Burger Wednesday

Date: 8/10/2011

Activities: Rebuilding and re-imaging an infected desktop computer, building a new machine for Product Development, installation of various customer service software, and assisting in various issues with OSO application software.

Technical Information: Computer was wiped with Windows Enterprise install disc, installed McAfee, Visual, AT&T Connect, Microsoft Office, and other programs on the computer. Reseated RAM and put in an order for a replacement drive.

Reflection: One of the computers in Customer Service became infected by a virus, and after several attempts to clean the device a decision was made to rebuild the computer. We also received a machine intended for product development that had to be rebuilt from a hardware standpoint as it was shipped with a bad drive and improperly seated RAM. Out of everything done at Tipper Tie, I am proud of my contributions to the Siemens phone system. The installation of the phones had a very tangible impact on the company. It was a long and arduous process, but I feel like I've learned a lot from it.

Salsa Monday

Date: 8/8/2011

Activities: Phone set-up and configuration, computer speed troubleshooting, fixing a bogged down virtual machine

Technical information: Installing Eusing Free Registry Cleaner and then putting it to good use, phone's set up and configured through GUI to ensure PC ports were active, defragmenting a hard drive using the windows disk clean-up tool

Reflection: Most of today came down to fixing the virtual machine of someone in product development. His machine would run at 100% capacity at nearly all times and become unresponsive, regardless of the programs, or lack thereof, run. This was fixed through defragmenting the hard drive and then cleaning the registry with a free installation. My duties have changed since I first started working here. When I began, fixing a computer problem like this probably would've been done under the close supervision of either Drew or Keith, if at all. I am still supervised, just not as closely as I was initially. This has allowed me greater flexibility to perform at a higher standard.

Muffin Friday

Date: 8/5/2011

Activities: Fiber Optic cable configuration, printer troubleshooting and connection, phone configuration and repair, wire punch repair, and system re-imaging

Technical information: Fiber Optic cables had to be reconfigured to provide proper access to data channels. Printers that could not be connected to were troubleshot and fixed, phones were configured through GUI, wire punch had to be redone with a 110 wire punch tool, and a system is being re-imaged after being backed up to an external hard-drive.

Reflection: Today was primarily consumed with ironing out user issues with the phone system, from managing the new call manager to improperly configured PC ports. Thankfully, there don't seem to be any major issues, and the cutover can be considered a success. While there will probably be a few issues over the course of next week (the primary one being the sorry state of our switch rack), the worst of the install is behind us. So far the amount of effort Tipper Tie as the customer has had to put in to this install has been my biggest frustration, but I am glad to go home for the weekend knowing that the install is complete.

Biscuit Thursday

Date:8/4/2011

Activities: Virtual Machine configuration and repair, Windows registry cleaning, phone installation, patch panel and cable management.

Technical information: Virtual Machine configuration done through VMware XP client, Windows registry cleaning done through Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, continued phone installation and configuration through GUI, patch panel and cable management done to best fit effectiveness and time restraints.

Reflection: The phone system is finally fully installed, and everyone in IT worked late tonight for the cutover. In the morning I helped to assist employees in Product Development with some of the issues that they had with virtual machines. Later in the day was fully dedicated to the phones however. The old Avaya phones now sit idle while the new Siemens phones are in full use. Tomorrow will be primarily dedicated to ensuring their success and assisting in any issues. In order to pursue a career in this field, studying things like network design or computer science would be highly beneficial.

Pizza Tuesday

Date: 8/2/2011

Activities: Phone training, patch panel management, phone configuration, ethernet distribution.

Technical Information: Openscape Office software installation and management, phone port configuration through GUI, and energizing PoE lines for phones without damaging existing network cards.

