StaticNAT

I will be the first to admit that I make mistakes.  I make lots of mistakes.  But I learned a long time ago that it is not the mistakes that define us but
what we do when we make them.  To that point it is both fascinating and infuriating when I enter someone’s network land and find that they have gone out of their way to do nothing to solve their own problem or in many cases to even
build a proper functioning network.  So I am going to set out to show the Methods I use to deal with these people and their problems and the Madness that they have brought to the table to cause the issue.

This is going to be a series.  Really my first series of posts, and they will all fall under the heading of Method and Madness with some sort of witty little
tagline.  I will be pulling on a careers worth of situations that were totally preventable and how we resolved the problem or moved past it.

The format for each of this will be as follows:

Situation:  This will be the “lab” Scenario piece of the post in which I outline
the base problem as well as the end goals of the situation.  This section will
include a base diagram for use as reference.

The Method:  This will be the troubleshooting and resolution phase of the post and
will breakdown the ultimate solution or bypass to the problem.

The Madness: This section will be my analysis of how things got to this point in the first
place.  Keep in mind I have no in interest in posting garbage about oh look the senior
network engineer put a wrong static route in at 4am and a junior guy had to find it.
No I am more interested in exposing the issues where a Network Engineer or worse a team could not solve a problem that should be second nature for them to solve.  In doing so I hope others will learn from and not find themselves in these situation.

So with all that said look for them.  I hope to have the first one out by the end of
the week with about 50 Million other projects so bear with me.  I think these will be a great recap for me and both education and humorous for you.  I really encourage your feedback on these posts because I am not always right and there are lots of different paths so resolution of a problem.

If your not sure what the title quote is from Check out Young Guns 2.  As for this post however keep reading to see if I ever get to a point.  Currently it is 3:37am in the morning.  Again I can’t sleep.  Not sure if I rested to much today after a week of almost not sleep, drank a bit to much caffeine or if I am just currently unable to calm down during this career transition.  No matter what the cause I did what I normally do when I realize I wont sleep before I have to get dressed and head into work  (in this case a my old office, my current clients office and the new office by the end of the day) I took a shower shaved and put on some coffee.  I don’t know about you, but I do some of my best thinking in the shower or when driving on long trips alone.  It was durring the above mentioned shower that this post and the thoughts it contain popped into my racing mind.  Enjoy it could be a fun read.

Most of the feedback I have received concerning my new job and career path has been overwhelmingly positive.  But some has not.  Quite bluntly a few feel I have whored myself out for money.  So let me tell you what I told them…Yes as a matter of fact I did.  I did it for the money.

Read the rest of this entry »

So I will start off by admitting that the title of this post comes from Seth Godin and his book Free Prize Inside.  Let me start of by saying if you are an idea person read this book.  But that is not what I want to focus on today.  Part of this blog that I seldom touch on is that I am a consultant.  I honestly think it is what I was born to be.  I love sharing information, expertise and honestly my thoughts with other people.  I don’t like to do so in a pushy or demeaning way  (although I’m sure some think I do) but more from the perspective of there is more than any one of us can ever know so lets share and work together.

So when I am on client site I often find that I am referring clients to tools that they have no idea about.  Things like my old favourite Ziptie (not a huge fan since Alterpoint was sold and the staff all laid off) or Angry IP Scanner.  These are free tools that if leveraged correctly can do huge things for your management, troubleshooting and planning of your network.  So when my General Manager sent out a request for what we should do at eTech this years I threw out some real challenges for what I would like to see us pull together in 11 days.  Two of those things are major free prizes and its those that I would like to discuss briefly. Read the rest of this entry »

Life is interesting where it takes us and what the path looks like along the way. I have worked in Higher Ed, Government, Consulting, for myself and all sorts of funky combinations in between. Since I was young though I have been told that I am a leader. What I didn’t realise until about three years ago though, was that if I was going to believe all those people who told me that and actively put myself in situations of responsibility and leadership I would have to take responsibility for my actions in all aspects of my life. As an active setp in the process of taking responsibility for my life and leadership I took advantage of an oppertunity this week. Read the rest of this entry »