Joel E. Ricketts
5110 NE 47th Terrace
Kansas City, MO 64117
(816) 454-5238 (home)
(913) 915-3502 (mobile)
E-mail:
Technical Highlights
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Windows NT 4.0 Track
Microsoft Certified Professional Specialist: Internet Systems
Successfully passed Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert written examination.
Skilled with Internet and Internetwork Routing on Cisco, 3Com, Microsoft, and Unix-family products.
Proficient in multiple programming languages, including C, PHP, Perl, and C#/.NET
Strong experience with Unix system administration, maintenance, and security.
Experience with designing and implementing efficient work-flow processes, integrating computing machinery into the stream.
Merits
I have a strong and proven ability to learn quickly, and adapt to new situations.
I care strongly about the customer, and focus my efforts on providing timely, accurate, and productive solutions to their needs and problems.
I have strong experience in network engineering, and in coordinating all phases of the project from planning through implementation and follow-up.
I can work unsupervised and independently, and can be trusted to implement plans of action and deal with unexpected eventualities appropriately.
I am comfortable with being truthful when my skills are not adequate, and arranging for a solution that solves the problem for the customer.
Education
The WichitaStateUniversity
Bachelor of Science: Electrical Engineering
1845 Fairmount
Wichita, KS 67260-0098
Extracurricular Activities:WichitaState Crew
Attended from: Fall, 1990 through Fall, 1994
OlatheNorthHigh School
600 E. Prairie
Olathe, KS 66061
Extracurricular Activities: Categories (Quiz Bowl) team.
Attended from: Fall, 1987 through Spring, 1990
Work Experience
Enter-Networks.Net
5110 NE 47th Terrace
Kansas City, MO 64117
Dates of Employment: June 2000 to present.
Position: Sole Proprietor, Consulting Computer Network Engineer
Duties:Network design, deployment, troubleshooting, software development, and provision of networking installation and troubleshooting services to approximately 70 clients in the Kansas City area ranging from 5 to 500 users. Also perform subcontract work for approximately 5 other companies, handling overflow or issues outside their realms of expertise, including wide-area networking, switching, BGP/high availability Internet connectivity solutions, VPN (GRE/IPSec), QoS, Multicast, EIGRP, and Windows (Active Directory) networking. Connection-types include 10/100/1000-base TX/FX, T1/Frame relay, and T3/ATM.
Communitech.Net
1627 Main Street, Suite 1100
MainmarkBuilding
Kansas City, MO 64108
Dates of Employment: September, 1999 to June, 2000
Position: Software Development/Network Engineering
Duties:Design, installation and maintenance of DSL On-Ramp systems, routers, switches, and software. Troubleshooting and design of systems for large-scale high-availability web hosting. Development of web-enabled marketing database software in PHP for acquisition of new clients.
Contact: Bryan Heitman: (816) 300-4678
NBN Technologies, Inc.
15005 Broadmoor
Overland Park, KS 66223
(913) 365-5665
Dates of Employment: February, 1998 to September, 1999
Position: Consulting Network Engineer
Duties: On-site engineering and troubleshooting for clients. Developed, designed, installed, and maintained systems for clients, including VPN, WAN, high-speed Internet, and Windows networking systems.
Contact: Art Mitchell: (816) 365-5665
Netstandard, Inc.
5700 Broadmoor, Suite 1010
Mission, KS 66202
(913) 262-4638
Position: Field Engineer
Duties: On-site engineering and troubleshooting for clients, in addition to pre-sales engineering and project planning. NetStandard and TFSnet work closely together to provide Internet and Intranet solutions.
Dates of Employment: June, 1997 to February, 1998
Contact(s): Walt Lane: (913) 262-3888. David Jacobson, (913) 262-3888.
TFSnet Online Internet Services, Inc.
5700 Broadmoor, Suite 1014
Mission, KS 66202
(913) 262-4638
Position: System Engineer
Dates of Employment: 1986 to 1997; continued to perform work while attending college from 1990 to 1994.
Duties: Maintenance, upgrading, construction, and enhancement of complex internetwork, including routing, Internet services, accounting subsystems, E-mail services, World-Wide Web services, and security for Unix, Windows and Novell servers and clients, in addition to programming, configuration, and maintenance of dedicated routers and communications servers. This position required familiarity with a wide range of both software and hardware, and ability to function well in an emergency to minimize and/or avoid downtime. I also served as the head of technical support, providing over-the-phone troubleshooting of Internet and modem-related problems experienced by end-users and corporate customers alike.
Contact(s):Walt Lane: (913) 262-3888
The WichitaStateUniversity
National Institute for Aviation Research: Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory
1845 Fairmount
Wichita, KS 67260-0098
Position: Student Assistant
Duties: Develop applications to integrate communications with CNC (Computer Numerical Control) manufacturing machines.
