Leo Laohoo
A network engineer for the government of Canberra, Australia, specializes in wireless technology. He enjoys participating in the Cisco Support Community because it’s a “two-way street.” He explains, “If I can help someone else, I’m happy. I also learn from other people’s answers and their responses to my answers.”
BACKGROUND
Q. How did you get involved in the networking industry?
A. My first job was with a global WAN provider. I learned networking skills on the job, and in 2005 passed the CCNA exam. Now I work with the city of Canberra, the capital of Australia. My biggest interest is wireless, and most of my knowledge came from the Cisco Support Community.
Q. What do you do with the city of Canberra?
A. I’m a network engineer. It’s my responsibility to manage the wired and wireless networks for our 118 education sites, all linked by dark fiber.
Q. What do you regard as your greatest accomplishment to date related to networking?
A. By March 2011, we’ll have finished implementing more than 1200 wireless access points in the public schools with 802.11n enabled. We’ve already begun using the school project as a template for implementing 802.11n with Cisco CleanAir technology in other buildings.
CHALLENGE
Q. What led you to the Cisco Support Community?
A. I discovered the Cisco Support Community when I did a search for some configuration information. I happened to see a question and thought, “I know the answer!” That person rated my answer, and I decided that participating would be interesting and enjoyable. I’m happy that my work colleagues are supportive of my participation.
Q. How often do you generally visit the Cisco Support Community?
A. I keep the site open and set my browser to refresh every five minutes. Whenever I have a few free minutes, I scan through the wireless forums for new questions, whether or not they’ve been answered. If I know the answer, I post. Often I learn something new from other people’s answers. For example, when we were ready to enable 802.11n on the Cisco Aironet wireless access points in the schools, I remembered that someone had posted detailed instructions on which bits to enable.
Q. What do you find most rewarding about contributing?
A. It’s a two-way street. If I can help someone else, I’m happy. I also learn from other people’s answers and their responses to my answers. For example, I once responded to a question about router configurations, and a Cisco engineer pointed out that my answer was only partially correct. We all learn from each other. In fact, about half of the wireless capabilities we’ve implemented in Canberra schools I learned from the Cisco Support Community.
CISCO SUPPORT COMMUNITY
Q. What is your overall impression of Cisco Support Community?
A. The Cisco Support Community is second to none in terms of technical forums. The people are friendly and helpful. A lot of Cisco senior engineers are very good at what they do, and I look at their posts with great interest. I especially follow Edison Ortiz. I also like that the Community supported the Lighter Side thread I started to share networking jokes, which now appears in the .
Q. Do you have any suggestions to improve the site?
A. The site managers are very receptive to suggestions. In fact, every improvement I’ve thought of has already been implemented!
Q. Any messages for fellow members of the Cisco Support Community?
A. Please rate answers so that people with the same question know whether the solution worked. This also makes the site a good place for learning.
