[OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins

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1

I've been trying to decide for a while what makes a good home for a Network Admin... access to physical, reliable upstream routes? good selection of local taverns? What, in your opinion, makes a good location for a Network Admin and where in the US would you find that?

Also, I'd like to introduce myself [[ o/ ]] I've been watching the list for a while now and have found it helpful with picking up some "best practices", getting use-case scenarios you might not see in text books. I attended Michigan Tech for Computer Networking and System Administration and have been bouncing around for a couple of years trying to find my calling. I've been working a lot with VoIP and that's been my interest ever since middle school. I've been mainly playing with stub networks for most of my life but have recently started working with larger routed networks, leading me to subscribe to the NANOG list. My latest endeavor was acquiring and ASN and a /24 from ARIN and multihoming a very small MSP. I've been fortunate enough to have really sharp mentors to help answer any questions I've had along the way. I know there must be quite a few people like myself that are lurking on the list and I just wanted to thank you guys for answering other questions and providing input on topics that have come through the list.

TL;DR: Hi, see subject

2

I've been trying to decide for a while what makes a good home for a
Network Admin... access to physical, reliable upstream routes? good
selection of local taverns? What, in your opinion, makes a good
location for a Network Admin and where in the US would you find that?

Hmmmm. That's a great question.

Well does the network admin mostly travel to job sites? Or work remotely? If either/both are true,
I'd suggest the DFW area. It's a major hub in both internet and travel respects. (I fly American Airlines exclusively, I live in Austin. Most flights are AUS-DFW-$FINALHOP).

Also, I'd like to introduce myself [[ o/ ]] I've been watching the
list for a while now and have found it helpful with picking up some
"best practices", getting use-case scenarios you might not see in text
books.

Is that code for "all you crazies doing crazy things for crazier bosses?" :slight_smile:

Welcome to the list sir!

  I attended Michigan Tech for Computer Networking and System

Administration and have been bouncing around for a couple of years
trying to find my calling.

Yeah. That happens.

  I've been working a lot with VoIP and

that's been my interest ever since middle school. I've been mainly
playing with stub networks for most of my life but have recently
started working with larger routed networks, leading me to subscribe
to the NANOG list.

Excellent!

My latest endeavor was acquiring and ASN and a /24

from ARIN and multihoming a very small MSP.

Oooo. How did that go for you? What upstreams did you connect with? How painful was it? How much convincing did it take to get management to go along? What are the post implementation improvements? etc etc.

I've been fortunate enough

to have really sharp mentors to help answer any questions I've had
along the way. I know there must be quite a few people like myself
that are lurking on the list and I just wanted to thank you guys for
answering other questions and providing input on
  topics that have come through the list.

Yes. Many lurkers, many off list replies to most threads. Did you get any awesome off list replies? Summarize them back to the list?

3

I've been trying to decide for a while what makes a good
home for a Network Admin... access to physical, reliable
upstream routes? good selection of local taverns? What, in
your opinion, makes a good location for a Network Admin
and where in the US would you find that?

Hi Nolan,

Back in the days of lore when the Internet ran over telephone lines
instead of the other way around, the most substantial long haul
communications hub in the country was Northern Virginia's Dulles
Corridor. More than any other area, leased lines to and from anywhere
transited northern VA because that's how the long distance telephone
infrastructure was built. Move the call here, switch it, move it back
out. This made it the cheapest place to hub your Internet backbone.
Indeed, the first large Internet Exchange Point, MAE-East was
originally a FDDI ring at 8100 Boone Blvd, Vienna VA in the area known
as Tysons Corner.

The Internet is much more distributed now, but the area still retains
its legacy. Lots of Internet companies continue to house major
facilities here and operations such as ARIN are headquartered here.
More, many of the folks you've come to know on NANOG and in other
forums live and work here.

