A hearty AMEN to that Ryan!
Key-Man life insurance is another good idea.
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Langseth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Managing your network on the go-go-go!
I am going to go off-topic here a little with a story.
I have been working for InvisiMax for a little over a year now. I do
not know who knows the history of this company for the last 1.5 years
but we are just finishing up going through a very rough stage in the
companies existence. Six months before I was hired one of the partners
and System Admin/Designer/R&D guy was rushed to the ER with heart
failure. While he survived the rush to the ER, he was diagnosed with
cancer.
For six months, the network was without an Admin. There were numerous
issues that existed, BGP problems, failing hardware, bad CPEs. One of
the worse things was ZERO documentation. Much of our network is a
proprietary system, developed by the R&D guy.
My first year of working for InvisiMax was 110% firefighting, and long
hours understanding the network. Now, we have pushed past these issues
and are on a path moving forward. But, still one lingering issue exist,
and that is where vital information is locked away ... in my head now.
While I have pushed alot of information on to our Operation Manager,
there is still some of the high level stuff that he would not
understand.
So how does this relate? The Major issue for InvisiMax was knowledge
and the fact that it did not exist anywhere but in someone's head. From
the sounds of it certain things on your network exist in the same
manner. I suggest fixing that problem first. Get documentation started
for everything you do on a daily basis, any network issue that happens,
write down the cause, the effect, the diagnosis, and the fix. Get one
of the other people working for you to read and understand the problems,
and the common diagnostics that can be done(don't forget to given them a
reason to want to do this, $$$ or other benefit). This is where I am at
now, any thing I have learned to setup, is getting written down in an
internal wiki, I am redeveloping our ticketing system to force me to
write fixes down, cause otherwise laziness will get the best of my
efforts.
Once you have this, a plain old voice plan cell phone is what you will
need. If a problem arises, while you are out, have that documentation
and the person on the other end of the call be your smart phone. With
the proper documentation most problems should be fixable remotely this
way. And with someone else understanding your network, you will sleep
better at night ... I know I am starting to.
And in the long run, if I ever decided to move on, or "The Bus" catches
me, things will continue to be fine, and the next person that manages my
network will not have the struggle I did.
Ryan
On Tue, 2007-08-07 at 15:29 -0400, Matt Liotta wrote:
David E. Smith wrote:
> I refuse to tether myself to my job. I've done that over the last few
> years, and I'm not doing it any longer. I do accept, though, that
> there are some things that, out of the eight or so employees working
> under my boss, I'm the only one who knows them. The ability to fix
> things remotely is essential to our business and to my sanity. (Fun
> fact: I value the second of those much more highly than the first.) As
> much as I'd love to be completely incommunicado for a few days here
> and there, it's not practical; I believe this has the potential to be
> a viable substitute.
>
First, you suggest that you are looking for a device of certain
requirements. Now you suggest that the device is essential to your
business. Yet, you don't even know if such a device exists. I continue
to think you are attempting to solve the wrong problem. What device is
going to save your business when you get hit by bus (in a metaphorical
sense).
> You claim it doesn't exist; I'm still in a blissful state of doubt and
> confusion. Hence my original question about what handhelds will work
> with SSH the way I need 'em to. :)
>
I believe at lease one other person referred to your desire as a pipe
dream.
> Geez, where do you live? Sounds like the data service is even worse
> than here, and that's pretty hard to come by. :P
>
I live in Atlanta where the data service is actually quite fast. The
problem with cell phones is not the speed of the data service though.
> My copy of Opera Mini on a two-year-old Sprint phone that I picked up
> used on eBay for a hundred bucks works better than yours, at least
> from your description.
>
Have you tried such common tasks as getting directions or checking movie
times? I am sure if you set up a proper test with two people --one using
a cell phone browser and the other making a cell phone call-- the phone
call will win hands down.
> Is this a statement of "I've used SSH and found it wanting," or "I
> haven't done this but I don't think it'd work"?
>
Of course I have used SSH. That was one of the applications I was
planning on using when I bought the phone. I have since learned my
lesson.
-Matt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WISPA Wants You! Join today!
http://signup.wispa.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WISPA Wants You! Join today!
http://signup.wispa.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
WISPA Wireless List: [email protected]
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WISPA Wants You! Join today!
http://signup.wispa.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
WISPA Wireless List: [email protected]
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
