Posts made by NetworkNerd

It's podcast Tuesday, ladies and gentlemen. This week we talk about the affect of company culture on career and take an initial pass at resume writing advice. Get the full episode here.

@dbeato said in Episode 3 of Nerd Journey Now Available:

@NetworkNerd I enjoyed the whole subject of Hero Worship in the IT/Tech World.

Thanks for the feedback, and we're glad you enjoyed it.

@jmoore said in Episode 3 of Nerd Journey Now Available:

@networknerd You know, just an idea for those of us who all have blogs, maybe we should be linking to and promoting each other. We are all friends here and it would help every blog thats involved.

Absolutely - there have been many blogs I have read which inspired me to write my own blog on a topic or that I found helpful, and I would definitely link back to those in any article.

When we make show notes for the podcast we are trying to ensure we link back to any blogs or podcasts we reference.

@scottalanmiller - did you notice we referenced one of your articles in the show (also in show notes)? I won't ruin it for you if you didn't.

Podcast Tuesday is back! This week John and I talk about work / life balance and hero worship in IT. Check it out, and let us know if something resonates. The full episode can be found here - http://bit.ly/2voxwXp.

While some people may wake up each morning based on circadian rhythm alone, many of us require an alarm to wake up on time. What does the alarm clock (or alarm app) really do for you? It allows you to set a specific time at which a loud noise will happen. The noise does not just happen for a split second. The noise continues until you press a button to make it stop. The noise will wake the sleeper because it is set to be in close proximity to him / her.

Let’s break down that scenario further. The alarm’s noise is something you want to happen at a specific time and continue until manually stopped. If you want the alarm to go off at 6 AM, for example, that specific time is a condition (or trigger) that will activate the alarm. Based on the trigger being true (6 AM reached), the alarm activates, and an action is taken. The action in this example is noise. Pressing the button to turn off your alarm is an acknowledgement of the trigger and stops the alarm action from continuing.

You can read the rest of the story about alarms in the datacenter here - http://blog.thenetworknerd.com/2018/08/06/amplifying-your-vcenter-alarms.

@pmoncho said in VMWare 6.5 to 6.7...:

@wls-itguy said in VMWare 6.5 to 6.7...:

Getting ready to update all my stuff before school starts in about a month so I go to VMWare.com and log into my portal and I see this:

HUWAH!!!! So how do I upgrade if I can't go from ESXi 6.5.0 U2 to 6.7.0. ?

From my understanding, U2 has some of 6.7 tech mixed in and that is why the upgrade is not supported. Need to wait for 6.7 ?? unfortunately.

Yes, there are features backported from 6.7 to 6.5U2. This post details the backported features. The problem here is that 6.5U2 came out after 6.7, and the upgrade cycle does not allow you to upgrade to a release that came out before the release you are currently on based on the date.

Again, you could still go back to 6.5U1 if you want to try it and then look at 6.7. Or, there is some functionality backported to 6.5U2. The next upgrade would be when 6.7U1 drops.

You would need to either roll back to 6.5U1 or wait for 6.7U1. I have done an accidental unsupported back-in-time upgrade like that before, and it caused me some major pain (documented here).

This may be an option for you to roll back. How many hosts are we talking, and when did they get upgraded to 6.5U2?

It's podcast Tuesday again! This week John and I discuss the different types of phone interviews one might expect early on in the hiring process. Give it a listen, and definitely let us know what you think!

The full episode with show notes can be found here - https://t.co/REFqQcsox4.

Some call it Patch Tuesday, but I say it's Podcast Tuesday. Episode 1 of Nerd Journey can be found here at http://nerd-journey.com/nerd-journey-001-career-advancement-and-nicks-first-week-at-vmware or wherever you subscribe

If you haven't heard it yet, go back and listen to the trailer episode here to get an idea about our podcast theme - http://nerd-journey.com/nerd-journey-podcast-trailer-episode-zero.

Cisco Aeronet APs are tricky. I know I have accidentally installed the wrong new firmware on some that expected me to have a centralized controller (which I didn't at the time) and made all of them unusable until I pulled them off their mounts and re-flashed with the proper firmware. I don't remember every needing to reboot one outside of doing maintenance.

When is the last time you embarked on a journey? A journey is likened to a lengthy adventure with a number of challenges to overcome along the way which result in personal development. Movies like Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey or Journey to the Center of the Earth serve as excellent illustrations of what a journey might entail.

Think of your career as a journey. The journey begins on your first day of employment as a professional and continues to retirement. For some, the journey is well underway, and for others, the journey is only beginning. But the real question to consider is whether you as an individual are developing through career advancement as the journey continues. Could it be the journey is underway, but you’re no different than when you began? Did you expect to be farther along on the journey than you are at present?

A journey can be difficult without a guide.

The History
Several years ago I joined the Spiceworks Community and received help from a number of individuals. Solving these technical problems propelled my career forward to reach new heights and take on new challenges. I eventually made it to my first IT conference (Spiceworld) and was able to meet some of the community members who had helped me in person. On one particular evening of the conference, I met John White. He had been instrumental in helping me understand the basics of virtualization. We sat down with a bunch of other nerds and had a great conversation. Time passed, but we stayed in touch through the community. John ended up giving me additional career advice down the road and recommended me for a job at VMware. Perhaps without knowing it, John became a guide for my career journey. And without his influence and help, I definitely would not be where I am today. Even now, this nerd journey continues as I look to drive forward and improve in everything I do.

