Stuck in IT Hell

[Vicken]

Curious if anyone is in the same boat as I am. I am constantly looking for a new job, but so far I haven't made a single hit. Why am I looking for a new job? Because I am in IT hell.

My company is supported by two different companies that don't work together. Because of this, our site doesn't have an network admin. Everything is supported offsite. I am just a lowly computer operator when I should be the admin. This week, our company has been by the SDbot virus. I have 8 different machines which have no virus software installed at all. To make matters worse, I have two computers that can't update the virus software and the definitions are in August of 2003. I been trying all week now to get software installed on the machines with no virus scanners. Both offsite companies are disagreeing on who should provide the virus software. To make matters worse , I have three different versions of Mcafee Enterprise. Two different Versions of Arcserve, the tape backup software. Nothing is standardized. The servers are 7 years old running a P2 350 Mhz with a single boot drive with a raid array of 4.5gb drives. That's right 4.5 gb. I have to constantly make space. The servers support 100 computers total which all have different operating systems. NT 4 workstation, NT 4 Server, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and one oddball 95 machine. All of which don't have the security updates. The network panel looks like its a pasta dish with wires going who knows where. Finally, half of our UPS's don't work and we do not have a backup generator. I have been working with this clusterf*** for several years now, and its really starting to piss me off that I have no control over the situation. If you are curious what this company is, it is a retail lockbox, meaning we process your bills and transmit companies their money electronically.

So how is your job as IT and is your company as f***ed as mine.

 

[her209]

Ouch. Sorry.

 

[rmrf]

I thought I was in IT hell before I read this thread.

 

[Vicken]

ya tell me about it. This is what you get when you cheap out on IT. Would you believe there's a company out there still using NT 4 Workstation or Windows 95. Oh, I forget to mention different versions of Lotus Notes. This company is a ticking timebomb with its servers.

 

[TheGizmo]

hahahah oh man i'm sorry but that made me laugh a little.. that sucks man. get promoted

 

[rmrf]

I was just complaining because we just got a couple of pallets of SUN servers in that I have to rack. Damn those 490's are heavy, and don't get me started on the 1280's...

 

[Vicken]

I have to laugh to stay sane. The sad part is there is no promotion path because its all supported offsite. I've had one job offer, but its with a startup company so I am a bit worried with it. The company I am with is somehow 10 years old.

 

[ITPaladin]

My security concepts teacher is telling the class security is a rising IT field.
I am not sure if I will focus on that or not.

 

[abc]

you know, when you're in IT doing admin stuff you gotta hope your shop isn't out of a time warp otherwise when you shop yourself... unless you have newer toys at home that you practice w/ and the interviewers accept that, your skills are too outdated for what's out there since most shops have moved on.

 

[blodhi74]

Thst sucks.

 

[myusername]

ygpm

 

[YoshiSato]

IBM Business Solutions.

 

[Captante]

Wow... Its been awhile since I've done a job company that bad.

 

[cerebusPu]

why dont you email your boss that exact same post? (minus teh looking for another job part)

maybe he'll give you free reign on what to do. Im sure other poeple are fed up with the IT too.

 

[Chrono]

My job rocks. I'm an sysadmin for a webhosting company. I WAS in IT hell until I left a stinkin' uh... accounting firm <www.ccg.com> (yes, I left that place before I found a job). I found a job two weeks later at a webhosting company, then a bank 1 1/2 months later but the week before I was to start at the Bank, I was offered a sysadmin position at another webhosting company. YAY me.

 

[myusername]

In the search for storage, I have written synopses of the technology and cost of such - to wit, pages breaking down the pros and cons of various solutions as well as my recommendations. As a stopgap measure and due to the market and technology shift at the time, at the last upgrade point I recommended sticking with our PATA array and doubling capacity to for .50/GB, which would see us through at least a year before we would have to upgrade the controller and purchase drives at closer to $1/GB (and a controller for $400).

So 6 months later my boss comes to me and says, "I was looking at a Best Buy ad the other day, and they had 160GB drives for $40 after rebate. What have we got now, 600? We should be able to get a couple of those and we'll be set."

Not a total horror story, cause lord knows he could be too cheap to pony up $40 for a sale item at Best Buy, but it's not like I didn't go through thne trouble of explaining this stuff to him already. I just gave him a blank look and said, "uhhhhhhhhhh... okay"

 

[ruffilb]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1663227&enterthread=y

 

[YoshiSato]

I work tech support for a web hosting company. It's not that bad, unless the email server breaks, then I takes I/T 3 days to rebuild the server. In fact I think that's the ETA for all server builds. Don't ask me why. Although I would have a DvD image of an un-named server on standby incase something breaks(Drop in disk, set server name varaibles,ip address. done) and if I had to build the box from scratch I'm looking at a 4 - 6 hours build time(if that)

But building servers is beyond my pay grade(so says I/T) so what do I know?

 

[YoshiSato]

+1 for the Morning shift

 

[akubi]

Originally posted by: blodhi74
Thst sucks.

 

[gigapet]

your company sux at the IT

 

[Patt]

Move along, you won't be getting experience you want, or NEED. Startups can be profitable, and if it goes bust, move on again I suppose. Good luck.

 

[darkamulets]

Yesterday I had the lovely time of trying to install Solaris 8 02/02 on a Netra 240. Yes no one has the damn updated version around the office so I spent a while getting a license from central. 2GB over a T1 sucks.

 

[edro]

I was in IT hell, but made a very wise choice to move to engineering.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: edro
I was in IT hell, but made a very wise choice to move to engineering.

How did you do that? What is your degree in?