Hidden Pop Culture References in IT

I was doing some lookups and verification of TLS encryption on our mail server – basically looking up the companies that own the IP addresses that opened a secure encrypted tunnel with my mail server – when I came across this entry:

NetRange: 72.54.0.0 - 72.54.255.255
CIDR: 72.54.0.0/16
NetName: CBEY
NetHandle: NET-72-54-0-0-1
Parent: NET-72-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: INFINITY.CBEYOND.NET
NameServer: BEYOND.CBEYOND.NET
Comment: For prompt attention, please send all abuse (spam, DOS,
Comment: etc) correspondence to our Abuse handle...(abuse@cbeyond.net) -Cbeyond
Comment: rwhois.cbeyond.net:4321
RegDate: 2005-08-03
Updated: 2006-07-31

Their DNS name servers are named Infinity and Beyond…

And the following is from a Cisco switch:

ROM: 12.2(20r)EW1
Dagobah Revision 226, Swamp Revision 34

Not that I am surprised to find Star Wars fans at Cisco

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Comments

pwjohnston

I don't think that is that unusual. One place I worked named their servers after muppets.

tiersten

Having a theme for project names or server name isn't too unusual.

Simpsons, Elements, Star Wars, Star Trek and sport teams are all pretty popular.

blargoe

I worked in an office a long time ago that has servers named after Greek gods and an domain named Olympus

dynamik

I did something similar with my home lab this time around, and it's turning into a PITA trying to remember what does what. Maybe I just need to spend more time with it, but I kind of regret not going with DC1, DC2, etc.

rfult001

I like to use relevant names for everything then I create aliases to confuse ppl

vCole

All our servers are named after planets/astronomy type stuff

undomiel

At the university my father works at their servers are named after LotR characters/places, Narnia characters/places, and constellations. Last place I worked at were phasing out names from the Flintstones.

Revenue

We have a few named after Characters\Places in The Matrix,Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica

Only Testing and Lab Servers though

All the rest have a naming convention.

Aldur

In the JTAC lab all the routers were named after star wars characters, then after the lead escalation hooked up with a chick on the floor all the names got changed to candy bars at her insistance....

Damn women can get us men to do anything they want!

Claymoore

NetRange: 66.241.32.0 - 66.241.63.255
CIDR: 66.241.32.0/19
NetName: CPS-NET00
NetHandle: NET-66-241-32-0-1
Parent: NET-66-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: ADAM.CHOICEPOINT.NET
NameServer: EVE.CHOICEPOINT.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 2003-08-22
Updated: 2003-08-22

I can only guess what their secondary DNS servers are named.

Slowhand

I've seen a lot of companies use in-jokes or pop-culture references to name their servers/services. A well-known data recovery firm here in the Bay Area names all their servers after guitarists, (Clapton, Hendrix, etc.). Of course, the converse is that a lot of companies simply don't bother, and just have names like "DNS1, DNS2" or "mail1, mail2" and so forth.

Currently, our naming convention at my work is as follows:
- Servers: Monkeys, (Wisemonkey, Flyingmonkey, etc.)
- Routers: Earthbound villains, (Giygas, Starman, Belch, etc.)
- Switches: Earthbound towns, (Onett, Twoson, Threed, Fourside, Scaraba, etc.)
- Workstations: Norse/Greek gods and other figures, (Thor, Odin, Apollo, Hades, etc.)
- Storage devices: Buckets, (bitbucket, filebucket, justbucket, etc.)
- Other device/machine types to follow.

So, when someone wants to log into a mail server or find a file on a fileserver, they have to go see a monkey.

cisco_trooper

Cartoon villains of the 80s.......

cbigbrick

Claymoore wrote: »

NetRange: 66.241.32.0 - 66.241.63.255
CIDR: 66.241.32.0/19
NetName: CPS-NET00
NetHandle: NET-66-241-32-0-1
Parent: NET-66-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: ADAM.CHOICEPOINT.NET
NameServer: EVE.CHOICEPOINT.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 2003-08-22
Updated: 2003-08-22

I can only guess what their secondary DNS servers are named.

