Or, this guy...
Posted on 04/16/2013 1:42:32 PM PDT by dangerdoc
Question for network guys.
I needed another LAN connection, and there are no more installed at my site. I called the lan guy, they told me I needed to call out of state to the corporate headquarter to get an order and I can expect it in 6 weeks. I mentioned getting buying a switch and using it while we are waiting and he about had a cow. He said I could bring down the entire corporate network.
Is this even posible? If it is, what is to keep somebody from wandering around with a LAN switch and randomly bringing down networks at any unsecure LAN plug?
The main problem with the server is I inherited it from somebody, so my application wasn’t “fresh.” There’s probably a carpload of bloat left from the previous user.
It’s not like he has to take my word for it. I’m moving a bunch of data from another server that’s about to die (HPUX again), so he can see I’m already using about 50 GB.
They’ll probably wonder why the Cat 5 cables are running in and out of the cooker. Maybe you can camouflage that by putting the wires into a non-functional hot plate under the cooker...
There’s probably a carpload of bloat left from the previous user.
Oh, so you're saying that you need to clean your stuff up, first. Well, run along and do that, and then get back to me. :-) :-) :-)
/evil IT laugh.
I know that evil laugh. Of course, I can’t clean it up because it wasn’t mine and I don’t have squat for permission (I haven’t had a chance to install a back door on this machine yet). And I’m already taking up 50GB somewhere else. I can’t wait to start the move once I get the space thing fixed because it’ll be a couple hours of gray-barring.
I know! I’ll put in a ticket (Evil user laugh), then call my boss’s boss!
ty
As soon as you get your CCNA, you’ll understand why your “lan guy” just about had a cow. You could crash your network in a heartbeat if you just run out to Best Buy, grab a switch and plug it in.
Deal with the delay.
Or, this guy...
A dual speed hub can be very useful if you're trying to troubleshoot network issues on a switch without port aggregation. Otherwise, a "packet sniffer" can be pretty useless on a switch.
Mark
Wow, are you ever getting TMI, lol.
Ask your administrator if he or she has a small switch they could hook up for you until an approved one arrives. If they don’t (unlikely), ask them if you can go buy a cheap generic 4-port switch and they can hook that up for you until an approved switch arrives.
Butter them up; tell them you’re fascinated by this “switch thing” and ask them to explain it to you. Drop phrases like “broadcast domain” and “collision domain”. Feign interest. Most of us network people love to show off our knowledge.
Yes you can bring down the entire lan just pluging in a random switch...but if your lan is properly engineered no it shouldn’t for just the reason you said..no lan should be so exposed that some one could deliberately drop it...
How about a mix of thin and thick Ethernet (OK... 802.3 and Ethernet lol), trying to find problems on the net... Back in the day, you rented one of these...
How about an HP 1415a Time Domain Reflectometer.
I can't tell you how many times I was able to prove that bad cable ends and taps were taking their networks down.
But they weren't much fun to use...
Mark
I’ve never used an oscilloscope, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
It probably wouldn’t work anyway. A dime store LAN switch still needs the DHCP server to assign IP addys to the new devices. Our switches will allow not any single port to carry more than two IP addresses (one for a phone, one for a PC). So your 16 port blister packed LAN switch (or hub, either one) may only allow two devices to be added, even if it doesn’t trigger an avalanche.
If it was a hub plugged into an unsecure port, then, theoretically, it could cause a problem. Crash the entire network? I doubt it.
I’m not worried about the delay, I’m more fascinated that an untrained person using a device that can be purchased at walmart can bring down a network supported by an army of techs.
and they want to ban guns
The network guys are fine and take good care of me and I’m really not in that big of a hurry.
About 18 months ago, we went to a digital record system that required a citrix connection to the east cost and connections to the mother ship in the rockies while interacting with me in the midwest. At first, the network guys started using the entrance at the other side of the building to avoid our area but one of my ladies started baking them cookies, suddenly, I had network guys just wandering by and asking me if I needed anything.
We’ve moved off site so I don’t see them much anymore and this guy must be new because I didn’t recognize him but the look on his face when I offered to install a switch to save him some work was priceless.
sysadmin was never a BOFH.
*chuckle* I was a BOFH back in mainframe batch processing hollerith card days.
Faculty that p*ssed on the op staff seemed to get their jobs queued last. It was all manual scheduling then; we read their cards in to the mainframe or not.
I loved Simon’s BOFH stories in the newsfeed since we’d lived it by then...
Oh, tell me about it. I made a defective handmade ethernet cable that took down the entire location's network.
Long, long time ago.
After that happened, I set my own policy to never add new equipment during business hours.
Ummm.. First, you plug it in...
Sorry... couldn't let that pass ;-)
You violently jam the power-cord into the RJ-45 jack, but it won't plug in.
I couldn't let that pass either... but I wonder how a text-based IT Adventure game would do....
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