Infrequently Asked Questions

What’s the deal with all these roads?

Well…if you work around IT Infrastructure and haven’t seen this, you haven’t seen Shakespeare the way it’s meant to be seen. Full credit to the author, Ron Buchalski. Full excert at the bottom of this page.

What are you trying to do here?

On top of network engineering, I very much enjoy technical writing. While I get to do a fair amount of this with my day job, I rarely get to write about what truly interests me. So, this an outlet for me to do so. Hopefully this is valuable to some folks other than me. But if not, that’s ok too.

What you might find here

Who knows. Lately my mind’s been on stuff like whitebox routing, DDoS mitigation, bash scripting, open source tools, and messing around with sites like readthedocs.io and GitHub Pages (hence the creation of this site). But, it could be anything in these categories:

  • Network protocols
  • Network design concepts
  • Automation
  • Scripting
  • Software tools
  • Network diagrams
  • Internet numbering resources
  • Network security implementations
  • Public Key Infrastructure
  • Container computing & networking
  • Other things I discover along the way

What it’s Like to be a Network Engineer…

…translated into normal people speak

 
User: I think we are having a major road issue.
 
Me: What? No, I just checked, the roads are fine. I was actually just on the roads.
 
User: No, I’m pretty sure the roads are down because I’m not getting pizzas.
 
Me: Everything else on the roads is fine. What do you mean you aren’t getting pizzas?
 
User: I used to get pizzas when I ordered them, now I’m not getting them. It has to be a road issue.
 
Me: As I said, the roads are fine. Where are you getting pizzas from?
 
User: I’m not really sure. Can you check all places that deliver pizzas?
 
Me: No I don’t even know all the places that deliver pizza. You need to narrow it down.
 
User: I think it is Subway.
 
Me: Okay, I’ll check…No, I just looked and Subway doesn’t deliver pizzas.
 
User: I’m pretty sure it is Subway. Can you just allow all food from Subway and we can see if pizza shows up?
 
Me: Sigh, fine I’ve allowed all food from Subway, but I don’t think that is the issue.
 
User: Yeah I’m still not getting pizza. Can you check the roads?
 
Me: It’s not the roads, the roads are fine. I’m pretty sure Subway isn’t the place.
 
User: Okay, I found it. It’s Papa Johns.
 
Me: Okay, I looked and Papa Johns does deliver pizza. Is it the local Papa Johns or one in a different town?
 
User: I don’t know. Can you allow pizza from all Papa Johns to me?
 
Me: No I can’t do that. Can you get me an address for Papa Johns?
 
User: No, I only know it as Papa Johns. Can you get me all the addresses of all Papa Johns and I’ll tell you if one of them is correct?
 
Me: No, I don’t have time for that. Okay, I looked at the local one and it looks like they have sent you pizza in the past and they are currentlyllowed to send you pizzas. Try ordering a pizza while I watch.
 
User: Yeah still no pizza. I’m guessing they are getting blocked at the freeway. Can you check the freeway to make sure they can get through?
 
Me: No, this is a local delivery. They aren’t even using the freeway.
 
User: Okay, well then it has to be a road issue.
 
Me: No, the roads are fine. Okay, I just drove from the Papa Johns to the address they have on file for you and there is nothing there.
 
User: Hmm, wait we did move recently.
 
Me: Did you give your new address to Papa Johns?
 
User: No, I just thought they would be able to look me up by name.
 
Me: No they need your new address. What’s your new address?
 
User: I’m not really sure. Can you look it up?
 
Me: Sigh, give me a second…Okay, I found your address and gave it to Papa Johns. Try ordering a pizza now.
 
User: HEY! PIZZA JUST SHOWED UP!
 
Me: Okay, good.
 
User: (To everyone else they know) I apologize for the delay in the pizza but there was a major road issue that was preventing the pizza from getting toe. The network engineer has fixed the roads and we are able to get pizza again.
 
Me: But it wasn’t the roads…whatever.
 
User: Oh, can you also check on an issue where Chinese food isn’t getting to me? I think it may be a road issue.
 
– Ron Buchalski