Bonuses:
With the possible exception of NYC, nowhere in the U.S. has more or
finer quality cultural institutions than DC and its suburbs (Northern
Virginia). The Smithsonian's extensive network of museums, the Kennedy
Center, and so on.
Federal money tends not to wander far, so you'll never want for paying
work in Northern Virginia.
Nowhere I've traveled has a broader selection of good restaurants.
Most places have a local food with a bunch of good restaurants for
that food, but we have all the foods and at least a few restaurants
for each which are exceptional.
Casual conversation is heavy on politics and matters of import

Less than wonderful:
Not the worst traffic in the nation but not far from it
High rent, high cost of living
Political conversation is inescapable

good selection of local taverns?

Octoberfest at the German embassy annex at Dulles Airport. :wink:

Regards,
Bill Herrin

4

William Herrin wrote:

5

Depends on your definition of "nice".

I'm perfectly OK with the fact that when I look out the window here in my
office, the skyline is mostly National Forest. Not many places in DC
have that going for them....

6

Personally, I think the SF bay area has you beat.

Bill, on your list of not so wonderful things in DC, you left off:

  Weather
    In the sumer, the DC area is, well, what you’d expect from a hot, humid, fetid swamp.
    In the winter, you can make ice cream outside without rock salt (though there’s plenty of
      salt available on the roads).
    The spring and fall aren’t bad (for about 2 weeks each). Otherwise, the weather is not
    at all wonderful in that area.

SF has a very wide variety of cultural exhibitions, activities, and institutions. We also have nearly as wide a variety of ethnic cuisine as you can find in New York (wider than DC/NoVA from what I’ve seen, actually). We also have a major concentration of technology and internet-oriented startups, including such iconic names as Google, Facebook, Adobe, Dropbox, Netflix, Apple, Fry’s Electronics, and more. We’re the only region to have three TechShops in addition to a number of other makerspaces and hackerspaces, including the original Noise Bridge SF (to the best of my knowledge, the first public maker/hacker space in the US, having opened its doors in 2008 (or possibly earlier), patterned after such spaces in Europe.

The bay area has great cultural diversity, lots of fun things to do, and is within a relatively short drive of mountains, desert, ocean (beaches and cliffs available), awesome SCUBA diving, great downhill and XC skiing, hang gliding, sailing, and more. There’s a strong and active General Aviation community and lots of places to rent airplanes and helicopters.

Contrary to Bill’s claims, we have nearly as many data centers housing lots of interconnect, content providers, etc. out here, too. We’re also a primary gateway to Asia and the Pacific as well as Australia.

Our weather is pretty much temperate year round.

Owen

7

Don't forget that, while Virginia has MAE-EAST, the Bay area was the sister location: MAE-WEST. MAE WEST now sits on the property of the NASA Ames Research Center, another excellent local employer and center for high-tech research and development. They do ultra-high-speed networking research in particular, and have lots of interconnects down south to JPL and other universities and centers.

8

Some place with someone willing to pay for a network admin services.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has employment and salary data for computer and network administrators covering the entire USA.

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151142.htm

Other than that, what people are willing to accept, and what people are willing to offer will vary alot. Self-employed, small, medium, large organization. Rural/city. Family/single activities. Work anywhere/Get away from work. Colloborative/solitary environment. And so on.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm

9

Bill, on your list of not so wonderful things in DC, you left off:
        Weather
                In the sumer, the DC area is, well, what you’d expect from a hot, humid, fetid swamp.
                In the winter, you can make ice cream outside without rock salt (though there’s plenty of
                        salt available on the roads).

Meh. The weather is always temperate indoors. You ARE a computer guy, right?

Contrary to Bill’s claims, we have nearly as many data centers
housing lots of interconnect, content providers, etc. out here,
too. We’re also a primary gateway to Asia and the Pacific as
well as Australia.