Reflection: Today was a busy day that once again is leading towards the culmination of the phone project. We had four classes today to train employees in the proper use of the phones. There were concerns regarding the STMI card for the Call Manager application, but upon testing the system by having all 15 phones call the system we found no problems. A large part of the later portion of the day was used to roll out the phones themselves, connecting and configuring them on the desks of Tipper Tie employees. In order to have minimal cabling and prevent the need for extra ethernet drops, PoE was configured at our switch rack to give power to the phone, which in turn routed ethernet connectivity to the computer. I feel that in such a high-level, corporate IT environment, my greatest contribution has been to help Drew and Keith with the simpler projects that take up their time. Issues like low-level service requests or cabling configurations could take up a lot of time that they may need to perform activities such as system back-ups and server configurations.

Bagel Monday

Date: 8/01/2011

Activities: Cable installation and management, VoIP Network Troubleshooting, and hardware transferral.

Technical Information: Ethernet and PoE cable network set up in hub format instead of bus format. VoIP network connectivity tested using call/answer network protocol. Order processing hardware and software transferred from Customer Service Parts department to Marketing to be gradually repurposed.

Reflection: Previously the Training room for the phone system had been set up in a bus style network. Upon retracting the network, cable was difficult to manage and ultimately had to spend an hour being untangled. This time the phones have been set up in a hub network, encircling a central switch with individual wires branching out to the phones. This solution was easier to enact and will be easier to manage and remove, aesthetics nonwithstanding.

So far I think that many of my classroom experiences, especially those in the Networking class, helped to prepare me for the internship by at least exposing me to, if not teaching me, concepts like cable management, switch configuration, network design and administration, and computer troubleshooting.

Cake Friday

Date:7/29/2011

Activities: Punching wires into data jacks, removing ethernet/power infrastructure, switching and testing phone systems, and OSO Agent software installation.

Technical Information: Drew instructed me on the difference between a 66 and a 110 wire punch, as well as showing me the data jacks into which the cable were punched. We had to remove the ehternet and power cables we had set up in the main conference room for phone training, we will re-install them next week. Testing the phone system was as simple as making outgoing calls, and The Agent software installation was made easy by autorun programs.

Reflection: Drew and I stayed late last night to switch over the phone system. We could only do this after 5:00 PM, as the internet and Avaya phone lines were temporarily down. Drew punched in the cable that I had run through the ceiling earlier that day, and we then tested the new Siemens phones by making some calls to family. It was very satisfying to see the phone system finally start to come together. This morning we had to remove the cables set up in the conference room, as it was being repurposed for a retirement celebration. We will have to put them back in next week to continue training for the phone system and OSO Agents.

Cheesecake Thrusday

Date:7/28/2011

Activities: Running a CAT5e ethernet drop from the server room switch rack to the phone room. Assisting in service requests regarding Windows activation, network access, software installation, hardware servicing, and factory management configuration.

Technical Information: Cable management protocols and standards were used for running the CAT5e drop. Command prompt CLI skills, Windows Explorer expertise, and software familiarity gained from my time already spent with Tipper Tie helped me to fulfill the service requests.

Reflection: Today was a great example of the different types of projects that I am involved with, and how the IT internship approaches computer solutions holistically. The majority of the morning was occupied with running a cable drop through ceiling tiles. This had no actual computer interface, but was absolutely necessary towards the configuration of the new Tipper Tie VOIP phone system. Later in the afternoon I assisted various Tipper Tie employees with the application side of software and with ensuring all of their systems ran properly and smoothly so that they could continue to contribute to the success of the company.

Today marks not the first day of my internship at Tipper Tie, but the first one to be recorded in this blog. I have been working at Tipper Tie as an Information Technology intern for over a month now, and it has been quite the experience. Tipper Tie is an international manufacturing company that creates products that are used to process and package everything from consumables to infrastructure management solutions. I work directly with Andrew Bartow, the Senior IT Engineer, and Keith Phillips, the Network Administrator. In that time I've assisted with a number of different activities ranging from fulfilling Help Desk Service Requests to using Cisco WebEx conferencing to configure a Linux server for the Call Manager application for the company phone system. It is my hope that this blog will give you insight into the challenging but rewarding experiences that Tipper Tie presents me with.