You can read the rest of the story here - http://blog.thenetworknerd.com/2018/07/17/two-nerds-on-a-journey.

@wirestyle22 said in Fighting the Impostor Within:

I struggle with this daily. One of my biggest problems in life.

You are definitely not alone in that. Hang in there! And always know fellow community members are here to help.

Deep inside you lies an impostor. Rather than an opinion, this is a fact for many of us, regardless of profession. The impostor exists in that deep, dark place you hope no one can see, waiting to ruin everything you’ve achieved professionally.

Is this impostor your alter ego like Dr. Jekyll’s Mr. Hyde? Perhaps. Does he / she even resemble the real you? How do you keep the impostor at bay? Is it even possible?

Back up for a second. The impostor is someone you have let yourself become, existing because of fear and doubt. These two feelings shackle your mind and change your own self-perception. Do you ever wonder if others feel the same? I guarantee you they do. I suspect these feelings come easier to folks who have achieved things they didn’t think were previously possible. Let’s take some examples.

An Example from the Realm of Education
When I was teaching high school math several years ago, I made students write a paper at the beginning of the year describing their general attitude toward math and what had shaped it in the past. I asked for brutal honesty, and in most cases, I got it. Many students hated math because they were never good at it, were discouraged because of previous teachers, or didn’t feel the subject was worth their time. My goal was to help these students put aside the previous experiences and to help them keep an open mind to the possibility of being able to succeed. While it certainly did not work in every case, a number of students were able to reach new heights only because they began to believe they could. It was easy to see the pride on their faces as their grades began to soar higher than they had in previous years.

Read the rest of the article here - http://blog.thenetworknerd.com/2018/06/30/fighting-the-impostor-within.

@jaredbusch said in Ubiquiti WiFi vs... everyone:

Zero handoff is something that you should never use with a really, really, good reason.

The UBNT implementation of it was bad 2 years ago. Not looked into it since.

So if that is something truly required, I would do a lot of research.

Normally devices will just roll between access points without a need for zero handoff.

Agreed - I remember turning on zero handoff a couple of years ago and bringing an environment to its knees. With proper AP placement (i.e. not too close together and not too far apart), you can solve a ton of problems.

What about certified ethical hacker or something like that to compliment the CISSP?

Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Time: 6:30pm - 10:00 PM CDT
Location:
Tower 909
909 Lake Carolyn Pkwy
Irving, TX 75039
United States

It's that time again, and we're bringing the party to Irving. This time we crowd sourced the topic for our meeting. After voting in the online poll for topics under the security umbrella, we have a tie between penetration testing and digital forensics (13 votes each), so we're going to have our speaker address BOTH of these topics during the meeting. Here's what's on tap:

Digital Forensics

We'll do an introduction to digital forensics and discuss common tools used to collect them.

Penetration Testing

We'll talk about what a penetration test should look like to a client, why it needs to be done, and some techniques used to perform the test.

This will be another unsponsored meeting, so come thirsty to drink from the fountain of knowledge! Our speaker is ready and willing to answer your questions. I hope to see you there!

Thanks to mavsman for finding us a venue this time.

RSVP here - https://community.spiceworks.com/meeting/show/2758

That's a new one I have not seen. We used Epicor ERP 10, and in that product I did see issues with RemoteApp where from time to time the user would not have a default printer selected in Epicor (sounds weird, I know), which would then crash any report they tried to print with an error that value of -1 was not allowed. Getting the user to change the printer to something in their list was the workaround.

Thanks for capturing this. I bet it will help someone else and looks to be already doing so.

I'm looking for a decent way to provide wifi to the entire house. At the moment, we have a router in the living room running DD-WRT that bridges wirelessly to an office across the house so we can have wired connections for desktops, etc. in the office. That seems to cover everything in a 1-story home pretty well.

Suppose we now consider a 2-story home. I am a little concerned that my DD-WRT setup won't quite cut it for servicing both floors plus the office (downstairs). I'm a big fan of Unifi but don't want to run a controller on a computer at the house. That would be where a cloud key comes into play. I would think 2 APs max should do the trick. I would also want the capability to wire in a desktop in the office downstairs and a TV upstairs. I'm ok with doing those using bridging if it works but may have to have cabling done for best experience.

I heard about Netgear Orbi this week. I am liking the parental controls and the per-app filtering. It's certainly the more expensive solution here compared to Unifi. Is anyone using an Orbi today that can comment on how valuable it has been from a filtering standpoint to keep the bad stuff out of our kids' eyes and ears?

Like many nerds out there, I enjoy tech podcasts. Datanauts is one of my favorites and a must listen for the technology professional. A recent episode on masters and mentorship was one of their absolute best, and the career discussions on it can be applied to any field. In this episode, guest Don Jones makes a thought provoking comment: “you can be master and apprentice all at the same time.”

Think about that for a second. Do you think of yourself as a master? Or do you normally identify more with the apprentice, a mere padawain seeking to learn and master a trade?

A master is not just a skilled tradesperson but someone skilled and able to teach. The master’s job is to train an apprentice and to help him / her one day become a master. It’s a role taken up to protect and preserve the craft for future generations. Once an apprentice achieves the level of master, there is room for another apprentice to take up the trade. In honor of teacher appreciation week, the following advice for the master encourages a look at the process through the eyes of an apprentice.

You can read the rest of the story here - http://blog.thenetworknerd.com/2018/05/24/through-the-eyes-of-the-apprentice-mentoring-advice-for-the-master.