Practicum 2 Journal 13 - January 21, 2014 - Documenting pfSense

So today I got to talk with Wes and James a bit more about what is happening around here. Also at lunch James had to go home because his son was throwing up from him hitting his head yesterday. Hopefully he is alright. So today I worked on documenting what I have done in pfSense so that Ken can (if he needs at all) work with it when I have left.

Practicum 2 Journal 12 - January 20, 2014

So today wasn't crazy busy around here. Ken has hired on a new guy, his name is James and he is mainly a networking type of guy. Unfortunately though is that he will be replacing Wes. Ken needed someone to do more networking based work than to do the tickets that are coming in. Wes understands what Ken is wanting, but Ken is also being super nice about it. He said that he would call Wes if the time comes that he needs to expand more in a year or so, and that Wes could also use the meeting room there is he wishes.

But basically, today I was talking with Wes and James about random stuff (Arduino stuff mostly, as I had taken a course for it on Saturday) and quad-copters as well as I am starting to write down the process we took to do this pfSense box.

Practicum 2 Journal 11 - January 17, 2014 - All alone?

So last night Wes had to go to the hospital with his wife for a special reason, she was having a baby. I got an email last night asking if I had Ken's cell number so Wes could talk to him, then he had mentioned in the next email about why he wouldn't at work tomorrow. I was their all alone today fiddling around with the pfSense box a bit, and a little on the virtual machines.

Mr. McNeill had also stopped by today for my midpoint assessment. Basically it is to see how I am doing, what I should be doing differently, and to make sure I am getting along with and creating a good rapport with my fellow employees.

Practicum 2 Journal 10 - January 16, 2014 - Port Forwarding and Laptops

So today I was finally able to get port forwarding up and running. After like 2 days of trying to get it up and running I was able to get it going. When you use pfSense to be able to set a different external IP you would usually setup 1:1 addressing in the NAT section for each internal IP to use a specific external IP, then using the rules just set it so that say port 80 was forwarded to anywhere from 192.168.x.x which was supposed to work. On several websites it read that if you want to forward a port from an internal IP address for a server (for example) you had to use the rules section underneath the Firewall tab to forward them. What I found out is that when VLANs are involved you have to forward the ports using the normal Port Forwarding section on the NAT page to set them. So a day or two trying to figure that out, and I only had to do it the way everyone said not to do it. You use the default port forward section to open up the ports, but you have to set the destination to be the external IP that you wish to use from your Virtual IP list.

Ken also opened up the box of laptops that he got in from a client, so we set them up. They are the Lenovo Y510p, I was looking at getting that one for the course but it wasn't a fit for me and cost about $100 more than my Asus Vivobook that I picked up. The client company had picked four of them up for about $500 a piece, crazy cheap for these laptops.

January 15, 2014 - First Aid

So today we had first aid, it was a bit interesting. Last time I had done first aid I was in my third year of Scouts (so as of writing this about 4 years ago). Some things have changed, but not much. It was definitely different to take the course again, even though the last one I took was four years ago.

Although First Aid is not technology related at all, it is still good to be able to have it on your resume, potential bosses like to see extra things like that on the resume.

Practicum 2 Journal 9 - January 14, 2014

So today we were finally able to get pfSense working mostly the way that is needed, we just aren't able to get it to work correctly for port forwarding. What I mean by that is that we CAN forward ports in and out. But when we allow all ports outgoing (from the network to the internet I mean) then it works fine, when we restrict to only web browsing ports (such as port 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS) then it either does not work or is SUPER slow for loading things.

Running things through VLANs and port forwarding is starting to get a bit confusing and above my head, but luckily after doing some research I start to understand the bits that I need to, it is really cool what VLANs are capable of.

Practicum 2 Journal 8 - January 13, 2014

This switch is really cool when you get into it.It has one major flaw though that Wes and I see with it, you have to go three steps down into the menu to save the settings no matter how small or insignificant they may be. But today we got VLANs going and mostly syncing up with pfSense.

pfSense is really cool for the fact that it doesn't need brand new hardware at all, all it mainly needs is an old desktop computer with a second (or more depending on what you want to do with it) network cards. Their is so much you can do with it, such as captive portals for connections (for example that login screen you see when you sign in to the local McDonalds or Starbucks WIFI connection and you have to click agree), VLANs, Wake on LAN, load balancing, redundant internet connections, it even supports something called CARP. CARP allows pfSense to essentially sync itself with another pfSense box which in turn makes redundant boxes capable.