Dates of Employment: September, 1991 to May, 1992
Contact(s): Daniel G. Heflin: (816) 257-1414
The WichitaStateUniversity
National Institute for Aviation Research: CAD/CAM Laboratory
Position: Student Assistant
Duties: Design and implementation in C/C++ of a complete data input solution using an IBM 4'x6' digitizing table. Custom software developed for this application was used for large-scale input of existing hard-copy schematics and diagrams for aircraft
Dates of Employment: October, 1990 to May, 1991
Contact(s): John B. O'Loughlin.
Professional References
The following are satisfied and ongoing customers of my services.
Stan Cooper
Information Services Manager
Platte County, Missouri
(816) 858-2153
Tom Dey
Information Services Manager
Lutz, Daily & Brain, Consulting Engineers
(913) 831-0833
Chad Brown
Chief Information Officer/Engineer
Infinity Broadcasting (KFKF, KBEQ, Mix 93, Star102)
(816) 560-7639
Herb Myers
Chief Information Officer
800-CALL-KC
(816) 231-4321
Technical Experience
Highest Familiarity
The systems and technologies listed in this section are products with which I have had extensive experience and feel confident of my ability to solve nearly all problems I encounter with them. I only list systems in this category if I consider myself to be an expert in them. This is by no means a complete list.
Cisco IOS-based routers
TCP/IP static routing
Microsoft Windows NT/2000 Networking (including WINS, DHCP, Active Directory)
NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT)
Active Directory (AD)
Microsoft Exchange 5.5/2000/2003
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)
Domain Name Service (DNS) (BIND and Microsoft DNS)
The Perl Programming language
The ‘C’ programming language (Unix/Linux systems)
Access-list based firewall solutions
Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Networking
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
T1 Wide-Area Network lines
Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
The PHP programming language (general knowledge)
High Familiarity
These systems and technologies are ones I have worked with significantly, and while I do not consider myself to have fully achieved ‘expert’ status, I have a large degree of core competence that enables me to provide solutions with confidence.
Apache Web Server
Ascend Access Routers
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
Category 5 Cabling Standards
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
Ethernet Switching
Frame Relay Network lines
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Linux as a Network Server
Livingston Access Routers
Local-area switching solutions
C# Programming Language (.NET environment/Windows)
Microsoft Internet Information Server
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Windows 2000/2003
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows ME
Microsoft Windows NT
Point-to-point protocol (PPP)
Router Information Protocol (RIP)
Watchguard Firewall
Sendmail
Structured Query Language (SQL) (MySQL/Microsoft SQL)
Cisco PIX
Cisco QoS/VoiP solutions
Moderate Familiarity
Other technologies such as the ones listed below I have some significant experience with, but do not consider myself to have the experience required for ‘high’ familiarity. This list is abbreviated to those with which I have the most familiarity, in the interests of brevity.
AIX
Apple Macintosh
Appletalk
Checkpoint Firewall-1
Microsoft Access Application Development
SCO Unix
SunOS
X-Windows for Linux
Other Systems and Technologies
Specific jobs may demand specific learning about a given system. Several technologies with which I have had significant experience are not listed because it is unlikely that most projects or situations would require that knowledge. A necessary skill to be a successful network engineering consultant is the ability to learn quickly and acquire expertise ‘on the fly’ without specialized training. Problem solving is often less about acquired knowledge as it is about access to resources to determine the correct answer through research and to think through a problem intuitively to arrive at possible solutions which can then be tested or confirmed.
The above list is not comprehensive by any means. Due to space considerations I have listed only the most commonly-encountered technologies. I would appreciate an opportunity to review requirements on a project basis for anything not listed.
Other Information
My career has permitted me a great many opportunites to obtain in-depth experience with a variety of hardware and software systems. In addition, it has helped me develop the ability to learn without organized study materials. This is necessary because the Internet field is still new enough that, in many cases, there exists no pre-set curriculum that will provide the necessary knowledge. Instead, often, one must gather information from disparate sources, and develop a working core of knowledge on the fly. It is difficult to stress adequately how valuable this skill has been to me in various high-demand situations.
I believe one of my most valuable assets is the ability to learn quickly. Simple knowledge quickly goes out of date; however, the ability to rapidly acquire new, more current knowledge provides a way to keep one's skills valuable and marketable.
I will always be happy to answer questions regarding any of the information in this document, or regarding information which is not included in this document in the interests of brevity. Please feel free to contact me via E-mail or telephone regarding any questions or concerns.
Case Studies
The following are a series of three projects I have completed for clients, illustrating some of my skills. All these clients are medium-sized organizations with approximately 100-500 workstations. In most cases, budget was a major concern, and implementation was highly sensitive to cost parameters as well as functionality.
