At 4/19/01 01:17 PM -0400, you wrote:
>If I had many hacked servers, I'd be investing in some >education for myself rather than trying to change the >GUI. The weakest link in the chain is usually the system >administrator. Again another comment that lacks 1) any real value 2) is rude for no reason 3) has no merit as it is taken without consideration or knowledge of the circumstances. 4) is completely unprofessional.
Michael, try to be less sensitive. While email does not adequately convey emotion, that is not to say that all is meant sarcastically. I was actually trying to be helpful; with your comments you have essentially agreed with me that the primary cause of problems is the system administrator (which in the case of *your* many hacked servers, was someone else not you). However, plenty of people in the past have debated this point so I made a comment proposing the theory that this is a course of action worth recommending. I maintain that there is *significant* value in that.
I don't have a reputation for useless, unnecessarily rude, inconsiderate, unprofessional comments; I hope at some point you'll realize that was not my intent.
When you lease servers to customers, you give them control of the entire server. You can of course request they install the updates, and I even install updates prior to leasing the server to the customer, however, it still is up to the customer to install any new updates or ask for assistance to install updates. We can explain, we can email, but there is no way to make the customer do what they are suppose to. In the end, when the customer comes complaining poor me, to be a decent company, we must still fix the server even though we know damn well it was the customers fault.
I don't fully agree. Some options exist:(1) Make it clear to the customer that, if a hacked machine is not fully patched, they must pay $xxx to have it repaired. Fixed price or per hour, but something.
(2) Better yet, offer a patch update service for $yyy per month. In this scenario, you email the customer that a patch is now available, and recommend that it be installed within 1, 2, or 7 days. Customer agrees to read up on the patch/update and contact you if there's a problem. If no problem, you go ahead and install. There are permutations to take into account, of course, but consider the basic idea.
The above are just examples. However, I've personally found that this "good-guy" fixing encourages the sloppy ones and just loses you money; better to find another way.
-- Rodolfo J. Paiz rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx