toolshed_itaaNetwork World

Expert's answer

The easiest way to become a CEO is to start your own company.

Rising from a director level position to a more senior management or CxO level position otherwise is not something I have a lot of experience with. The people around me in corporate settings who made that move to the next level successfully were invited upstairs so there may be some validity in your statement about who you know versus what you know. The key seemed to be ensuring that senior management knows you well enough to have good knowledge about what you could accomplish beyond meeting the expectations of the current position. I have also seen people move from Director level positions in large enterprises to CxO level positions in small or mid-market enterprises where the companies they moved to were comparable in size and complexity to the department or division they were in before.

Perhaps there are readers with more experience than I who can share their wisdom on the subject.

Expert's answer

Expert's answer

I have worked with appliances similar to this and learned a lesson early one - proceed carefully and slowly. I would suggest using Wireshark or your network analyzer of choice and look at the ports where the traffic comes into the device from your Internet connection and where to enters your network. Do this on both ports when the device is first connected to the network and then again when your network seems to come to a half. The first "sniffing" of network traffic will give you a baseline of the way things are working and will help you when you can no longer get anything to work on the network after several hours have passed. You should be able to get some idea as to where the problem is by seeing the traffic that is or isnt passing through the unit when you begin to see the problem you mentioned.

Review the documentation that shipped with the device to ensure that you have it connected to the right point in the network. I usually place devices like this just inside the firewall and the remainder of the network it is servicing. Look at the error logs in the unit to see if it gives you any indication of what is or isnt working when your network traffic goes awry. Make sure that you have the latest version of the firmware for the appliance installed. We have all run into our fair share of bugs when implementing either an appliance or other software service that might have been avoided if we had applied the latest firmware updates.

One option, if nothing else works and assuming that you have your configuration documented, is to do a factory reset of the appliance and rebuild your configuration one step at a time. It is entirely possible that one or more of the configuration changes you made might either be fighting between themselves or be the cause of the problem. If you do have your changes documented, you might be able to resolve the problem you are running into by carefully backing out the changes in the reverse order they were made (i.e. the last one made is removed first, then the next previous change is removed, etc).

If you still haven't been able to find the source of the problem, make use of the support contract that I hope you have. If you don't have one, see if you can purchase a one-time support call or you may need to consider biting the bullet and getting the contract. While support contracts can be pricey, like the Mastercard commercial, they can be priceless when you really need them and havent been able to resolve the problem through other means.

In checking the specs of the unit you mentioned, it appears capable of handling 5,000 users. While you didnt mention the number of users on your network, I will assume that you aren't near this limit. Another item to check is the speed of the Internet connection that you are using. The specs indicate it supports a connection speed of up to 20 Megabytes. If you rspeed is close to this or you have some heavy users, or a combination of the two, it is possible that the device simply can't keep up with the combination. This is where talking to the technical support folks at Cymphonix might yield some configuration changes that could improve the situation or give you the news that an upgrade to the next higher model might be necessary.

Expert's answer

Marker interfaces are used to 'mark' an implementing class as having the capability indicated by the Marker interface and even though the interface does not define any methods to be implemented by the class being marked, for example, as Serializable, the declaration is required to enable the capability.

In the case of Seriablizable, you declare that your class implements Serializable and that indicates that the non-transient data members in the class can be written to an ObjectOutputStream. The ObjectOutputStream private method writeObject() contains a series of instanceof tests to determine writeability, one of which looks for the Serializable interface. So declaring that your class implements the Serializable interface means that the writeability test will pass and writeObject() will send the data to the ObjectOutputStream.

Declaring that your class implements the marker interface is how you indicate that your software wants to make use of some built in functionality that is enabled simply by declaring that your class implements the interface, even though you don't have to write any code to implement any methods.

In the most recent versions of the Java language it is recommended to use annotations rather than marker interfaces to indicate that classes have particular semantics like serializable and clonable.

Expert's answer

If the embedded database server was replaced with an external database then you would need to adjust your settings to communicate with the external database rather than looking for the embedded database that is no longer there. To determine what settings to use with the external database you would consult the documentation and/or the system administrator that set up the LDAP database to find out which IP address, port number and query format to use.

Expert's answer

I would first suggest looking for positions that are of interest to you and then making sure you have the proper training and experience to get considered for them. I would also suggest that you look at the local newspaper ads and talk to some of headhunters/recruiters to see what skills are in demand.

