hi Collin,

I will check out Dr. Welcher.

rburts, most of the answers from him

in this forum are straight forward answers.

Do you have any links where he solved

complex questions?

Thanks in advance.

Not off the top of my head, but Rick knows his stuff. He has helped me numerous times (with complex stuff). What are you looking to do?

Peter

Really does depend on what you mean by "complex". Rick has helped many many people on this forum and i have personally been involved in threads with Rick that could be considered complex by some.

Certainly if Rick is representative of what Netcraftsmen can offer i wouldn't be worried about their level of expertise. And always bear in mind that they have a fair few CCIE's in their company so even if the area you were interested in was not Rick's expertise there may well be another person within that company who may meet your needs.

Just to reassure you, i don't have any connection with Netcraftsmen and have never dealt with them as a company but from my dealings with Rick i think it's fair to say if he is representative of their expertise you should have nothing to worry about.

Jon

Peter

I've always found Rick's solutions to be comprehensive and to the point. If you take a look at the question, think of a solution and then check Rick's solution, you'll always find he has covered a thing or two you probably would have missed. And yes he has provided solutions to numerous complex problems as well.

In short, I would say you're in good hands.

Lejoe

I thank Collin, and Jon, and Lejoe for their comments about me. I do not want to turn this into a pitch for me or my company. So I will simply say to Peter that I am a CCIE who is approaching the tenth anniversary of my certification. I have done some things (both in the forum and in our consulting practice) that most would consider fairly complex. In a company of about 30 people we have 10 CCIEs - which I think is pretty remarkable and I am very proud of that.

While I do some work in security related areas it is not my primary area. We do have 2 of our CCIEs who have the Security CCIE and Security is one of the focus areas in our practice. If you would like to find out more about us I invite you to contact me off list. My Email address is in my profile.

HTH

Rick

Thank you everyone for your comments.

We are also looking at other vendors

besides Netcraftsmen. During the

selection/interview process, is it fair

to ask them technical questions?

Peter

During the selection/interview process some technical questions are certainly appropriate.

HTH

Rick

Hi Rick,

Then I guess it is appropriated to allow

my network engineers to quiz the vendors

during the selection/interview process.

All technical questions are fair game?

We have two network engineers in our staffs

and that both of them have Security and

Voice IE.

What do you think? Thanx.

Peter

Peter-

Since you don't have a trust level built yet with a vendor, anything goes. One good question (I think) we ask is for them to explain their design methodologies and how they T/S problems.