Operations training materials

[Michael Dillon <michael () okjunc junction net>]

On Sun, 23 Apr 1995 elliot () ghost uunet ca wrote:

> On Sat, 22 Apr 1995, Michael Dillon wrote:
> > Right now it is possible for each new operations person at a new ISP to 
> > hunt through all the RFC's for relevant documents, look through the IETF 
> > mailing lists for relevant lists and then hunt through those lists for 
> > relevant messages, etc.... However, it would be far more efficient to 
> > have one technically skilled researcher do this and distill the important 
> > info for the rest of us.
>
> Ah, so you want someone else to do your homework for you?

Not for me, I've done my homework. Unfortunately, I no longer have
many of the "texbooks" nor a coherent record of all my sources of info
so if I wanted to train another person it would be like reinventing the 
wheel. :-(

> I believe that the general feeling in the Internet community that it's 
> essential not only to have such information, but also to be able to 
> understand the sources from which the information is derived;  following
> the IETF mailing lists and understanding relevant RFCs is part of what 
> makes a "good" operator.

Agreed. This is the beauty of publishing tutorial materials on the Web; 
you can have direct links to the RELEVANT source materials including the 
important IETF lists and list archives.

> The Internet is constantly changing, and in order to keep up, an operator
> *must* understand new RFCs and mailing list discussion *as they occur*.

> There's no time to wait for some to write a book simplifying things for you...

Not a book, more like a table of contents with introductory summaries.
Consider that most new ISP's don't even know what IETF is, don't know
what NANOG is, have never heard of BGP, etc.... They may have experience 
with UNIX and TCP/IP Lan's or with BBSes and I have come across more than 
a few who have little more than DOS experience. These people are LOOKING 
for a book to help them but there are no such books. They are looking for 
a newsgroup to help them but there are no such newsgroups. They are even 
looking for a mailing list, but there is no single mailing list that 
covers what you need to know.

Given that a WWW site as I have envisioned did exist, those who know 
would have a quick and easy answer to all operational questions. "Go and 
read the stuff at http://...... and then if you need to know more, ask me."

Michael Dillon                                    Voice: +1-604-549-1036
Network Operations                                  Fax: +1-604-542-4130
Okanagan Internet Junction                     Internet: michael () junction net
http://www.junction.net  -  The Okanagan's 1st full-service Internet provider