Reasons why I should be paid more. ..

[Schema]

Not really a rant, but I'd like to share some of the nonsense I have to deal with every now and then.

As some of you may or may not know, I work for Cisco Systems (under Sutherland’s un-watchful eye) in their presales department as a hardware specialist. I basically tell engineers what works and what doesn’t when putting together a solution or upgrade.

So, every now and then I get a call from and engineer or network admin who gets paid triple what I do. Today I get a call from a guy who right off the bat says he will never purchase from Cisco again and he's calling to complain. (I'm not Customer Service BTW) He has a 6 year old Pix firewall that he said has been working seamlessly since he bought it (yeah, what else would you expect), and he recently did an "upgrade" and he can't get in to the PIX and his network is f*cked blah blah blah, and our Tech Center wont help him because he doesn't have a service contract with us.

Well he's all pissed because he's claiming security breaches and we suck because we can't help him. He refuses to buy a service contract and won't buy from us ever again. (FYI, if you don’t have a service contract, you're SOL, this isn't the run of the mill Linksys stuff, it's like teaching someone how to fly over the phone, if you don't know what a friggin CLI is, don't touch it!) Anyways, come to find out, he did a Java update and it's not allowing him to access the GUI interface of the PIX. He hasn't a clue how to console in to the damn thing, and it's OUR fault. The PIX is working dandy, but this smartass decided to update the JVM is EVERY computer on his network, and he's locked out of the only way he knows how to get in to the PIX. And yeah, it's Cisco's fault, we suck, we don't care about the small businesses, blah blah blah blah. Who's paying these guys? I need their job. The sad thing is Cisco is now making their way in to every home across the globe to market to theses SOHO and small businesses. I can't wait till the calls start rolling in, in fact, I probably won't.

[Celtic1982citleC]

I don't know why but I find myself laughing out loud reading this...people in my building are looking at me oddly as I chuckle aloud

[mikecentola]

LOL thats great!

You should hear some of the customers we deal with here. They are supposedly network admins, etc haha

[mustangraven]

LOL,

I have 2 pix firewalls here they were one of the first changes I made and I love them to death personally.
First off any network admin worth his salt does not use the web interface on a pix because its cumbersome and you can do everything alot easier and faster via hyperterminal (could be just me though) you just have to know the commands which are not all that hard to figure out anyway.

I probably would have told him either buy the service agreement or go cry in his coffee. he probably could have just downgraded the java software and all woulda been fixed. IT jobs are tough when the PEBKAC issues come calling
PEBKAC = Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

[mikecentola]

I think the only time I've seriously used a web-based interface to configure something was on a netscreen firewall I had to configure at husqvarna. Even then, I ended up using the CLI for most things.

[RSXTC]

Originally Posted by Schema

hardware specialist...Pix firewall...security breaches...friggin CLI...Java update...GUI interface of the PIX...the JVM...

I have no idea what's going on.

[intern8tion9l]

[bluedominion]

What the hell, and these people were hired as net. admins? Screw that noise. I've a freaking biologist and I can at least manage to do SOME stuff through CLI. I tell ya, windows ruined the world of networking. Any jackoff can set up stuff by clicking on pretty pictures.