERP system) and one REALLY old system 36. Troublshoot and repair about 55 workstations ranging from Win95, 98 and 2k. In my 4mos here I upgraded entire network from 10mbps hubs to 10/100 switches. My HR server (was previously a desktop (old) machine to server class machine.
Also saved them $100 month for T1 access. WHoever signed the deal last time wound up getting 128kb/s for $750 mos. THATS RIGHT $750. I shopped it and got 512 for $650
Next BIG project is upgrading main server from old a** 350PII 7gb 512 pc66, to a 1.13, raid 5 72gb 10k scsi 740 pc133
Also build computers on the side for friends, work asociates etc.

 

[Garion]

<< Garion - how many other people do you work with that have your level of knowledge? Are you like the only man who knows every in and out about the network or is it segmented to other administrators? How many people take care of a network of that size? >>



Hmm. Within the various network architecture and design groups there's probably about a dozen senior-level people (More being added daily, however). Total, taking care of the network, probably 100-150. but most are outsourced to a couple of different vendors. That doesn't include servers, workstations, etc. We've got about 60,000 nodes spread across around 1,800 sites.

- G

 

[mboy]

<<

<< Garion - how many other people do you work with that have your level of knowledge? Are you like the only man who knows every in and out about the network or is it segmented to other administrators? How many people take care of a network of that size? >>



Hmm. Within the various network architecture and design groups there's probably about a dozen senior-level people (More being added daily, however). Total, taking care of the network, probably 100-150. but most are outsourced to a couple of different vendors. That doesn't include servers, workstations, etc. We've got about 60,000 nodes spread across around 1,800 sites.

- G >>


How do you find the time to have almost 1100 posts on Anandtech

 

[nightowl]

I hope to follow Spidey's path.

Currently,

I am a Sophomore at Purdue University in their School of Technology. Specifically I am focusing on Telecommunications and Networking. I am looking towards next semester where I can finally have a real networking classes. Specifically where we get to build the equivalent of a coast to coast network. Most of my classes have been fairly easy so far.

 

[Santa]

You probably know me.. im the jolly fat guy coming at you year after year to bring coal or whatever floats your boat.

I also administer a network of 10 nodes nationwide with about 1500 users in my part time.

My nodes are primarily in the Healthcare industy so those fending off the HIPPA monster im interested in your input.

I am a Layer 1-8 Jack of all trades 8 being politicks you know many ticks..

 

[spidey07]

Network Architect, Consultant for a US based enterprise. This means I mainly do the high level design and set the design specifications for network communications. Also do some R&D when we're trying something new. My responsibilties include network management, completely redundant network infrastructure, Internet Security, IP network/routing design, project management and mentor.

Most difficult part of the job is dealing with internationals. transoceanic private line and frame-relay are just too darned expensive so we run 25 sites via VPN (between 256 and 768 Kbs per). Hard sometimes overcoming the language barrier, even harder to deal with the ID10Ts at some of the foreign ISPs.

Here's a snipet of one memorable conversation in pac-rim.

It work fine
ME-No, it not work fine. Me no talkie
You no talkie?
ME-No talkie
Look OK to me!
ME-You get linkie-blink?
Linkie-blink on de router? NO.
ME-No linkie-blink mean no talkie-talkie. you fix now.

 

[neopipil]

This is a great thread.

You guys don't know me but I thought I'd participate anyway.

My official title is "Web Developer". I work for a large mutual fund company in the US. At work I use ASP, SQL Server, Javascript and HTML. Before the september 11th attacks I use to admin 7 NT boxes. Yes, they were at the WTC. Now those servers were replaced at our main data center in Colorado so I don't manage those servers anymore. I am also the unofficial graphic designer since no one holds that title in my group. I basically do whatever the jobs requires, be it web stuff, networking, server set up, etc. I'm into networking. I have set up a nice network at home using Linux, various flavors of BSD, and win2k.

neopipil

 

[ScottMac]

I currently a Tier3 network support person for a "large" integrator. Up until recently, I was assigned to the Interoperability Lab doing proof-of-concepts testing and product evaluation and testing. We were also a pool of people for "the last body thrown on the fire" when a situation went unresolved for too long. I still help with some things in the Lab, but the primary focus these days is customer support.

FWIW

Scott

BTW: The easy way to find out where an unlabeled / questionably labeled cable goes is to unplug it, and wait for the phone to ring. You also usually get a pat on the back (or top of the head) for the rapid resolution of the network problem........

 

[dexter333]

LOL ScottMac, I don't have it plugged in right now. If they don't care enough to tell us that their internet is down then screw them. The guy most likely only uses the net for porn anyways.

 

[cipher00]

Geez, no wonder even the tough questions get answered with all this horsepower around here.

I'm an official, professional end-user. For a living I'm a portfolio manager for a large insurance company. I troll here to find answers to all things network because (a) I wanted one in my house and (b) even I knew that the cretinous monsters they send around to "support" my area's computing needs are woefully undertrained and often make things worse. I find enough nuggets that I can understand here to fend off the evil reprobates. I've been dabbling in hardware and software for many years since I just enjoy it, but it has almost nothing to do with my actual job.

 

[Cable God]

<< Im disgruntled and I watch blinky lights to make sure they continue to blink >>




Sounds just like my day...... Scott, I know what you mean about the cable It works every time.

 

[Mucman]

ScottMac - I have used your cable trick to get people who have not paid us in 3 months .

For the guys working for the huge companies, do you like working for a large company? Do you think you would enjoy working in a smaller company where you have more control? The only thing that I don't enjoy about my job is that when there is a problem, it's always up to me to fix it... Sometimes I would like someone with more knowledge to be able to fall back on

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< ScottMac - I have used your cable trick to get people who have not paid us in 3 months .

For the guys working for the huge companies, do you like working for a large company? Do you think you would enjoy working in a smaller company where you have more control? The only thing that I don't enjoy about my job is that when there is a problem, it's always up to me to fix it... Sometimes I would like someone with more knowledge to be able to fall back on >>



I found it harder to learn in a larger company. Thats why I like working at the smaller companies like the job I have now. The last job was a lot smaller (about a dozen people), but thats not the reason I didnt like that job

 

[Dundain]

Im currently a senior in high school (Only a little over two months left, wahoo!) and I'll be goin to Drexel University for Information Sciences. Hopin to be a network junkie like the rest of you, for some godawful reason I find it fun. Anyways, for the past year or two Ive been the (cough)network administrator(cough) for the local Borough Offices. Basicly I fixed their network FUBAR (got them from eth 10 to 100, got a central backup server and print service running and I've mostly been successful in migrating their 8 machines to Windows 2000) and got stuck with the job now. Free jobs suck, hehe.

 

[Tallgeese]

Currently, I'm head of a small shop that supports the internal needs of a large local public accounting firm, and numerous external clients.
This time of year, I chew bags of galvanized nails as snacks (in case anybody has noticed my "winning" personality lately).

In a former life I was a DIE-HARD Mac user, with degrees in English and Creative Writing.