Practicum 2 Journal 7 - January 10 - Tablets and more pfSense Goodness

Today someone had called in about their company just recently buying 3 tablets, so me and Wes set them up for VPN access, printer access, terminal access, and network drive access. The longest part of it all was probably figuring out what the model was for each of the three printers and finding the drivers as Windows Update was not finding them for us.

Working on the pfSense side of things, Ken gave Wes and I a Dell PowerConnect 6248 switch to work with. Other than that this switch seems like it will be a very good one to use, as mainly it supports working with 802.1Q VLANs through a trunk port that pfSense is giving out through the second network card.

Practicum 2 Journal 6 - January 9, 2014 - pfSense anyone?

So today Wes wasn't working, so I got to work by myself on this new project for a day. I grabbed an old Dell Optiplex 210L that they had out in the back hall for recycling, and a used hard drive from the pile they had and installed pfSense on it, and started working. Noticing that I then needed another network card, I found one in an old server of theirs.

After installing the second card I restarted the computer, and finished the pfSense installation. Ken also gave me a cisco router that he recently uninstalled from his setup, I was able to turn DHCP off on it and use it just as a switch. Working on this basically took the whole day, it was fun, I haven't done anything like that in a while.

Practicum 2 Journal 5 - January 8, 2014 - Telus Router Replacement?!

So today me and Wes worked a bit more on Zentyal, checking it out, and also getting terminal services working on Ubuntu Desktop with a program called xrdp (it acts like a terminal server allowing multiple people to connect to the same OS, but be logged in as themselves and even potentially at the same time as someone else but without the other knowing, and then me looking around at some other alternatives to Windows Server with little luck besides Zentyal.

Later on in the work day, when Wes went home I was messing with Ubuntu still, and Ken came and proposed an idea to me. His proposal was to replace the pile of Telus Routers he has with hopefully one box. Our initial thought was something like pfSense, so I looked into it more, and that is what seems to be the best option for what he wants.

This is the picture of what he has now:

(I apologize for the glare, as their is a window directly opposite the whiteboard)

This is the picture of what he wants:

(I apologize again for the glare)

So looks like I will be busy the next couple days figuring this out for him.

Practicum 2 Journal 4 - January 7, 2014

So today we got a few calls in for help, messed a bit more in Windows Server and Linux distributions. One of the Linux distributions that I have found is called Zentyal, it has quite a few of the same features that Windows Server 20XX has and some others (because of it being a flexible Linux OS). It allows for a mail server, network login server, file server, terminal server, and quite a bit more. Other than checking out Zentyal nothing exciting really happened.

Practicum 2 Journal 3 - January 6, 2014

So today we went through the service tickets that came in on the weekend, and noticed that Ken took them all, so Wes showed me some things in Windows Server that I did not know or could not remember previously seeing. Between going through TigerPaw for tickets throughout the day and messing around with Windows Server, that was basically the day. Not very exciting

Practicum 2 Journal 2 - January 3, 2014 - Rainbow Greenhouses

So today me and Wes (the person that I am working under) went out of the office and went to Chiliwack to a place called Rainbow Greenhouses. They recently have built a brand new building beside their current one for expanding their office and making a REALLY LARGE (and long) greenhouse area. When we arrived their it ended up that the employees themselves had moved over an set up their desktop systems. So Wes and I had moved over the servers and the leftover UPS units that were still left in the old building. After that I ended up wiring the networking patch panel to the switch (not splicing the cables into the patch panel though), after helping their tech setup her machines and the servers, I was sent to setup the front desk computer (the monitor cables were too short for it). After using a punch down tool and punching a CAT6 Ethernet socket for the printer, and making a cable for one of the employees there who wished to use Ethernet for his laptop, Wes and I were done there, so we came back to the office, finished up some stuff here, then went home.

So a pretty productive second day on the job, Monday I am working again, so we will see what I will be up to then.

Practicum 2 Journal 1 - December 31, 2013 - First day on a new job

So today I have started my second practicum, it is at a business in Abbotsford named Bytelok. They do offsite servers and management of networks for quite a few different businesses actually. Today I got a bit of a tour around their office. I got to see the office where I will be working, an extra office that is being used by a friend of Ken's that works upstairs (they ran out of offices upstairs I believe, so that is why she is working here), Ken's office, and the server room. I noticed that they have a pile of 20 different routers or so, I asked him later why they had so many routers hooked up. It is because of having a separate external (or WAN) IP address for each company he is hosting for.

On Friday we will be going to a place called Rainbow Greenhouses in Chiliwack to help them move their computers and stuff over to their new building which is just next door to their current location.