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My OpenBSD Story

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21–30 of 34 posts

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#21
post #16

I don't understand why the backup option wasn't to boot the one customer whose traffic was killing the company, instead of losing several other clients and going out of business. Yes, try to fix things, and he succeeded, but it seems like he didn't even consider getting rid of the problem customer to save the company.

or even throttling that one client, plugging 10Mbit hub between this clients box and router could do the job as a poor mans bw limiter.

Hub? Why not just set the NIC of the customers machine (or their switch port) to 10mb.

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or even throttling that one client, plugging 10Mbit hub between this clients box and router could do the job as a poor mans bw limiter.

Hub? Why not just set the NIC of the customers machine (or their switch port) to 10mb.

ADSL broadband was only introduced to the UK in the year 2000, so 10Mb might be pushing the boat out a bit.

A better question is who on earth were they hosting who had a website that was that popular back then? Napster?

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#23

"If it didn’t work, I would either lay someone off or file for unemployment myself."" If I hadn’t already been stressed out, the prospect of choosing a minion to lay off would have done the trick. (Before any of those minions start to think I care about them personally: I work hard training minions, and swinging the Club of Correction makes my arms sore. Eventually. I don’t like to replace them.)" This dude must be a…

In my current workplace the joke is for the newcomers to be called "undervisors" (in contrast to shift supervisors).

I found it common to get called a "minion", "drone" or "padawan" while working in IT. No one usually gets offended (if someone does usually the nickname gets dropped immediately in his/her presence).

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#24
What's the best way to try out Open BSD? I have not been able to find a VMWare image. Which VPS providers are recommended for OpenBSD?

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#25
post #24

What's the best way to try out Open BSD? I have not been able to find a VMWare image. Which VPS providers are recommended for OpenBSD?

I've installed 5.6 on Vultr.com as a "Custom ISO" and seems to work fine, although I'm not exactly pushing it.

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#26
post #14

Interesting. Any theories of why this setup was more efficient than the firewall it replaced? OpenBSD just than much better?

The feature he needed was an optional feature which did cost a lot of money and wasn't available right away so it was useless for this problem at hand as clients were threatening to leave the next day.

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#27
post #23

"If it didn’t work, I would either lay someone off or file for unemployment myself."" If I hadn’t already been stressed out, the prospect of choosing a minion to lay off would have done the trick. (Before any of those minions start to think I care about them personally: I work hard training minions, and swinging the Club of Correction makes my arms sore. Eventually. I don’t like to replace them.)" This dude must be a…

In my current workplace the joke is for the newcomers to be called "undervisors" (in contrast to shift supervisors). I found it common to get called a "minion", "drone" or "padawan" while working in IT. No one usually gets offended (if someone does usually the nickname gets dropped immediately in his/her presence).

It's no worse than being called a "resource".

Of course, it means you also get to call your boss "overhead" ;-)

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#28
post #14

Interesting. Any theories of why this setup was more efficient than the firewall it replaced? OpenBSD just than much better?

The feature he needed was an optional feature which did cost a lot of money and wasn't available right away so it was useless for this problem at hand as clients were threatening to leave the next day.

In my nearly 20 years in the industry, I can count on my fingers the number of times vendor support has been worth paying even a penny for.

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#29
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The feature he needed was an optional feature which did cost a lot of money and wasn't available right away so it was useless for this problem at hand as clients were threatening to leave the next day.

In my nearly 20 years in the industry, I can count on my fingers the number of times vendor support has been worth paying even a penny for.

You almost never had to consult with a vendor, development team who wrote the stuff you're using, or otherwise 3rd party who supplied you with a piece of software or hardware you're using with your own software in those 20 years or was it in almost all cases a miserable experience? I agree paying a lot of money for simple additional features (the well known 'enterprise features') is in most cases unjustified, but support is IMHO something else.

Re: My OpenBSD Story

#30
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my nearly 20 years in the industry, I can count on my fingers the number of times vendor support has been worth paying even a penny for.

You almost never had to consult with a vendor, development team who wrote the stuff you're using, or otherwise 3rd party who supplied you with a piece of software or hardware you're using with your own software in those 20 years or was it in almost all cases a miserable experience? I agree paying a lot of money for simple additional features (the well known 'enterprise features') is in most cases unjustified, but sup…

It usually goes, identify problem, contact vendor, wait interminably, in the meantime find a fix or a workaround ourselves, get back in business, sometimes tell the vendor, sometimes not, depending. Vendor support almost never involves the guys who wrote the software, they're off in an ivory tower somewhere and would never deign to speak to a mere paying customer.
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