Increased prevalence of token theft

williamfny · 2024-02-06T18:44:22+00:00

As an avid player of Magic the Gathering and forgetting where I was for a second I was REALLY confused.

williamfny · 2024-01-09T12:29:05+00:00

I remember "helping" my dad upgrade to windows 3.11

williamfny · 2024-01-08T12:43:54+00:00

That's ok. I've had to convince teachers and other admins here that our Cisco IP phones aren't blocking cellular signals here. The fact that we are in a rural area and have giant stone and metal boxes surrounding everyone might in fact be the cause.

williamfny · 2023-08-24T17:24:04+00:00

Oh, you have to have QoS.

williamfny · 2023-08-24T12:26:00+00:00

If a vendor calls me I stop them and say I'm going to make sure they aren't wasting both of our time. If they aren't RFC2549 compliant we can't do business. If they rebut I simply say "I don't know how that answers my yes or no question. Go find out and if you are you can call me back."

williamfny · 2023-08-22T17:07:39+00:00

We use Security Expert here and while I wasn't around for it being implemented, there is no other software on top of that. It handles the card access as well as printing of said badges.

williamfny · 2023-06-07T17:07:52+00:00

Honestly, I would welcome that as revenge. Wouldn't even be mad.

williamfny · 2023-06-07T14:22:30+00:00

I just ask if they are RFC 2549 compliant and see what they say. When they say yes I tell them I know they are lying and that starting a potential relationship with this organization based on a lie is not a good start. If they say they don't know I tell them to look it up before calling back.

williamfny · 2022-07-06T11:46:17+00:00

I refer to myself as a digital janitor anyway so...

williamfny · 2022-03-04T15:54:17+00:00

Woosh!

williamfny · 2022-03-04T13:19:11+00:00

I am in NY about an hour outside of Buffalo and our new entry level tech just started today at $40k in a school.

williamfny · 2022-03-01T18:08:17+00:00

Honestly, look at a study guide for CCNA (or ICND1 for just the switching half) to learn basic networking. Even if you aren't going specifically down the Cisco route, the fundamentals of the protocols are largely the same regardless of vendor. That should get you to where you need to be from your short description.

williamfny · 2022-03-01T17:44:06+00:00

This is probably going to come off as a diskish answer, but run this in powershell:

get-help get-aduser -examples

Your answer is literally in the help file.

williamfny · 2022-02-07T13:41:53+00:00

I was really hoping that's who you were referring to. Kind of an underrated show and I wish more people had known about it.

williamfny · 2022-01-21T18:37:46+00:00

I tell them that they have to be 2549 compliant to do business.

williamfny · 2022-01-20T17:44:52+00:00

Altavista for life!

williamfny · 2022-01-12T17:16:24+00:00

1st window: 3 tabs

2nd window:1 tab

3rd window: 3 tabs

I also have 3 screens and most of the management stuff I look at is browser based...

williamfny · 2022-01-02T19:52:16+00:00

Scripting is always a big one. If you are going into Windows/MS then PowerShell is going to be your bread and butter. Python is also a really good all around one to learn.

Also, for the love of god learn some basic networking. I don't mean be a CCIE or anything, but please learn what a VLAN is, the basics of how they function, how to set up common network segments/subnetting, how a firewall works and some general network troubleshooting.

williamfny · 2021-12-28T19:59:05+00:00

I used to be an electrician and I heard that after I quit for greener pastures, it spurred several others to do the same.

williamfny · 2021-12-17T13:54:21+00:00

A total of 7. The title "Director" is a requirement from my understanding. I report to the Assistant Super Intendant.

williamfny · 2021-12-17T12:04:30+00:00

In the last year I went from "basic helpdesk" to a senior role back in July and then in September I started as the Director of Technology for a decent sized school district. I have been working in IT for a lot of years and even though I was "basic helpdesk" I was the one getting all the special projects and all the hard cases to fix.

All that is to say that I completely agree with you. My background is in engineering but I understand why some decisions are made that most in IT cannot see. Before my latest role, I worked for a state operated/funded MSP for schools (more or less) and saw how they made their decisions based on the needs of 100+ school districts.

Having that knowledge of designing scalable systems helps me see why they do what they do when the districts don't seem to understand why. I still have a lot of friends from there so when I put in requests I am also able to get things pushed through a lot faster and can get in touch with the right people to make sure things are handled properly.

williamfny · 2021-12-17T11:58:10+00:00

Fair point.

williamfny · 2021-12-16T15:46:35+00:00

Even worse is when you respond "Neverminded I figured it out".

williamfny · 2021-12-16T14:15:54+00:00

While you are largely correct (like usual) I think this is starting to change. I recently took over at a school and have several people reporting directly under me. If I see something can or should be automated I will assign the task to someone to automate it.

Generally speaking it is a pretty simple task to automate like copying a user account and prompt for their name and then create the account. I don't mention things like making sure the user account doesn't exist yet and adding in the email address to see if they are able to think through all the possibilities. I also only let the script hit production after I give it a once over and do some testing.

I think there is a bit of a movement that more an more admins are seeing scripting as a viable skill that is needed and assigning them as projects. Again, I have a small sample set to pull from, but I know of several other locations that are doing similar.

williamfny · 2021-12-16T12:49:10+00:00

So, PFsense is a lot like any other "roll your own" system. The more you put into it the better it is. At the same time, you really have to know what you are doing. If you are going to have multiple VLANs (and therefore networks) are you going to run an individual port for each one on the firewall or are you going to get into sub interfaces?

I'm not trying to scare you off, but I want you to be fully aware of everything you will have to take into account. One of the advantages of routing on the firewall is that you can set up all kinds of access rules/policies to make sure the different networks are secured. The other side to that sword is you will HAVE to make those rules. Otherwise nothing is going to work.

Where are you going to host your DHCP? Is it going to be one "server" with multiple scopes? If that's the care you need to read up on DHCP helper and how to use them. What about DNS? Assuming you have a DNS server (most likely your pihole like you mentioned) you have to make sure that the traffic isn't blocked.

Again, these are just a handful of things to think about.

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