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11-year-old takes school network by the horns

networkworld.com — When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Millbrook, Ala., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager. For Penn, it’s been the experience of a lifetime, even getting to select and install a gateway security appliance largely by himself.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 29, 2008

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  • Bviper, on 03/29/2008, -5/+331McAfee - "The antivirus solution chosen by 11 year olds."
  • itzmattu, on 03/29/2008, -7/+236Why is everyone focusing on his choice of software product? The real accomplishment here is installing Windows on 60 machines, removing hardware, mapping a network, and just being able to do something he enjoys. He may not be some coding genius or a tech wiz yet, but he's pretty damned good for an 11 year old.
  • camino262, on 03/29/2008, -2/+212Dugg for him banning myspace.
  • Antijr, on 03/29/2008, -8/+144***** A+ Certification.... I swear that boy has the Geek Squad mentality.
  • serrebi, on 03/29/2008, -4/+132Can I torrent on your network?
  • dynacrylic, on 03/29/2008, -2/+114So true through a lot of schools:
    Six-grader Penn took control of the network reins after the existing network overseer left right before the start of the school year and Penn's mom Paula, the school librarian, had computing duties dropped in her lap.

    Schools are turning to libraries as their "it departments".

  • Bviper, on 03/29/2008, -2/+89Did you even read the article? Its a windows 2000 network with a McAfee gateway, he tried using an open source gateway (untangle) but did not find it suited the schools needs.
  • AndrewDB, on 03/29/2008, -1/+87If you can tell the difference between a cd/dvd-rom and a cup holder, you're able to be a Geek Squad Service Agent.
  • nightmare1228, on 03/29/2008, -14/+97Smart kid, but Mcafee? That's the equivalent to using Norton.
  • AndrewDB, on 03/29/2008, -2/+73And no one else.
  • doshindude, on 03/29/2008, -22/+86He chose MCAFEE for a school network? Fail.
    And how do they expect to get that running on Sub-Win2k machines anyway?
  • geneticlemon, on 03/29/2008, -3/+66Seriously, you work with what you have. When I was 11 I didn't even ***** know what the internet was. All I did was play Encarta MindMaze and Solitaire ...
  • jnorris441, on 03/29/2008, -4/+65"HAHA what an idiot for choosing McAfee!" You people were all watching power rangers at that age, stfu
  • dsmx, on 03/29/2008, -0/+54Come off it Mcafee is far better it doesn't detect itself as a virus for one.
  • majortom1981, on 03/29/2008, -2/+55Before you bash the kid for using mcafee at work we use mcafee because we get a huge discountfrom them. Also if you read the article it states that he tried out other gateway services but mcafee was the cheapest and had the most things that the school needed.

    I guess none of you have ever worked for education before.

    This kid has a bright future for him. Plus if you read the article the school gave the it duties to his mom and his mom knew nothing so she asked her son for help. I can show you 40 years olds that arent even as smart as 7 year old let alone 11 year olds.

