Keeping it as a real mailbox is brilliant. The users you don't want to deal with reply to it because they don't bother to read, and then they never reach out for help correctly and you don't need to do anything for them.
On a whim, I checked a mailbox I used for automated emails, and there are a TON of replies.
I literally say in the emails “don’t reply to this email, no one will read it.”
Hopefully they figured their shit out cuz I just mass deleted all the emails.
Why do you even have a mailbox attached to the address in the first place?
Because I’m not a real sysadmin, I have to do things the hard way, without any help from IT.
It’s some kind of old group mailbox created years ago and abandoned that I repurposed. It gets the job done and I didn’t have to talk to India.
I ask because reusing an old group mailbox would be "the hard way" to me. Most systems/services where you'd have a no-reply notification FROM address you can just use any completely made up fake address you'd like. Now you'd normally want to use something that looks like it comes from your company and with a descriptive address, eg. [email protected], but if it doesn't need to receive email, the FROM address (typically) doesn't need to be a real user, group, mailbox, or distro list to function.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
It's a real mailbox when the CEO responds to it, though.
Anyone have experience with Zscaler or prefer some alternative better? We're looking into them to hit some of our security desires for additional network protection for our roaming clients as well as more granular access policies around vpn-like access to necessarily internal-only resources.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
We're just implementing them at one of my customers. The demo did run into some snags though. We were also looking into a similar product from Palo Alto, but on my phone now. I'll see if I can dig up some info.
We looked at Zscaler, Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks and Checkpoint Cloudguard. Zscaler was the one that fit our requirements the most, but implementation will take a while. I haven't done a deepdive with the alternatives myself, so I don't know how fitting those are.
Anyone have experience with Zscaler or prefer some alternative better? We're looking into them to hit some of our security desires for additional network protection for our roaming clients as well as more granular access policies around vpn-like access to necessarily internal-only resources.
We use zscaler for our enterprise vpn replacement. It is great for most things, but note it will absolutely fuck with things like software dev and other tools pretty hard. Make sure to carefully vet it in those use cases as a bunch of our devs have a devil of a time with certain things.
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Oh man, speaking of Server 2022, I learned something today while working on a quote for a potential new client.
Server 2022 Essentials licenses you for up to 10 cores, gives you basic AD features for up to 25 users and doesn't require user CALs. It's perfect for small businesses where Azure doesn't make sense.
I'm designing a total network/server overhaul for a small business that works with large design files. Packages can be as large as 500MB and need to be swapped between several stations during production. Fiber is not currently available so there would be additional construction costs to bring that in. Supporting Azure/Sharepoint just doesn't make financial sense so I'm quoting them a small on-prem server and a backup solution. Since they don't have many users, I was able to save a fair bit on the quote by going with Essentials. We can always buy an upgrade license later if it's needed.
I REALLY REALLY hate how you have to relicense ALL your cores every 2 VMs on Standard. With one client they had 7 VMs and 32 cores so I ended up having to license an additional 96 cores for everything. Super annoying.
Had a new co worker send over some snipey email about device encryption post merger. Had to send back about how we do it, basically went "of the pre merger orgs that have devices, this one encrypts the offline file store, these two don't allow offline files and yours? the one you were previously responsible for? you have a bios password that most users have on a post-it on their laptop but it doesn't even matter because the offline file store isn't encrypted and i just pulled a drive out of one of those laptops and read all the client records that were in that device via another machine and an SSD enclosure."
Yeah, you might wanna shut the fuck up and stay in your lane.
Bonus points: people with no IT experience went in and helpfully updated the policy around device encryption without telling anyone in IT. Holy shit, some folks need to retire already.
I wish network vendors would stop making the virtual machine based network router images. In theory: great learning tool. In practice: so limited, slow and difficult that they basically exist to convince non-technical product managers that "the CI system will totally run virtual network configuration tests".
I've come up against this over and over and that's the extent of the thought - no one ever actually wants to do it, and no one has any idea what result they're looking for here (it's usually "do you understand iOS/HPE/Junos commands" not "does the intended configuration keep the network operating within the desired specification" - which is an entirely different question that could be solved by static analysis (which is also only just barely extant and those same PMs have no idea about any of that at all).
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lwt1973King of ThievesSyndicationRegistered Userregular
edited March 14
Provider: Your case is created and I have a notice that a tech will be assigned.
Me: So you can't tell when the tech is assigned?
Provider: No.
Me: So you can create the case, ask for a tech, but you can't tell if a tech has been assigned.
Provider: No. You need to go to our website and create an account there and then you can see if a tech has been assigned to your case.
Me: ... Fine.