I wouldn't dream of suggesting that silicon valley lacks for anything
of interest to computer and networking folks. You even have heavy
taxation, heavy regulation and a state government ever on the brink of
financial collapse, all things less prevalent in Northern Virginia.
Though if you really enjoy those things you can always visit DC or the
People's Republic of Maryland.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

10

Don't forget the hipsters with their skinny jeans. And $1M median housing prices.
It's awful out here. We're on the brink of collapse and will be joining the ranks of
Mississippi soon, with our main export being deep fried silicon.

Mike

11

Bill, on your list of not so wonderful things in DC, you left off:
       Weather
               In the sumer, the DC area is, well, what you’d expect from a hot, humid, fetid swamp.
               In the winter, you can make ice cream outside without rock salt (though there’s plenty of
                       salt available on the roads).

Meh. The weather is always temperate indoors. You ARE a computer guy, right?

Yes and no. I like being able to go outside and enjoy things outside of my job environment.

To me, weather matters.

I guess if I had grown up or been stuck in the DC area for a long time, I might not be so focused on the outdoors.

Contrary to Bill’s claims, we have nearly as many data centers
housing lots of interconnect, content providers, etc. out here,
too. We’re also a primary gateway to Asia and the Pacific as
well as Australia.

I wouldn't dream of suggesting that silicon valley lacks for anything
of interest to computer and networking folks. You even have heavy
taxation, heavy regulation and a state government ever on the brink of
financial collapse, all things less prevalent in Northern Virginia.
Though if you really enjoy those things you can always visit DC or the
People's Republic of Maryland.

Meh... I don't think my taxation is that high overall. Yes, I pay a slightly higher sales tax than VA, but IIRC, our income tax rate is lower. My property taxes are definitely lower and more predictable.

Owen

12

Shush, Owen! It's already crowded enough out
here--the last thing we need is more people
thinking it's a good place to work. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

You wouldn't like it here in the Bay Area.
It's horrible, there's pollution all the time,
the traffic is terrible, there's no reasonable
public transportation, there's no late-night
eateries for when you finish that maintenance
window at 2am. You definitely don't want to
live here. :smiley:

And as far as that government data about
salary goes...yeah, that's definitely the mean,
and doesn't represent the full range. My W2
last year was *mumble*-times the listed mean
for some parts of the country.

Telecommuting can work out amazingly well,
for the right people. But it takes dedication
and focus, and a relentless willingness to
be accessible to your coworkers.

Matt

13

Well, definitely not. I'll stick to my ranch in rural Oklahoma. Since I was young, I've always wanted to have a high speed connection to a house in the middle of nowhere. Originally, I liked the mountain ranges my great grandmother used to live on. These days, I'm happy with my crop fields and trees, even if it is a bit flat. Turns out, it's easier to bury fiber when you don't have to go through a mountain. :slight_smile:

I know I'm not alone in my duality; the need to balance my geek and my need for nature. It generally does hurt the ability to drive into an office daily, though. Then again, it's over a mile as the crow flies to my nearest neighbor. Still working on a good wireless repeater system to get me from the house to a good resting place in the forest. Trees and wifi not friendly. lol

Jack

14

Use this:

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140512-drone-offers-wi-fi-signal.ece

15

I wrestled with that duality myself, and
finally solved it by buying 10 acres of
land about 12 miles from company HQ,
so I can be in the office as needed, but
still relax under the gentle sound of
the wind through the pine trees, watching
the birds wheeling back and forth on
the wind down in the canyon below.

Downside is I haven't solved the high
speed internet access question yet;
that's still on the to-do list for the
property. :confused: Turns out high-speed
internet is hard to come by in the
Silicon Valley area...but that's a topic
for another thread.

Matt

16

Use this:

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140512-drone-offers-wi-fi-signal.ece

Combine that with Google's helium balloon
idea, and you end up with a positionable
wifi platform that can stay aloft for days...

hmmm...

Nah, already have too much on my plate.
but the idea is intriguing.

Matt

17

It also takes an organization committed to it as well.

-dorian