Introduction

Hello, my name is Eric and I am from Oregon. I am a Combat Veteran of the 101st Airborne, Desert Storm, United States Army. I served 6 years in the Army as a 67T Blackhawk helicopter Crew chief and door gunner during operations.

After serving my Country, I became deeply involved in Information Technology. I began as a Technical Support representative for Symantec in Eugene, Oregon where I acquired my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). After spending several years there and getting laid off, I decided to move to Bend, Oregon where I took a position as the Technical Support Manager for Empire Net, a small Internet Service Provider serving all of Central Oregon. Empire Net was purchased by Highspeed.Com in 2000 where I served as Lead DSL Technician and Microwave Devices Field Technician.

The purchase of Empire Net by Highspeed.Com presented many issues and change in the company that I did not feel I could get behind. I took a contract position with Adelphia Cable in July, 2001. During the 3 month contract with Adelphia, I spent most of my time on the East Coast installing Cable Modem head end’s for delivery of Cable Internet Services. I am thankful that this job only lasted 3 months as it was becoming increasingly difficult to fly back and forth twice a week.

My next career move came when I accepted employment by BendTel. I was hired as the I.T. Manager and was responsible for the creation, design, implementation and management of a full scale, disaster redundant Data Center. The Data Center was completed by October of 2003.

The completion of the Data Center brought in partners that wanted to carve up the company and weed the employee’s out. I voluntarily quit in October of 2003 to pursue my own ventures that I had been working on since July of 2003, where I created my own consulting business.

I managed and ran my own consulting business from July of 2003 to present. This shift in my career allowed me to be a “stay at home Dad” for my youngest Son. This is a gift I am thankful for to this day. It allowed me to raise my Son in a perfect environment of growth and love. Being there for him every day of his life has been a blessing and gift to me that I cherish deeply. I was not able to be around for most of his older brother’s life due to regional separation issues. My oldest is now 21.

As he grew and spent more days in school, I went back to working full time as an I.T. Manager for a financial firm in Bend, Oregon. Finally, last August, I was offered the job of my dreams and I took it! I now work as one of two Security Network Admins for the Oregon State Department of Corrections. I basically oversee the HVAC, Camera, PLC (door locks) and all Inmate systems infrastructure between Salem, OR HQ and all 15 prison facilities in the State. Yes...I will be retiring from this one! hehehe

I will be posting some things I have learned and studied in the past as well as skills I develop in the future. I hope only that it helps someone else cut the learning curve and surpass the level I have achieved. I am deeply involved in HP Procurve technology and will shortly be testing for the HP ATP FlexNetworking V3 Certification so feel free to shoot me config requests or ???. :) I speak UNIX also.