<I create an account and bring up the trouble ticket>
Trouble ticket: Please call in order to get all updates on this case.
lwt1973 on
"He's sulking in his tent like Achilles! It's the Iliad?...from Homer?! READ A BOOK!!" -Handy
if it wasn't clear, that was a bit of sarcasm after a fun 20 minutes on a Thursday.
I was working at home, and our Tier 1 guy called me saying there was a PC that had networking issues he couldn't figure out, wasn't connecting to the network, but wifi tethered to his phone worked. Looked at it, looked like it wasn't getting a DHCP address on the work network. So I logged onto the server with DHCP to go find a static address to give to the PC to troubleshoot and... DHCP server errored. Go into services, and sure enough DHCP service wasn't running. Start it, and all was fine.
if it wasn't clear, that was a bit of sarcasm after a fun 20 minutes on a Thursday.
I was working at home, and our Tier 1 guy called me saying there was a PC that had networking issues he couldn't figure out, wasn't connecting to the network, but wifi tethered to his phone worked. Looked at it, looked like it wasn't getting a DHCP address on the work network. So I logged onto the server with DHCP to go find a static address to give to the PC to troubleshoot and... DHCP server errored. Go into services, and sure enough DHCP service wasn't running. Start it, and all was fine.
Posts
Why do you even have a mailbox attached to the address in the first place?
I always figured Rule no. 2 was that no one reads emails.
Because I’m not a real sysadmin, I have to do things the hard way, without any help from IT.
It’s some kind of old group mailbox created years ago and abandoned that I repurposed. It gets the job done and I didn’t have to talk to India.
I ask because reusing an old group mailbox would be "the hard way" to me. Most systems/services where you'd have a no-reply notification FROM address you can just use any completely made up fake address you'd like. Now you'd normally want to use something that looks like it comes from your company and with a descriptive address, eg. [email protected], but if it doesn't need to receive email, the FROM address (typically) doesn't need to be a real user, group, mailbox, or distro list to function.
We use zscaler for our enterprise vpn replacement. It is great for most things, but note it will absolutely fuck with things like software dev and other tools pretty hard. Make sure to carefully vet it in those use cases as a bunch of our devs have a devil of a time with certain things.
in a related news story: my Server 2022 VM's no longer have secure boot turned on.
Server 2022 Essentials licenses you for up to 10 cores, gives you basic AD features for up to 25 users and doesn't require user CALs. It's perfect for small businesses where Azure doesn't make sense.
I'm designing a total network/server overhaul for a small business that works with large design files. Packages can be as large as 500MB and need to be swapped between several stations during production. Fiber is not currently available so there would be additional construction costs to bring that in. Supporting Azure/Sharepoint just doesn't make financial sense so I'm quoting them a small on-prem server and a backup solution. Since they don't have many users, I was able to save a fair bit on the quote by going with Essentials. We can always buy an upgrade license later if it's needed.
I REALLY REALLY hate how you have to relicense ALL your cores every 2 VMs on Standard. With one client they had 7 VMs and 32 cores so I ended up having to license an additional 96 cores for everything. Super annoying.
The 3k update for ESXi they released last week fixes that so you don't have to run without secure boot.
Yeah, you might wanna shut the fuck up and stay in your lane.
Bonus points: people with no IT experience went in and helpfully updated the policy around device encryption without telling anyone in IT. Holy shit, some folks need to retire already.
Months later, "What if we did what you originally suggested?"
I'd be both relieved and furious all at once?
I've come up against this over and over and that's the extent of the thought - no one ever actually wants to do it, and no one has any idea what result they're looking for here (it's usually "do you understand iOS/HPE/Junos commands" not "does the intended configuration keep the network operating within the desired specification" - which is an entirely different question that could be solved by static analysis (which is also only just barely extant and those same PMs have no idea about any of that at all).
Me: So you can't tell when the tech is assigned?
Provider: No.
Me: So you can create the case, ask for a tech, but you can't tell if a tech has been assigned.
Provider: No. You need to go to our website and create an account there and then you can see if a tech has been assigned to your case.
Me: ... Fine.
<I create an account and bring up the trouble ticket>
Trouble ticket: Please call in order to get all updates on this case.
Uh... No?
I was working at home, and our Tier 1 guy called me saying there was a PC that had networking issues he couldn't figure out, wasn't connecting to the network, but wifi tethered to his phone worked. Looked at it, looked like it wasn't getting a DHCP address on the work network. So I logged onto the server with DHCP to go find a static address to give to the PC to troubleshoot and... DHCP server errored. Go into services, and sure enough DHCP service wasn't running. Start it, and all was fine.
Just weird.
I'm surprised the service didn't restart.