[AdvisorBits] GilbertWalker Group AdvisorBits - December 2001

[John Walker]

This is the December 2001 edition of AdvisorBits, an informational
newsletter published monthly by GilbertWalker Group. Our intent is to raise
your security consciousness, and begin to expose you to new resources to
manage and to help you secure your networks. To this end, each month we will
present recent technology issues that are of interest to people responsible
for technology in small and medium sized companies. 

To find out more about GilbertWalker Group, please visit our web site:
http://www.gilbertwalker.com

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             -- This Month's Headlines --

  ** A Holiday Message from GilbertWalker Group

  ** First Annual Product Review:    Tools and Toys for Networks
 
  ** Keeping IT talent:              This would make us stay

  ** Networking tool of the month:   History   

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A Holiday Message from GilbertWalker Group

As Tom, I and the rest of the GilbertWalker team prepare for the new year,
and reflect upon the events of the past year, we would like to thank you
all. With so much turmoil in the world and the economy, we are thankful for
the opportunity to do business with all of you, our growing family of
clients.

We look forward to serving your networking needs in 2002, and we wish each
of you and your families a happy holiday season.

Peace,
Tom Gilbert and John Walker

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First Annual Product Review: Tools and Toys for Networks

One thing that makes consultants valuable to their clients is our exposure
to and knowledge of a wide array of products and technologies. To this end,
we'd like to share a brief description of some of the most useful products
we've worked with this year.

Windows 2000 Professional: Back in the days of DOS, we didn't have a lot of
choice. These days we do, and Windows 2000 Professional is the first version
of Windows that this author strongly recommends for the desktop. Microsoft
has incrementally improved their user interface (Remember DOSSHELL?) but now
they have integrated the best of their UI experience with a relatively
secure environment. (NT Workstation was a pretty good try, but never really
caught on with most small businesses.) We don't typically recommend early
adoption of Microsoft's XP; if you can, upgrade to 2000 on your desktops.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/client/default.asp

Dell PERC (Power Edge RAID Controller): RAID stands for redundant array of
inexpensive disks; by logically spreading your data across several disks a
RAID allows for the failure of a disk without losing data or even incurring
significant downtime. Window NT and Windows 2000 servers provide tools for
creating RAIDs through software; this works for either SCSI discs on normal
controllers, or IDE drives. Servers typically have SCSI drives, and if
you're considering buying a Dell, you should probably look into PERC. It has
a built in battery that ensures that drives get shut down cleanly even in
the event of total power failure. This device is a great value in a
departmental or workgroup server.
http://www.dell.com/html/us/compt/pedge/perc2sc.htm

Small Business Server: For the office with 10 or more users, and no
dedicated technical staff, this is a good choice for an all-purpose
file/application server operating system. Built on Windows 2000 Server, it
provides back-end applications such as Exchange for mail and workgroup
productivity and SQL for powerful database applications. Once installed and
configured, maintenance is low and benefits are high, especially if your
Internet connection supports using Exchange as your corporate mail server.
http://www.microsoft.com/sbserver/default.asp

Cisco 2611: In more and more situations, we see clients for whom DSL and
similar broadband access methods are no longer sufficient. These clients
need to implement T1 solutions to provide reliable access to their corporate
networks. Whether they desire to provide minimal public access for email, or
to create a secure endpoint for VPN (virtual private networking, secure
remote access to your corporate LAN) the 2600 series router with the right
hardware module and software feature set can provide these solutions.
Because of its modular architecture, and Cisco's industry leading support
for new technologies, you can be assured this device will grow with your
network.
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/pcat/2600.htm

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Keeping IT talent: This would have made us stay

One challenge many companies face is retaining IT staff. According to
Salary.com, the national median base salary for a network administrator with
0-2 years experience is over $50,000. One frequently used incentive to
retain technical talent is company-paid training. The folks at
www.geekcruises.com have given high quality training a new twist.

In addition to offering courses with internationally recognized experts (the
Perl Whirl instructors list includes the creator of Perl, Larry Walls, and
most of the authors of the Perl references in our library) the training from
GeekCruises.com takes place on a cruise ship with destinations including
Alaska, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and Hawaii.

Costs are comparable to other professional training opportunities. The list
of  Fortune 500 companies that have bought into this concept is impressive,
and if that's not enough, they even have a section called "Convincing the
Boss".

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Networking tool of the month: History

We always thought one of the shortcomings of the Windows command prompt was
the lack of "history." On *nix systems, pressing the up arrow on the
keyboard allows the user to repeat previous commands. It turns out we were
using the wrong method to launch the command prompt window until Dave
Drummond of Springer-Miller Systems (http://www.springermiller.com/) showed
us this one. Thanks Dave.

If you start the command prompt with the command 'cmd' you get history, and
the ability to edit previous commands. You can try this out on Windows NT or
2000. 

Start->Run->'cmd'

Type a command at the prompt. After you execute the command, you can then
"repeat" and/or edit the command using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

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A word from our sponsors:

At GilbertWalker Group, we work with our clients to empower them to manage
their own digital voice and data networks.  While we don't sell hardware or
software, we are actively engaged in all phases of network consulting, which
includes working with our clients on product selection. For more information
or to schedule an introductory meeting, please contact Tom Gilbert at (413)
637-8858 ext. 11 or drop him a line at info@gilbertwalker.com.

If you have comments, questions or suggestions about AdvisorBits, please
send them to John Walker- comments@gilbertwalker.com