June 2008 - Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Reminder: Coming Up on Main Menu in a Little Under 9 Hours - CAPTCHA!
by Darrell Shandrow 13 Jun '10

13 Jun '10

Hello Everyone, This announcement represents a friendly reminder for all of you to listen to an important, two hour live Main Menu coming right up later today. Coming up on an exciting two hour live program, we hear from a panel of technology industry experts all about CAPTCHA (visual verification) and other forms of visual authentication, accessibility challenges to existing visual verification systems, the balance between human rights and security, existing solutions for providing reasonable accomodations to visual authentication and emerging accessibility solutions. We are proud to introduce an impressive panel of experts and their primary areas of focus: * Matt May from the Adobe Systems Accessibility Team will discuss his 2005 W3C note on the inaccessibility of CAPTCHA. * Luis von Ahn from ReCAPTCHA at Carnegie Mellon University will describe their accessible solution. * Steve Dispensa from PhoneFactor will tell us all about an innovative, telephone based two-factor authentication system. The accessibility of CAPTCHA (visual verification schemes on the web) and other similar forms of visual authentication is a topic of utmost importance to the blind, visually impaired and others with print reading disabilities. Real, universally accessible solutions are going to require significant amounts of effort, good will and out-of-the-box thinking. We encourage active participation by the blind community, members on all sides of the issue from the mainstream technology industry and those sighted people who care about what happens to us. Here is how to participate in the show: The number to call into the show is 866-400-5333. You may email your questions to: mainmenu(a)acbradio.org You may also interact with the show via MSN (Windows Live) Messenger. The MSN Messenger ID to add is: mainmenu(a)acbradio.org Would you like to interact with a group of Main Menu listeners about the topics heard on Main Menu and Main Menu Live? You can do this by joining the Main Menu Friends email list. The address to subscribe is: main-menu-subscribe(a)googlegroups.com Come join an already lively group of users. Would you like to subscribe to podcast feeds for Main Menu and Main Menu Live? The RSS feeds to add to your podcatching application are: Main Menu - http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenu Main Menu Live - http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenulive Main Menu can be heard on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific, and at 1 universal (GMT) on Wednesday mornings on the ACB Radio Main Stream channel. Follow this link to listen to the show: http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_… Jeff Bishop and Darrell Shandrow The Main Menu Production Team

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Question for you Cisco ASA/router experts out there
by Andrew Hodgson 04 Jul '08

04 Jul '08

Hi all, I am trying to reconfigure my network so that it meets the following requirements: At present I have 2 sets of public IP addresses. I have a block of 2 addresses (/30), which is used for the inside address of the router, and the outside address of the firewall. I have another block of /28 (14 usable addresses), which is the inside of the firewall. There is no NAT. What I want to do is to get rid of the /30, and use one of the IP addresses in the /28 as the inside address of the Internet router, and then the firewall has the rest for the outside network. I will have an internal (inside) IP range of 192.168.1.x, and the firewall will NAT everything going out on that connection to the outside interface (using one IP address). I will have servers (specific IP addresses) on the inside network which I want natted to other static IP addresses on the outside network. There will be static NAT statements which do the same as port forwarding, but I want any connection that these machines make to come from specific external IP addresses. Here is my sketch configuration illustrating this. Will it work, or do I need to use policy NAT with ACLs? Thanks. Andrew. Router (Cisco 837) interface Ethernet0 ip address xx.xx.xx.209 255.255.255.240 interface Dialer0 ip address negotiated (receives WAN static) Firewall (ASA 5505) interface vlan2 nameif outside security-level 0 ip address xx.xx.xx.210 255.255.255.240 interface vlan1 nameif inside ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 security-level 100 global (outside) 1 interface global (outside) 2 xx.xx.xx.11-xx.xx.xx.222 netmask 255.255.255.240 nat (inside) 1 0 0 route outside 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 xx.xx.xx.209 1 (can this go in the outside interface definition?) access-group outside_access_in in interface outside access-list outside_access_in extended permit tcp any host 192.168.1.10 eq 25 static (inside,outside) xx.xx.xx.211 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.240 Thanks. Andrew.

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Remote Access
by Toner, Barry (LIT) 30 Jun '08

30 Jun '08

Folks, I've never done this and really want to get some practice with it. Can anyone either tell me or point me to step by step instructions on every single thing I need to do. XP Machine to XP machine, and I was going to use Window Eyes. Thanks, Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner(a)liberty-it.co.uk

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage
by Ryan Shugart 28 Jun '08

28 Jun '08

Not yet, but I think my company will want me to play with it, since they're antisan as well, I'll let you know. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew(a)hodgsonfamily.org> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: 6/28/2008 9:00 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Hi, Have you any experience with this package? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart Sent: 28 June 2008 14:57 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Andrew: Have you taken a look at a product called San Melody? Its much cheaper than conventional SANs since it runs ontop of regular Windows servers, but it's a lot cheaper, and I believe is targeted at your situation. Its no Netapp by any means, but its still better than nothing. http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody.asp Ryan -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 4:57 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Hi, Thanks for that. Of course I agree with you about the fact that we shouldn't be looking at price first and formost, but unfortunately the business is not behind us with the SAN purchase, so it inevitably comes into play. They did give me a budget which was seriously short of even the most basic NetAp filer, so I think we will have to stay with DAS solutions. We also have a big data centre refresh pending, so that may have to take priority. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of JoeY Sent: 28 June 2008 00:42 To: 'Blind sysadmins list' Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Features and price is only a small factor when it comes to your companies data. I really like Netapp because with snapshot, snap mirror, iSCSI, and too many details under the hood to get into here, it provides the performance and redundancy that we need. I run Exchange, MS SQL over iSCSI to the Netapp, and there's also several Sybase NFS connections, as well as being our central CIFS server. It's been reliable, and if you scale it correctly, you can really throw a lot at it. We've outgrown the different models, from the 760's, 270, and 3020's. And now are looking at the 6000 series, not because of the throughput, but we need more connections to the filer heads. So, without writing a huge review, I like the Netapp. We previously looked at the EMC offerings, and they seemed overly complex. With Netapp, we had a clustered head, with several disk shelves for redundancy, and spindle count. To recreate this environment of redundancy, EMC offered an architecture that required three of their different server modules. We thought that in our environment, having one "controller" was so much more easier to manage. ~Joe -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 6:17 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Hi, Just wondering if anyone out there is using any shared storage system? We are looking to possibly get one for the company, but I am interested in looking at other venders instead of EMC, NetAp, etc, mainly as you seem to be locked into using a lot of their other hardware, which leads to being quite expensive. It will probably have to be an iSCSI presentation. Thanks. Andrew. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage
by Ryan Shugart 28 Jun '08

28 Jun '08

Not yet, but I think my company will want me to play with it, since they're antisan as well, I'll let you know. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew(a)hodgsonfamily.org> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: 6/28/2008 9:00 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Hi, Have you any experience with this package? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart Sent: 28 June 2008 14:57 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Andrew: Have you taken a look at a product called San Melody? Its much cheaper than conventional SANs since it runs ontop of regular Windows servers, but it's a lot cheaper, and I believe is targeted at your situation. Its no Netapp by any means, but its still better than nothing. http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody.asp Ryan -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 4:57 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Hi, Thanks for that. Of course I agree with you about the fact that we shouldn't be looking at price first and formost, but unfortunately the business is not behind us with the SAN purchase, so it inevitably comes into play. They did give me a budget which was seriously short of even the most basic NetAp filer, so I think we will have to stay with DAS solutions. We also have a big data centre refresh pending, so that may have to take priority. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of JoeY Sent: 28 June 2008 00:42 To: 'Blind sysadmins list' Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Features and price is only a small factor when it comes to your companies data. I really like Netapp because with snapshot, snap mirror, iSCSI, and too many details under the hood to get into here, it provides the performance and redundancy that we need. I run Exchange, MS SQL over iSCSI to the Netapp, and there's also several Sybase NFS connections, as well as being our central CIFS server. It's been reliable, and if you scale it correctly, you can really throw a lot at it. We've outgrown the different models, from the 760's, 270, and 3020's. And now are looking at the 6000 series, not because of the throughput, but we need more connections to the filer heads. So, without writing a huge review, I like the Netapp. We previously looked at the EMC offerings, and they seemed overly complex. With Netapp, we had a clustered head, with several disk shelves for redundancy, and spindle count. To recreate this environment of redundancy, EMC offered an architecture that required three of their different server modules. We thought that in our environment, having one "controller" was so much more easier to manage. ~Joe -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 6:17 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] San/shared storage usage Hi, Just wondering if anyone out there is using any shared storage system? We are looking to possibly get one for the company, but I am interested in looking at other venders instead of EMC, NetAp, etc, mainly as you seem to be locked into using a lot of their other hardware, which leads to being quite expensive. It will probably have to be an iSCSI presentation. Thanks. Andrew. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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San/shared storage usage
by Andrew Hodgson 28 Jun '08

