200 Pieces of Advice for Network Managers and Techies

I've just had an idea for a booklet\small book we could produce. As the title says, it's a simple 200 poeces of advice for anyone looking to become a technician or network manager. I think 200 is a reasonable amount, so I shall kick it off with the first three. Oh, and keep these real world please and as witty as you like.

1. Macs DO crash. They just do it prettier than Windows.

2. MCSE's become proportiantly more irrelevent in relation to the use of other manufacturers software.

3. Back it up then back it up again somewhere else if you have the capacity.

Over to you......

If it can go wrong 10 minutes before you need it, it will!

Turning it off and on again really does work.

6. Add 10% to every budget request, you never know when you'll need the slack.
7. Never give your DD number to any supplier, or face 5 persistant sales calls at the exact moment you're trying to concentrate on a particular problem
8. Get a phone with Caller ID so you know which extention is calling before you answer, sorry but MFL and SEN will always go straight to answerphone :o
9. Never take anything apart that uses lots of small screws, especially laptops. You'll always end up with the screws going back in the wrong holes and atleast 1 screw left over or missing.

A laptop is just a method of generating work for you whilst the user is at home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theeldergeek

Turning it off and on again really does work.

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Repeat 199 times. :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dos_Box

A laptops are just a method of generating work for you whilst the user is at home.

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C) when creating lists always number them in hex ;)

The last 10% of any project will take 90% of the total time!

Never overlook the magical recovery powers of a linux live CD

If you find something for free check it twice as much before deployment

If you pay for "educational software" expect to get shafted

Tell salesreps that if they call more that $num times in a $timeperiod then they get Blacklisted

The fuss a teacher/user makes over a problem is inversely proportional to the actual scale of the issue.

Those tiny laptop screws are actually living entities - you turn your back and they breed. That explains why there are always some left over once something has been put back together

A machine can never have too much RAM (32 bit argument aside)

No matter how many times you tell SLT it's a bad idea, they will go through with it. Brace yourself.

If you are buying new machines make sure that you are not buying for 'now'. Ensure that they can be cheaply upgraded.

When buying laptops check to cost of spare parts. These vary immensly and affect the TCO of your purchase

When buying a printer make sure the paper tray is robust and will not fall apart after being pulled in and out 20 times during a day.

Find out the prices of spare paper tray for printers.