Dodging Work Leads to Expertise

Last week I demonstrated some very slopped shoulders. I was asked if I could look at a friend's wireless network at home. Three PCs. Nothing complicated. Except that I've never even touched anything to do with a wireless network. So my immediate reaction was to pass it to the other nearby techie, Jason. Who I'm sure did, or will do, a great job.

That was last Tuesday evening. The next morning when I got into work that was an email from da' boss telling me to get a new server setup for next Wednesday (that would be today by now). This server was to be a RADIUS server. "What's RADIUS?" I hear you ask. It is an authentication server for wireless networks.

After various tribulations with trying to install Linux on a Dell GX520 with wonderful unsupported SATA hardware, I finally managed to find a custom debian install that worked. Just in time to spend all of today installing FreeRadius and getting to to integrate with our eDirectory/LDAP server.

From not knowing a thing, and avoiding work because of it, to the defacto expert. Serves me right. As if I didn't have enough on my plate.