28 Jun '08

Hi, Just wondering if anyone out there is using any shared storage system? We are looking to possibly get one for the company, but I am interested in looking at other venders instead of EMC, NetAp, etc, mainly as you seem to be locked into using a lot of their other hardware, which leads to being quite expensive. It will probably have to be an iSCSI presentation. Thanks. Andrew.

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Network bonding in Vmware and other operating systems
by Andrew Hodgson 14 Jun '08

14 Jun '08

Hi, Well we sorted out our domain issues - it was all due to the Broadcom network bonding/teaming software we use from Dell. Removing the software and using one NIC worked like a charm, and we now have 2 W2k8 domain controllers up and working very well. Will probably go native with W2k8 tomorrow or Monday. That lead me onto another question that I have with my Vmware installs. Does Vmware allow you to do network bonding, or is this even a recommended configuration? I am asking because I can see a requirement to have the management port and the server ports on two different network cards (though they can of course share the same interface if you wanted), but I just wanted to know if it did bonding at all of interfaces? We bond across switches, but just use the standard host-based bonding, where if one card can't communicate, the system tries through the other card. Thanks. Andrew. -- allpay.net Limited, Fortis et Fides, Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, HR1 3SE. Registered in England No. 02933191. UK VAT Reg. No. 666 9148 88. Telephone: 0870 243 3434, Fax: 0870 243 6041. Website: www.allpay.net Email: enquiries(a)allpay.net This email, and any files transmitted with it, is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the allpay.net Information Security Manager at the number above.

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Accessible enterprise spyware
by Troy Hergert 10 Jun '08

10 Jun '08

Hello everyone, Does anyone use a server based enterprise spyware program on a 2003 server that can be navigated with Window-eyes or JAWS? We purchased Counter spy and I am having a difficult time navigating it with a screen reader. Anyone have any experience with something accessible? Thanks.

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Backgrounds
by Toner, Barry (LIT) 04 Jun '08

