Meet Josh Mattson, Server Support Engineer

 

Josh Mattson is one of the latest additions to the FastServers.Net support team. As a new Server Support Engineer, one of his daily duties includes keeping an eye on Nagios (the FastServers.Net monitoring system) to make sure critical services stay up and running. "Since I am still new, I haven't been able to work on more complicated issues." Josh said the most challenging part of his job requires him to have all the correct and current information from other techs. "There could be another person working on a server that's causing a critical alert to go off and I wouldn't want to reboot a server someone else is working on." Don't worry Josh, we have tight processes in place to keep things running smoothly.

Unlike most FastServers.Net employees, Josh is not an avid sports fan. He said he does enjoy watching the occasional football or hockey game, but he'd rather spend time listening to music or playing his guitar. "If you're into hardcore and metal music, Cedar Falls and Iowa in general has a very active local music scene." During high school Josh played in a band called "The Golden Autumn Day Strangler" as guitarist. "We toured around northeast Iowa for a while and recorded two CDs. Unfortunately, we broke up as band members and went our separate ways."

Since the band broke up, Josh prefers listening to music as opposed to writing it. "Some of my favorite genres of music are metal, hardcore, some punk, and acoustic. What I like most about the heavier side of this music is the energy and talent you can see at a show in your own town." Josh said he doesn't have to pay $40 for a ticket and drive a couple of hours to a big venue. "Local music has a very DIY sort of attitude, and I have a lot of respect for some of these guys. It's hard to do. I know because I've been there."

When he's not listening to music, Josh enjoys watching some of his favorite films by director George Romero. "I like all of them, from Night of the Living Dead all the way up to Land of the Dead. And yes, even Day of the Dead." He said a casual watcher might just see zombies and gore, but there is so much more to Romero's movies than that. For example, Romero wrote these movies as social commentaries, especially the original Dawn of the Dead. "I also enjoy the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness trilogy because Bruce Campbell as Ash is the classic tough guy." Typically Josh does not watch television, but if he does, it's usually the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. "I think both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are quite brilliant at what they do. Oh, I also like the Simpsons, that's a classic." To date, he has seen nearly every episode of the Simpsons three or four times each.

Prior to starting at FastServers.Net, Josh worked for the local municipal utilities company as a cable TV and Internet helpdesk support technician. "We provided mostly phone and email support for residential and commercial customers for Internet access through cable modems, FTTP (fiber to the premise) and direct fiber connections." When he started at the utilities company there was hardly any documentation or training available. "It really helped me learn how to troubleshoot issues that may appear in a logical fashion, or so I like to think."

During high school Josh participated in a medieval combat group known as Belegarth. "It's essentially simulated, full contact combat with foam weapons. "It involved fighting locally a few times a week, as well as traveling out of state to attend three or four day long campouts." He said he doesn't participate in medieval combat anymore. "I have become too busy with real life commitments, but I do still host the website and forums for the local chapter out of my rack in my closet."

When he's not running a medieval website and forum, you can find Josh playing video games. "Right now I am playing either Guitar Hero (which I play entirely too much) or World of Warcraft (which I used to play entirely too much)." He said Guitar Hero only looks mildly interesting, but it is actually a lot of fun to play, especially if you play multiplayer with some friends. In addition to spending his free time playing video games, Josh is also studying for his CCNA and learning PHP. "I tried computer science at UNI immediately after graduating high school, but after a few semesters there I realized I didn't enjoy what I was doing." Starting in the fall of 2007, Josh will be in a networking program at Hawkeye Community College.

We asked Josh what he likes most about FastServers.Net. "The amount of knowledge that everyone has is astounding. At my old job, I was one of the more senior employees - the one people would go to when they had questions. Since I've been working here and interacting with all the high caliber of people FastServers.Net employs, it has been quite a humbling experience." Josh said he enjoys the amount of things he learns on a daily basis. "In this line of work, it's difficult to stay stagnate. I leave each day feeling that I have learned an immense amount of information."