Keep in mind that this will be a ongoing process. In the 25+ years I have been in the IT field, one thing I've learned is that what's in demand keeps changing. In the early/mid 90's, if you had Novell skills and some experience with Microsoft, you could just about write your own ticket. Then, the demand for Microsoft skills started increasing and new areas of interested started appearing on the screen such as Cisco and other certifications.

So above all, remain flexible in the IT areas that you are willing to work on. There will be some that you won't want to touch with a 10 foot pole. That's fine, not everyone can work in every field. Your learning will never end; if you think it will, you are going to be in for a big disappointment when others who are more flexible start to pass you by on the career ladder.

Expert's answer

The first thing I would suggest is to take some time off from getting certifications. You have certainly earned it. As to what is the best career path, concentrate on getting more time in the trenches. That will serve you well, in addition to showing you what things are like in practical situations versus what shows up on the certification exams.

Look at the job openings that are in the area of the country/world that you are in. Next, talk to various job recruiters/placement firms as to what their clients are looking for in terms of experience and certifications. With the current shape of the economy, staying where you are at this point is something worth considering.

Something else that can help you is to look at professional organizations whose interests mirror those of where you have interest. Look for professional publications, such as those from organizations such as IEEE, that will have articles that could spike your interest in a path that you might not have otherwise looked at.

The security field and related areas is one that is going through a bit of a change at this point. I just spent two days at Laura Chappell's Troubleshooting and Security Summit in Dallas Texas, where I had a chance to meeting with important players in the security arena. They gave me some things to think about that I didnt realize were affecting a growing number of companies. Be watching for the next edition of my Help Desk Toolchest Podcast here at Network World to hear those interviews.

Expert's answer

You have several to choose from. Keep in mind that with an ADSL router, you probably don't have equal up/down speeds, so things may be a little sluggish at times. Since you are getting your IP address via DHCP, you may need to look at one of the dynamic DNS services so that, as your address changes (and it will), you can always get to your VPN at home.

The first option depends on the type of firewall you have. Some of the higher end ones comes with some type of VPN functionality that will allow you to remotely access your network. This may or may not require a VPN client be used and/or purchased. There are several open-source options to choose from - it all depends on your level of comfort on setting something like this up. If you aren't familiar with terms such as IPSeC, 3DES, etc, you may want to look at options that take care of this for you to keep from pulling your hair out. If your firewall has this type of functionality, it should say something about VPN on the front panel of the firewall or have its own section in the manual.

Another option is to look at Hamachi. This software lets you establish a VPN connection with your remote computers and get to it just about anywhere. Depending on your usage (commercial vs non-commercial), there is either no fee or month to month/yearly). You can also look at commercial offerings such as GoToMypc.com. With this offering, you connect to one computer, then use that to connect to other computers on your home network.

Expert's answer

1) Speedsight, Skype and GotoMeeting are good audio/video conference tools and all will work on the Mac. GotoMeeting is made for sharing documents and spreadsheets amongst the virtual meeting participants. There are other products out there too like WebEx, iLinc, and oovoo. For one on one video chats you may be satisified with iChat which can talk to AOL AIM clients on the PC as well.

2) For a Mac auto-dialer take a look at Dialectic, you may be able to click a contact link in your calendar and have the call made for you. For an automatic fax system you may be able to use one of the web based fax<->email gateway services like Efax or CallWave. For tying it all together and tracking everything Daylite is worth a look.

Expert's answer

I sense some hesitation since you say you are keen to go into management and yet you ask whether it is the right time. Do you prefer working with the technology or with the people? Specialized technical skills are sometimes more valuable than general management skills but they can also be more difficult to maintain over time as technology moves forward. In the end managers work more with people and less with the nuts and bolts of the hardware and software.

If getting away from the technology and spending more time directing, planning and tracking the efforts of other people appeals to you it may be time to pursue that Master's Degree. Or it may be time to work on moving into a managerial role in the organization you work for now. If the company you work for wants to send you to school then that is real incentive to pursue the degree now.

Without funding from an employer or the graduate program you may find the difference between having a full sized paycheck and being a student a bit of a shock. UT Dallas has a good reputation. If you are keen on the idea then go for it.