You work for ChoicePoint??? I remember those servers!!!

bwcarty

One of the offices I work with now originally named all their servers after X-Men characters, and some of them are still around....royal PITA when I try to figure out what they do.

A place I worked at in the 90s had servers named after cities the guys there wanted to visit...Rio, Moscow, etc.

Pash

star wars characters at one of my sites. R2-d2 C3P0 the lot!

RussS

larry, Curly & Mo

Slowhand

bwcarty wrote: »

One of the offices I work with now originally named all their servers after X-Men characters, and some of them are still around....royal PITA when I try to figure out what they do.

This is why documentation is so important, (and why it's so annoying to inherit a network from someone with little or no ability to write things down). If you don't give everything an obvious name, which can cause issues should you ever install two very different services on the same box or re-purpose that server, then you either have to think of a new clever name, (and piss off your users while they learn which serve does what,) or just leave them as-is and live with a file/print/WSUS server named "fileserver".

JDMurray

I've named servers after the nine planets, the names of Babylonian demons (because the names didn't appear in any online dictionary at the time), and from the character classes in Diablo 2 (barbarian, amazon, necromancer, etc.).

Security-wise you are not suppose to have the host's type or function in it's name (e.g., DNS1, IMAP4, WS-JMURRAY), but it sure makes it easier to keep a topology memorized.

dynamik

JDMurray wrote: »

Security-wise you are not suppose to have the host's type or function in it's name (e.g., DNS1, IMAP4, WS-JMURRAY), but it sure makes it easier to keep a topology memorized.

I thought that was rather pointless since anyone with a decent amount of knowledge will be able to determine what the server is anyway. Like you said, you seem to be trading off a significant ease of management for a minuscule amount of security.

msteinhilber

Our shop is pretty much stuck on using descriptive names, which have caused us problems a couple times in the past when additional services are added or a servers role is changed and the name no longer is very descriptive.

We do have a couple of unique names though, both of which caused some humor around the office. We have a test wireless network which is locked down from the rest of our resources, and it broadcasts and is named "poopie". One time there was a owners/partners meeting in the board room and one of the owners got my attention as I was walking by and casually said "hey, I can't get onto poopie, what am i doing wrong?". It was set to no longer broadcast after that. The other was a fileserver for IT use only, but the person who set it up for some unknown reason made it public AND on the wrong network, so some users noticed a new server available labeled "sh1tbox".

KGhaleon

Slowhand wrote: »

I've seen a lot of companies use in-jokes or pop-culture references to name their servers/services. A well-known data recovery firm here in the Bay Area names all their servers after guitarists, (Clapton, Hendrix, etc.). Of course, the converse is that a lot of companies simply don't bother, and just have names like "DNS1, DNS2" or "mail1, mail2" and so forth.

Currently, our naming convention at my work is as follows:
- Servers: Monkeys, (Wisemonkey, Flyingmonkey, etc.)
- Routers: Earthbound villains, (Giygas, Starman, Belch, etc.)
- Switches: Earthbound towns, (Onett, Twoson, Threed, Fourside, Scaraba, etc.)
- Workstations: Norse/Greek gods and other figures, (Thor, Odin, Apollo, Hades, etc.)
- Storage devices: Buckets, (bitbucket, filebucket, justbucket, etc.)
- Other device/machine types to follow.

So, when someone wants to log into a mail server or find a file on a fileserver, they have to go see a monkey.

You are the coolest person I have ever met.

tiersten

One place I worked at just numbered everything with server/pc as the prefix. The numbering system didn't have any other pattern to it. As machines were added and removed there were huge gaps in the numbering. Everybody ended up with a sheet of paper taped to the side of their cube that told them what the numbers meant.

snadam

aww man, you guys have fun with your naming schemes!

my old job was company/location/type/#. Rather dull. However, in the environment I work know, I get to see a slew of different naming conventions; its rather intriguing.

JDMurray

dynamik wrote: »

I thought that was rather pointless since anyone with a decent amount of knowledge will be able to determine what the server is anyway. Like you said, you seem to be trading off a significant ease of management for a minuscule amount of security.

If you have access to the server, yes, but in logs and documentation the obscurity may be more effective, if only as a deterrent.