[c-nsp] Firewall Recommendations

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

I'd ask your coworkers if they think it's such a great idea.

You may be the exception but I have tried those online chat
support interfaces before and they are worthless compared to
phone and e-mail.  Quite obviously the support person has a
dozen conversations going at once.  I type very fast, much
faster than most people since I've been doing it so long, and
I'll type a sentence and wait literally a minute for a response -
and half the time the support person just re-asks the same
question, obviously since he's forgotten all about the
problem we have been chatting about.

Phone and e-mail work very well, phone for immediate stuff
like a network down or some such, e-mail for much more
complex issues that take a while of thought before the
recipient can reply.  Can comparing phone with chat is
no contest - if I get on a phone call with a tech I can tell
right away if he's concentrating on my problem by all the
verbal cues of tonal intonation and such, or doesen't know
what he's talking about, or I need to get nasty to make him
hang up on the other 6 people he's trying to juggle.

A tech phone call between two knowledgeable techs is
a thing of beauty - unfortunately all too often it's lopsided,
one tech knows what he's doing the other is lost in space,
and in those situations the tech that knows what he's doing
can take control of the call and push the other into getting
the problem fixed.  I find myself as the years pass being more
and more the one that knows more about the other guys
job than he does, and less and less patient to spend an hour
teaching an RBOC telco tech what the concept of loop testing is
all about.  The last thing I need is for that Telco tech to have
one more layer to put in between me and him.

Ted

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kristofer Sigurdsson [mailto:kristo at ipf.is]
>Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005 7:03 AM
>To: Ted Mittelstaedt; cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
>Subject: Re: [c-nsp] Firewall Recommendations
>
>
>>> Huh, I'd say they are cowards not because they won't forbid it
>>> unilaterally, but rather because they won't allow it
>>> unilaterally
>>
>> Why would you allow something in a business that is completely
>> useless and has absolutely no business value whatsoever?
>
>Rather - why would you forbid it, if it's not a problem, that is.
>
>I, for one, use Microsoft's MSN network extensively at work.  Most of my
>communications with our local Cisco partner are done through it (quicker
>than picking up the phone and less intrusive).  Also, I use it for quick
>Interactions with ISPs using our xDSL system, very useful for quick,
>interactive communications while still giving a chance to paste
>short logs
>snips, e-mail addresses etc.  I also use it to communicate with our tech
>support guys (beats having them barge in with those goddamn
>post-it's).  In
>fact, for larger clients, we have a special MSN address that
>automatically,
>upon starting a conversation, maps it to an available support engineer.
>
>--
>Kristofer
>
>
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