Engineering/Manufacturing Company
The client has multiple networking sites, two of which can be considered “core” sites requiring high availability. The first is located in Kansas City, MO (KCMO), while the other is in North Kansas City, MO (NKC). The KCMO site provides mission-critical services such as E-mail access to users at all locations, while the NKC location provides file-sharing services (via NetBIOS and FTP) that are required to be high availability. Downtime cost can be approximately $5,000/hour at certain peak times.
Solution was provided via a pair of Cisco 3640 routers, with one router at each location. Since bandwidth needs are relatively small, a single T1 line is run to each location from a different ISP (KCMO utilizes Spring; NKC utilizes Everest). Hardware redundancy was required while budget concerns were high, so an existing pair of Cisco 2500-series routers was utilized in order to reduce hardware costs. A single point-to-point T1 line was connected from the KCMO to the NKC locations, and connected to each of the Cisco 2500-series routers.
At each of the two locations, one of the 3640 routers and one of the 2500-series routers was connected to the local Ethernet segment and assigned a local IP address. Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) was implemented on each of the routers and linked to the router’s associated T1 line (Internet T1 line for the 3600 routers, point-to-point line for the 2500 series). The routers were assigned to share the “default gateway” IP and use HSRP to arbitrate access to it; this IP was then programmed into the various client systems.
Each of the two Cisco 3600-series routers was configured to participate in full eBGP with each ISP. It advertised the single Class-C network utilized by the company, and in turn accepted a full Internet routing table from its upstream. The two 2500-series routers lacked the processor capability or the RAM to accept full BGP. A GRE tunnel was configured between the two Cisco 3640 routers, and static routing statements were created to map that tunnel’s endpoints to the two 3640 routers via the two 2500-series routers. This tunnel was used to exchange BGP information and route “internal” traffic between the two routers across the point-to-point T1 line. A second GRE tunnel was configured between the two 3640 routers between the two external IP addresses to provide a redundant link between the KCMO and NKC locations in the event that the point-to-point T1 failed.
Finally, EIGRP was configured on each of the routers to handle automatic and fast-convergence routing for internal network traffic. The second, external GRE tunnel was included in EIGRP. Using this model, the system could withstand the failure of any one of the T1 lines or any of the routers. Internal traffic converged on the new routing schema within 10 seconds, while external eBGP traffic converged within 90 seconds typically.
External sites could establish two VPN connections using GRE over IPSec technology – one to each 3640. Using EIGRP, outages on the connected Internet could be avoided using EIGRP’s flexible routing to automatically determine the best path for remote sites.
Total cost of deployment: $12,000 (hardware); $2500 (labor); $1025 (monthly recurring).
Web Hosting/Credit Card Processing
The customer is an Internet-based credit-card processor that also hosts multiple web sites. High availability is crucial so transactions are not missed, resulting in lost revenue. High uptime guarantees to clients require high uptime on all Internet connectivity. System requires two T3 lines (one to Savvis, one to SBC) connected to each of two Cisco 3660 router units.
Each of the 3660 units was programmed to utilize HSRP using an external IP address (assigned out of a class C address provided by Savvis). A single default gateway address is shared and utilized by the shared Checkpoint firewall. The two 3660 routers communicate with one another and with their respective ISP’s by using BGP, and each advertises the single Class C address to both ISP’s.
Because of the requirement of high bandwidth, a route-map is set up to utilize autonomous systems of large ISP’s in order to balance the load between the two Internet connections. In the event of a failure, each router can independently handle the load (though at a slightly reduced throughput) until full service is restored. A built-in preference is established and tested until the inbound load from each connection is approximately balanced.
Total Cost: $12,000 (hardware); $2000 (labor); $4500 (recurring monthly).
Shared Government Facility
A facility is constructed by a county-level government agency. This facility will house six separate agencies, with more potentially occupying/leasing space within the building. Two of the agencies are county-level; one is city-level; two are state-level; and one is federal. InternetConnectivity is provided via a single wireless link to countyadministrative headquarters. None of the clients may be allowed to intercept the others’ data. The two countyagencies need access to network resources at the county administrative headquarters; the others need only Internet access through the shared T1 at the admin building.
A pair of Cisco 3900-series switches are deployed at the facility and interlinked with one another through gigabit (GBIC) ports to provide a backplane. A Class-C block of internal IP addresses is allocated for use at the facility and subnetted. A single subnet is reserved for servers shared by all systems at the facility for DNS, DHCP, and proxy services.
Each agency is allocated its own VLAN on the switches, and assigned its own subnet. The switch is configured to provide DHCP relay services to the DHCP server. IP addresses are assigned using static reservations or dynamic assignment based on the source IP of the relayed network. Access lists are established between the various VLANs; for the non-countyagencies, they permit access only to the proxy server. For the countyagencies, access is permitted to resources at the countyadmin building. The shared proxy server is permitted to perform certain replication tasks for DNS only; no active-directory access is permitted to increase security. It is only permitted Internet access.
Total cost: $12,000 (hardware); $1800 (labor); $0 (recurring monthly)
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