    Also keep in mind these were very old computers that couldnt accept some of the newer programs so he looked into a gateway that scans EVERYTHING before it gets to the network and mcafeee was the cheapest. (ps i will state this again dont bash him until you work for a school that doesnt like its it department. its very difgficult working with next to no money) ok let the digging down commence.
  • sumj, on 03/29/2008, -8/+60Cool -- pics of the wiz kid in action here: http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2008/032808 ...
  • porplem, on 03/29/2008, -1/+48What's his Digg username?
  • Shogi, on 03/29/2008, -2/+46Because Geek Squad is definitely better than anything you could achieve with an A+ Certification.
  • omgbanana, on 03/29/2008, -0/+40Like that's something new?
    I was there. Librarians were the de facto IT department in the early 90's.
  • Pureeviljester, on 03/29/2008, -1/+41"The school took advantage of a Microsoft effort called Fresh Start that offers free software upgrades for schools with donated computers, switching from Windows 98 to Windows 2000."
  • prth8machine, on 03/29/2008, -2/+41"teached"? I guess you skipped english class huh?
  • forgiste, on 03/29/2008, -0/+38What about the description implies anything about SourceForge?
  • Rikkochet, on 03/29/2008, -1/+37Dude, he bought a network gateway appliance. You can cleverly go to tools>addons all day, it's in a secure closet at the internet entry point to the whole building. You ain't doing ***** on that client except what you're allowed to do.
  • DanBoodro, on 03/29/2008, -0/+35This kid is the leader of Anonymous
  • cdawzrd, on 03/29/2008, -0/+35I see he still has to learn about cable management... oh well, he's 11.
  • Rikkochet, on 03/29/2008, -0/+34Don't be an ass. You also have to be able to read at a sixth grade level to be able to read off sales pitches to ignorant customers.
  • Rikkochet, on 03/29/2008, -1/+33I got the impression that he purchased software to run a network GATEWAY, not individual anti-malware suites for every oldass PC they run.
  • f4nt0m4s, on 03/29/2008, -5/+37Well he will be a lot wiser a lot sooner than some folks; installing McAfee is one mistake I'm sure he won't make again.
  • legoalert33, on 03/29/2008, -0/+29anon?
  • forgiste, on 03/29/2008, -2/+31If you can tell your peehole from a usb port then you're Geek Squad material.
  • dantidote, on 03/29/2008, -3/+30Dammit, this is why i'm in college.
  • PATSCRU, on 03/29/2008, -4/+29Yeah, from the comments above i got the mental picture of a bunch of thirty something basement dwellers talking ***** on an 11 year old...get a life guys, what the ***** were YOU doing when you were 11?
  • KMehthas, on 03/29/2008, -1/+26How is it not?
  • bluegem, on 03/29/2008, -3/+28Sigh @ school IT workers. My old network admin did not know what a trojan was. WTF? How do complete morons get into some jobs.
  • SAOSiN, on 03/29/2008, -0/+24dude, hes eleven...
  • bxblox, on 03/29/2008, -0/+23I have a friend who once said to me "I just got my A+ programming certificate".....facepalm
  • Ravatar, on 03/29/2008, -2/+24Is that some kind of joke? Yes it is a MASSIVE upgrade. In terms of file system enhancements, user rights management, and domain administration it's 100 trillion times better.
  • Emused, on 03/29/2008, -0/+22I need this kid to have a chat with my CIO, they would be on about the same maturity level.
  • inactive, on 03/29/2008, -1/+22what the fck is that last pic
  • bubba9999, on 03/29/2008, -1/+22MrBabyMan
  • Ocelot13, on 03/29/2008, -2/+22but did he ban the ip address?

    my highschool used bess... easy was to bypass it was to ping it and use the ip address.
  • Smurph0404, on 03/29/2008, -0/+20I have no love for geek squad or A+, but I doubt I could do either at 11. give the kid props for what he's been able to accomplish!
  • itzmattu, on 03/29/2008, -2/+20Why is this getting dugg down? Oh right, he didn't diss McAfee! Shame on you...
  • mrsteveman1, on 03/29/2008, -0/+18If you can't..........there are still plenty of positions for you at Walmart!
  • inactive, on 03/29/2008, -0/+18You say that like Power Rangers is a bad thing!?!!
  • chrislee149, on 03/29/2008, -1/+18http://digg.com/comedy/Kid_goes_absolutely_nuts_ov ...

    I guess these two kids would not get along.
  • univerio, on 03/29/2008, -2/+19Man our school network is run by a teacher who doesn't know jack *****. She always has a technician come in and do such simple things like installing software or upgrading the server. Sadly, the technitian is an arrogant dick who thinks he's always better than you. I wish my school gave me the chance to manage the network.
  • aywwts4, on 03/29/2008, -0/+17Some of us transition from our families computer guy as children, to lucrative and enjoyable computer industry professions. Perhaps your problem was in not aiming higher than the floor of your apartment.
  • LoveWidescreen, on 03/29/2008, -6/+22"Because most 11 year olds don't know any better."
  • jcims, on 03/29/2008, -1/+17The kid didn't say he couldn't set it up, just that it didn't meet the needs of the school.
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