04 Jun '08

Hi all, In the CISCO Networking thread Darren had asked for peoples experiences in the industry. I've included a short snapshot of mine from Degree and placement below. Hi Darren et al, I'm out on placement as a System Engineer with Liberty information Technology at the moment. I've completed an Associate Bachelors in Computing Science and am heading this September towards final year of my BSC HONS Computer Science Degree. Diagrams are the Bain of my life! >From DFD's, UML, Relational Models in Databases they drive me up the wall. Well to be honest it's not so much the diagrams BUT THE LECTURERS UNWILLINGNESS, (laziness), to provide me with reasonable alternative assessments. I've been fortunate that I've had very technically capable PA's who have been able to use the CAD software under my instructions. This sometimes falls down when the same lazy lecturers have Graduates marking their papers and therefore I'm just a number. I had one lecturer stumble all over the place to try and explain my mark to me. It became evident he hadn't' marked it when he couldn't' even read the hand-writing on the marks given! Another area I struggled with as a non-Braille user is debugging large amounts of code in the software engineering modules. I got round this by having a very helpful lecturer who recognised the hours I was putting in in actually going to his classes and labs, plus the efforts I went to to understand the concepts of the data structures and algorithms he was teaching. He met with me on a one-to-one each week to cover materiel that had been done in that weeks class and give me a brief overview of what was coming up in the next weeks class. I found these sessions invaluable and would encourage any student to request this level of support if you find you are struggling. In my mind a good teacher will make every effort to accommodate a student, because it's important to them and they're passionate about their subject. It might not always be practical granted so you cant' say it's a bad or lazy lecturer if they genuinely don't have the time. Back to work. Sys Eng in the company I currently work for is very challenging if you can't see at all. There's only 8 in total in the Systems dept and that includes the manager. Larger IT Depts will have a team dedicated to Exchange, a team for VMWARE, a team for Licensing, a Networking team, a Helpdesk team etc etc. All our work has to be shared amongst the Sys Engs, Senior Sys Engs, and Principal Sys Eng. With so many proprietary environments it's difficult to get away from the desk and away from the Helpdesk and Sys Admin side of things if you cant' see. System Access To Go, Window Eyes/Jaws on pen drives even NVDA sound great but in the case of WEYE and JAWS they modify Video Drivers. If that's incompatible in any shape or form you have egg all over your face. EG. Some old Dell machines will flip the monitors image upside down (if the drivers haven't been kept up-to-date). If you think an ordinary users desktop environment can be iffy multiply that by ten and you might be close to a developers environment, which is what we deal with in here. Maybe I'm telling my granmother to suck eggs but I would advise anyone who's totally blind, doesn't' read Braille and thinking of going into the IT industry at a corporate level to specialise, specialise, specialise! It's quite difficult to turn your hand to tasks as quickly and on-demand as your sighted peers would. I'm not sure what I want to specialise in, possibly security. Sys Admin sounds OK but I'm not sure if I could sit and fiddle with Active Directory all day. Maybe Exchange but I'd be afraid it might get quite boring after 6 months. Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner(a)liberty-it.co.uk

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds
by Angelo Sonnesso 03 Jun '08

