About Me

My Skills

As you may have seen on the Geecko.co.uk website I know how to IP, TCP/IP, FTP, POP3, HTTP, HTML, CSS that is not all, binary is too easy, I can also write in VB, C#, PHP, Perl and I am starting to learn Jscript and Jquery. On top of all that I learned how to put computers together when I was 17 and since then I have built many systems, I am also well versed in the setting up Apache and IIS webservers, FTP, Email (POP, SMTP and IMAP), DHCP, DNS servers and more.

Getting started

Back in 1992 after I left school I got a job as a PC test engineer, testing computer parts and sending the broken parts off for repair, this helped me get the start I needed to become the expert in PC construction and repair I am today, it also helped me get other interests in IT like system configuration and programming, at the time the main version of windows was 3.1 and it was around the time of the first web browsers so most PC's were not networked but there was still dial-up internet and the fastest modems were 28.8k, the programming and configuration also helped me learn about the other processes like web and email services, this then got me interested in DHCP and DNS services so I could try to understand how the internet works, this process took many years.

What Happened Next

In 2000 I got a job in IT at on of the larger banks in the UK, my job title was open systems capcity planner, this was where I wanted to be (or so I thought) and I took the opportunity to learn more about system configurations, redundant backups and keeping the server up for most availability, in the 4 years I had this job I also learned more about TCP/IP, Netbios and IPX/SPX (i learned some off the internet before I started and had a small home network), the last year I spent in this job I was mostly collecting and analysing server statistics on open systems (Windows and Unix), I found this very dull and hated it (and lost interest in IT as a hobby), I was finally made redundant in 2004 following the company being taken over by a larger european bank, it took more than a year to get my interest in IT back after this job and leaned nothing for the year.

Home Server

In early 2004 I setup a home server running Solaris Unix system on a home PC, the main reason for setting up the server was to have a web and email server, after a while I needed it to do more so I had to upgrade the system and decided to change to Debian Linux, I then added the file sharing system (samba) so I could then store my media on it, I later added DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuraton Protocol) and DNS (Domain Name Service) as well as FTP and SSH (Secure Shell) so I could manage the system remotely, last year I decided to make the system have a low power consumption so I rebuilt the server with a mini itx motherboard and updated the disks to 3x 2TB SATA, I have more recenlty added upnp media server so I can stream the media to my playstation 3 and xbox360.

Geecko

Back in 2008 I got together with a friend Damien Scott (Damo) and we setup Geecko web design in Milton Keynes, although it is unspoken and not fixed in stone, Damo mostly handles the design and functionality of the Geecko website as well as meeting with new customers, I handle the server management and setup due to my expertise in the IT field, because I am a competent programmer I also write the occasional website and meet some customers where necessary, this has helped me have a continuous project to work on, and keep my skills up-to-date by learning new technologies and applying them to the Geecko server.