We really enjoyed that walk down memory lane! Thank you to the 17 of you who submitted fantastic stories of Network Nostalgia in our April Community Challenge. EVERYONE who entered is going to receive a bit of swag 😀 - so expect an email from me to confirm your shipping details.
Now for the winners: @HodyCrouch and @Martin-Rubin!
🎊 👍 🎉 Community Favorite 🎉 👍 🎊
@HodyCrouch and his story of climbing through attics only to get his leg electrocuted wins the Community Favorite prize with the most kudos from community members!
Many years ago, I was helping with the residential network at a large college. After a student ordered a wired connection, we had to visit the proper wiring closet to connect their port and update the authorized MAC address. Perhaps the worst building involved walking up four flights of stairs, finding a small study room, opening a (fake) closet door, climbing a ladder, going through a ceiling hatch, walking across the entire building attic, climbing a very old wooden staircase to reach a steel door through a brick firewall, crossing another attic, and climbing a final staircase.
One day, sweating in the summer heat, I was connecting a few student rooms when I heard a faint buzzing. The tiny room included ancient telephone connections, complete with 3/4" copper nubs, and not enough space to move around. At a lucky moment, someone received a phone call at the exact moment that my leg made contact with the array of copper connections. Ringing voltage will wake you up in a hurry.
Did I mention that the relay rack was screwed down to rotting floorboards and would rock back-and-forth as you connected the patch cables? Cloud management has a special place in my heart.
🎊 👍 🎉 Meraki Favorite 🎉 👍 🎊
@Martin-Rubin and his story of searching for rogue APs in 110 degree heat (complemented by a fantastic Meraki-green dinosaur GIF) wins the Meraki Favorite prize with the most kudos from Meraki Employees. Congratulations!
In reminiscing back to my pre-Meraki days, I can remember fondly grabbing a convenient network device (smartphone, tablet, laptop) and walking around both the interior and exterior of my buildings looking for rogue AP's. As if that wasn't enough fun, I'd make a second pass checking my SSID's to see which, if any, were penetrating the walls and extending outside to the lot. And once that was done I'd make a third lap looking to see if there were non-employees using one of my SSIDs as their personal wireless network. Awesome exercise, especially during those joyous summer months when the outside temperature exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ahhhh, the good old days before I had access to tools that could much more easily help me to fill in the blanks!
Congratulations, you two! Thank you to everyone who entered and everyone who voted. This was a fun one!
