A site-to-site VPN, tested offline before it went live
Connected two sites with an IPsec tunnel on a Cisco router, built and tested offline before it went live.
A zero-downtime server refresh
New ESXi host, RAID 10, fresh VMs, domain-controller cutover by promote/demote, backups test-restored before anything old was retired.
Automating student account provisioning
Scripting student account creation so running the network didn't eat the time I needed for teaching.
Four hours down, one bad cable
Racks built and rebuilt to a method, cables cut to length, tagged, and documented, so any fault traces end to end.
Getting signal into a metal building
Got network signal into a metal concrete-plant building where running cable wasn't an option, with a wireless bridge.
In-house reporting instead of $300-an-hour consulting
Made the case to build the Controller's reporting in-house with PHP and SQL instead of paying $300 an hour.
Keeping the streaming, fixing the network
Hunted a mystery slowdown to streaming eating the bandwidth, then fixed it with QoS instead of more pipe.
documents
Passwordless logins for a kindergarten class
A teacher logging a class of twenty-one five-year-olds in by hand, every session. I worked it end to end and wrote it up: policy first, then identity, devices, and the people, a proposal they could act on.
Running Sage without handing out admin
An app that demanded local admin, students who couldn't have it. I monitored exactly what it needed and granted only that by Group Policy.
Teaching networking by building it
A three-lab progression I built on my own evenings so students learned networking by building it.
The escalation point for Windows XP
The Level 3 R&D escalation desk for Windows XP on a Microsoft contract, the end of the line for the hard cases.
Turning config tracking into handover documentation
Turning the configuration log I kept through each migration into clean client handover documentation.
When an expired certificate took the VPN down
A site-to-site VPN dropped with nothing misconfigured; the certificate behind it had quietly expired.
Working with the site's IT, not passing the puck
When a Xerox fault turns out to be the network, out of scope, I work with the site's IT instead of passing the puck.