Very good points. This happens more than people think.
For example:
When Joe Blow can't get his webpage to come up or it is slow because of a
DNS problem/issue, as far as he is concerned, his network sucks.
All he thinks is that the network is really slow and the idea gets to other
people and thinks escalate from there. Now, me, doing *just* the network
portion of it, don't see any congestion issues or other problems but now I
am responsible for doing my own investigation to find the real issue and
telling the DNS admin why their DNS is having issues but have to provide
proof that it is their fault before I do. Well, in order to do that, I have
to know how the darn thing works.
Same thing with anything else on the network, it is wise to find out how the
networks attached device works, or you could find yourself getting blamed
for the network being problematic when in fact, it is something else on the
network failing or improperly configured.
Anybody can be a ( insert cert here ), but it takes someone who knows how
the whole system works to keep the network as a whole running and to be
proactive in preventing problem(s) before they arise.
Can you tell I have been bit once or twice? <g>
I'll tell ya this much, The buck always stops with me..... ;-)
Scott
> To soften this a bit, I strongly recommend the reading of Eric Greenberg's
> Network Application Frameworks
>
> Eric is another one of those guys who used to post here a lot. ( haven't
> heard from him in a few months ) He and I struck up something of a rapport
> when I discovered he and I shared the concern about fingerpointing in
> troubleshooting exercises. For example, in his Preface, he lays out a
> scenario in which "The company's sales staff has called a meeting with the
> IS department to discuss the increasingly poor performance of their
> worldwide sales processing application." Having been called to meetings like
> this, in more than one organization, I learned very early in my career how
> to take steps to determine what the real problem is, not the apparent one.
> one of the reasons I find Howard's writing so interesting as well )
>
> The point Eric makes, and one all of us needs be aware, is that there are
> many reasons that network performance can be negatively effected. Cisco
> places quite an emphasis on protocol behavior in its design certification
> test. Probably because in the experience of Cisco, thorough understanding of
> protocol behavior goes a long way toward designing good solid networks with
> good performance. We see questions regularly on this group and elsewhere
> asking questions, the answers to which come from understanding how NetBIOS
> over TCP or certain UNIX functions operate. Let alone IP itself.
>
> In return, my strong opinion is that folks who do not spend the time
> learning how networks work, and how the different parts interact, who just
> want to be router jockeys, will certainly find themselves at the lower ends
> of both the pay scale and the promotion scale. I know I am truly impressed
> by a number of people I have met through this list, people who have taken
> the time and put in the effort to learn Unix, and Linux, and Microsoft and
> Novell. Folks like these have offered a lot of good advice and good insight
> to problem solving questions that appear here regularly.
>
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Oz
> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 10:43 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Cisco Prerequisites
>
> Erik,
>
> That took about 2 minutes to find on the web and you probably needed
> service pack applied ..
> Thats what the hell that means and we all know you hate windows and thats
> fine .
> But please you cannot tell new folks to forget it .. I have worked in
> huge enviroments that had lots of NT and windows and many issues would
> not have been solved if my knowledge of NT was not there..
> As a router dude you can get a lot of issues that can SEEM to be wan
> related when in fact it can be simple desktop/server issues..
> Sure there are many folks out there that know networking and unix but also
> by not knowing NT windows could limit those same folks too .
> Just like my limited Unix limits me .too.
> And for folks just starting up NT is fine as chances are they will start
> at the desktop anyhow ..
> And there is not many unix desktops around these days .
> And whether you like it or not Cisco is making more stuff for NT all the
> time and there are some that are NT windows only ..
> I don't care for any particular OS to me they all are the same.. But I
> have to care because many places are multi OS environments and you need to
> know a little about them all.
> And I am not trying to start an OS war here just trying to give some
> balance here..
> The market has shifted and thats a fact and so will the workforce have to
> shift in the direction of the market it's just that simple..
> For someone on a limited budget NT can help them out sure they can do
> Linux but right now there is not much market for entry level Linux folks.
> Whereas win NT desktop there is tons of work..
>
>
> And for Adedapo MTA errors usually are due to corrupted databases but I
> have not played with exchange for a long time. But usally running MTACHECK
> will fix it
----------------------------------------------------------
Scott Nelson - Network Engineer
Wash DC +1202-270-8968 & +1202-352-6646
Los Angeles +1310-367-6646
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.bnmnetworks.net
PGP Public Key:
http://home.earthlink.net/~scottnelson/keys/srnbnm.txt
----------------------------------------------------------
"The better the customer service, the sooner you get to speak
with someone who can't help you."
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