03 Jun '08

I wonder if Hot Spot Clicker would help Jaws behave better? Angelo Sonnesso M.A. M.S. Social Worker for the Blind -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 11:34 AM To: blind-sysadmins Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi, DNS and DHCP is fine in a Core installation. At the moment I have one ESX machine running in a stand alone mode, and it is not connected to any infrastructure server. I have seen the Vmware update manager, but as you say it deals with virtual hosts only, and I don't think it will work for non virtual hosts, i.e, desktops, so we will continue to use WSUS for a while. I am using the mouse cursor in WSUS all the time, since the new 3.0 version came out, and they put it into a console arrangement, I can get Jaws to read some bits, on a good day, but most of the time I use the mouse cursor. Having said this, it is quite predictable in the mouse cursor, and as long as I deal with a screen of updates at a time, it is ok. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Shugart [mailto:rshugart@pcisys.net] Sent: 03 June 2008 16:00 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Andrew: Very interesting points. I don't think server core would be appealing to us if we weren't virtualizing it, actually, the only reason we're upgrading our AD to 2008 is to get the server core functionality. I believe Microsoft has a secure shell alternative for accessing remote commandlines, I think its called remote shell, what I don't know is if its Vista only. We've upgraded our schema, we'll deploy the new DCs when we get the ESX servers up and running. We'll run with both the 2003 and 2008 DCs in production for a while until we're sure things will work like we think they will, then decomition the 2003 DCs. In our case, we'll also need to find new homes for DNS and DHCP, but I believe these are all supported on server core, so there shouldn't be a problem there. On a different note, I'm curious what your WSUS management experience has been like from an accessibility standpoint? I've been able to get it to work, but I find it very clumsy as there seems to be this new type of table control that neither major screen reader is fully working with yet. I find its one of those apps you really need to use your mouse emulation commands to work with if you want any chance of success, and even then its very slow going. So far its been doable, but if you have any tricks you've used, do share. VMWare is now shipping their new Infrastructure Update Manager with new versions of Virtual Center, and this is looking like a really cool product. It not only updates ESX itself, but will patch any Windows or Linux VMs running on an ESX host that's managed by Virtual Center. I was reading up on it yesterday, and if it does half of what it claims, it'll give WSUS a serious run for its money where patching VMs are conserned. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 6:22 AM To: blind-sysadmins Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi, Regarding server core. We tested server core on a test network, and there are a few reasons why I opted for the standard installation (had we ran this on Vmware, I may have made an alternative decision): 1. Our AD servers run a couple of other things as well. I do have one server holding all the FSMO roles, and that is just doing its thing, but the second controller will run WSUS. This I believe wasn't supported under Core. If this was under Vmware, I would Vmware the server and put another image running WSUS exclusively. 2. We don't have Vista clients, and so we are using the WS2003R2 SP2 management pack to manage the W2k8 controllers. I haven't found any program for 2008 that will run under XP for this, so we have to terminal service into the system to do some 2008 specific stuff. 3. There is no native SSH management of the core. So you are stuck with Telnet (which is a no brainer), RDP (which is frustrating just for CLI access, and anyway is not accessible with JFW/WE yet), or the remote management apps. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Shugart [mailto:rshugart@pcisys.net] Sent: 03 June 2008 06:42 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hello: This has been a very interesting thread so far. I'm a relative newcomer to IT, I have a computer science degree and a MCSA for 2003. I didn't have to deal much with diagrams, and from what I'm reading it sounds like I've been lucky. I did MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) training through New Horizons of Colorado and overall I was pleased with the quality of my education and their willingness to work with me on accessibility issues. I went back for VMWare training and continued to be impressed. As to work now, I work at an 80 person software development company, our IT department has three people, one manager and two admins of which I'm one, so there's very little specialization. We're pretty much a Microsoft shop with a little Unix, I manage pretty much all of it from AD to Exchange to VMWare to general Unix, so I've kind of turned into a jack of all trades, although I'm not really specialized in any of them. I'd say my Microsoft knowledge is gr eater right now than my Unix knowledge. My biggest frustration is the lack of accessibility in a lot of the software I need to do my job. I'm pretty much totally blind and depend on speech exclusively. I can work around a lot of the issues, but it takes me longer than my sighted coworkers and there are a few I can't. For example, we have a SideWinder firewall from Secure Computing. The Sidewinder runs a modified FreeBSD OS, but modified is the key word. This product's manual states that Unix is a very insecure OS in their opinion. Anyway, this means the commandline is very different from most Unix's, and there's very little documentation for it since you're supposed to use the GUI, which is so inaccessible it isn't even funny. Best part, this product's biggest customer is the US government. Chuckle chuckle. Anyway, I do the best I can, and so far its been enough. Lately I've been really getting into VMWare, and I'm now heading up a project to convert 95% of our se rvers over to VMs running under ESX 3.5. I'm enjoying this project, and so far am not running into any accessibility issues I can't work around, if more slowly. The project itself is quite extensive, we're also migrating our AD infrastructure to server 2008 so that we can run server core for the smaller footprint, so I'll be interested in your thoughts Andrew. I also do a lot of the documentation for our network, again I avoid the diagrams simply because they've already been done and don't need much updating for now, once the VM project is done that might change, but so far I do will with procedural documentation. That's about it here, as I said I'm finding this thread interesting, so look forward to reading more. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 10:07 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi, Good message. Having a bit of sight, I am able to hop round a bit from one piece to another, but I would recommend the specialisation bit if you can go down that road. On the other side, however, smaller companies may be more interested in employing you - the company that eventually employed me only had around 5 IT staff to start with, and we had to do everything from helpdesk, to server management. Personally I enjoy working with the front-end public facing servers, mainly web servers, but also some of the database servers, and backend servers which runs utility programs etc. This way I have managed to get exposure to a lot of applications, best practices, security requirements etc. I also enjoy seeing how the applications are fitting together, and in some cases helping to put the design together for the apps. Moving on, I am involved now in running the project upgrading our Active Directory to 2008 (I may write more on this in the next few weeks), and a possible Exchange migration. Security is very dry, it is good imho when you are on the firewall etc, but there is a lot of procedural stuff and going through logs you have to do, it isn't always easy to spot what is going on, especially when there is a lot of repetition. One of the things I do is to try and delegate work wherever possible. So for example, I don't do any of the cabling, or cabinet work. This may be just workable in my situation, but there are people who are very good at that sort of thing, and are quite happy to do it. When I first started out, I tried to get into as much as I could, to make people realise I was able to do the relevant jobs. Now, I am throwing the jobs to other people, as I have a full plate! Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Toner, Barry (LIT) Sent: 02 June 2008 15:10 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi all, In the CISCO Networking thread Darren had asked for peoples experiences in the industry. I've included a short snapshot of mine from Degree and placement below. Hi Darren et al, I'm out on placement as a System Engineer with Liberty information Technology at the moment. I've completed an Associate Bachelors in Computing Science and am heading this September towards final year of my BSC HONS Computer Science Degree. Diagrams are the Bain of my life! >From DFD's, UML, Relational Models in Databases they drive me up the wall. Well to be honest it's not so much the diagrams BUT THE LECTURERS UNWILLINGNESS, (laziness), to provide me with reasonable alternative assessments. I've been fortunate that I've had very technically capable PA's who have been able to use the CAD software under my instructions. This sometimes falls down when the same lazy lecturers have Graduates marking their papers and therefore I'm just a number. I had one lecturer stumble all over the place to try and explain my mark to me. It became evident he hadn't' marked it when he couldn't' even read the hand-writing on the marks given! Another area I struggled with as a non-Braille user is debugging large amounts of code in the software engineering modules. I got round this by having a very helpful lecturer who recognised the hours I was putting in in actually going to his classes and labs, plus the efforts I went to to understand the concepts of the data structures and algorithms he was teaching. He met with me on a one-to-one each week to cover materiel that had been done in that weeks class and give me a brief overview of what was coming up in the next weeks class. I found these sessions invaluable and would encourage any student to request this level of support if you find you are struggling. In my mind a good teacher will make every effort to accommodate a student, because it's important to them and they're passionate about their subject. It might not always be practical granted so you cant' say it's a bad or lazy lecturer if they genuinely don't have the time. Back to work. Sys Eng in the company I currently work for is very challenging if you can't see at all. There's only 8 in total in the Systems dept and that includes the manager. Larger IT Depts will have a team dedicated to Exchange, a team for VMWARE, a team for Licensing, a Networking team, a Helpdesk team etc etc. All our work has to be shared amongst the Sys Engs, Senior Sys Engs, and Principal Sys Eng. With so many proprietary environments it's difficult to get away from the desk and away from the Helpdesk and Sys Admin side of things if you cant' see. System Access To Go, Window Eyes/Jaws on pen drives even NVDA sound great but in the case of WEYE and JAWS they modify Video Drivers. If that's incompatible in any shape or form you have egg all over your face. EG. Some old Dell machines will flip the monitors image upside down (if the drivers haven't been kept up-to-date). If you think an ordinary users desktop environment can be iffy multiply that by ten and you might be close to a developers environment, which is what we deal with in here. Maybe I'm telling my granmother to suck eggs but I would advise anyone who's totally blind, doesn't' read Braille and thinking of going into the IT industry at a corporate level to specialise, specialise, specialise! It's quite difficult to turn your hand to tasks as quickly and on-demand as your sighted peers would. I'm not sure what I want to specialise in, possibly security. Sys Admin sounds OK but I'm not sure if I could sit and fiddle with Active Directory all day. Maybe Exchange but I'd be afraid it might get quite boring after 6 months. Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner(a)liberty-it.co.uk _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins -- allpay.net Limited, Fortis et Fides, Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, HR1 3SE. Registered in England No. 02933191. UK VAT Reg. No. 666 9148 88. Telephone: 0870 243 3434, Fax: 0870 243 6041. Website: www.allpay.net Email: enquiries(a)allpay.net This email, and any files transmitted with it, is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the allpay.net Information Security Manager at the number above. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins -- allpay.net Limited, Fortis et Fides, Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, HR1 3SE. Registered in England No. 02933191. UK VAT Reg. No. 666 9148 88. Telephone: 0870 243 3434, Fax: 0870 243 6041. Website: www.allpay.net Email: enquiries(a)allpay.net This email, and any files transmitted with it, is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the allpay.net Information Security Manager at the number above. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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