Meet The Firewall.cx Team!

This page acknowledges the effort and the dedication of the support team behind Firewall.cx that have made it the successful site it is today. There's a brief description of the people behind the scenes and recognition of their labours.

Editorial Team

Chris Partsenidis - Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Chris established Firewall.cx early in 2001 and since then has remained the senior editor of the website. He has the overall responsibility of the site and is in charge of the majority of the recent material that is published. He also designs and creates the graphics – a laborious task indeed (but as you have told us well worth it!).

Chris is accountable for maintaining and implementing the new features of the website that makes the material easy to read and keeps the site browser-friendly. Chris is armed with more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry and he strives to produce material that is not only accessible to all, but relevant to the networking industry and to viewers interested in this field.

After seeing the website expand and public response increase dramatically, it became apparent that a support team had to be established in order to maintain it and fulfil public demands.

Chris has a Advanced Diploma in Electrical Technology and also holds the following regocnitions & certifications: Cisco Champion in Enterprise Networking, CCNP Routing & Switching, Cisco CCDP, CCNA Routing & Switching, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, Cisco CCDA, Microsoft MCP, CNA for Netware 3, 4, 5, LCP (Linux Certified Professional), Symantec SSE, Symantec STS, Comptia Network+ , Comptia A+, DCE (D-link Certified Engineer) and Hellas-Sat Certified Installer.

Despina Partsinidis - Associate Editor

Despina has been involved with Firewall.cx since 2001. She holds a Master in Applied Linguistics (TESOL), a Bachelor or Arts (ESL) and a Diploma in Education from Maquarie University. 

Despina has been modifying and proofreading articles published on the website to ensure accurate and error free texts.

Currently Despina is in the process of starting her Doctorate in Education.

 In her spare time Despina loves reading novels and spending time with her daughter and definatley not reading articles involving IT :)

Stella Tsiftsi - Administration, Accounting & Public Relations Manager

Stella has been involved with Firewall.cx since 2015 and has since then become one of the most valued members of our team.

Her expertise in the field of administration and unique public relation skills have been invaluable in the liaison of Firewall.cx with its customers, contractors and partners including small & large accounts such as Pearson Education, Addison Wesley, Prentice Hall, Cisco Systems, Symantec Press, TechTarget and many more.

Thanks to her skills Stella's duties extend to accounting, financial statements, invoicing and assiting the team in building solid business strategies. 

In her free time Stella enjoys programming and coming up with new ideas on how to make Firewall.cx a better and more informative site.

 

 

Padelis has been working with Firewall.cx since 2013 as the site’s Technical Editor. The combination of his 15 years of experience in the Information Technology field and in-depth knowledge of Windows operating systems, has played a vital-role in the development and expansion of our popular Microsoft Windows Server and Workstation section.

Amongst other responsibilities, Padelis helps ensure the smooth operation of our site and takes care of all content formatting and presentation.

A large portion of his free time goes into assimilating Microsoft technologies in order to continuously expand his knowledge and assist in the development of new material for our Microsoft and Networking sections.

Padelis currently holds Microsoft’s MCSA Windows 8, MCP and MTA (Networking) and Google AdWords certifications.

Lefteris Manassakis – Technical Advisor & Review Team Member

Lefteris comes from the beautiful island of Crete, Greece, and is currently working at the University of Crete as a Systems and Network Engineer.

Lefteris has been following Firewall.cx since 2007 and was taken on board to work with our team in 2010. His main responsibilities include  helping produce quality network security topics for our global audience and work closely with our technical team for support issues.

Lefteri has also played a key-role in the product reviews Firewall.cx undertakes, with a strong focus on GFI products, thanks to his support experience and extensive technical knowledge.

He has 15 years of experience in the IT industry as a Systems and Network Engineer in various companies and organizations. He holds a Computer Science degree from the Greek Open University and is now working towards the conclusion of Royal Holloway's MSc in Information Security. He is also CCNA R&S certified and his next goal is CCNP.

His main areas of interest include Network and Systems Security, especially within the Cisco realm but also with Microsoft, Open Source and other vendor technologies.

Apart from his work and his studies, Lefteris loves to spend time with his family, listening to music (ex radio shows producer) and watching NBA basketball games.

 

Jil Swinnerton - Associate Technical Editor

'Jils' (aka dictionary) has been part of Firewall.cx from the beginning. She undertakes the task of seeing that the material is published in a form of the English language that is comprehensible to all!

For those who remember the early days of the IT industry, you may recall the complexity of computer terminology before it became a part of life. To add to the confusion, Jil also has the difficult task of deciphering Chris's and other editorial member's language, one that is unknown to the human species!

Once a subject is thoroughly researched and documented, Jil endeavours to correct the spelling, grammar and formatting. This process is not always smooth when Chris takes the initiative to publish updated material without showing it to Jil :)

 

Sahir Hidayatullah - Security Advisor

Sahir joined the Firewall.cx team in 2003 as the site's Security Advisor and Forum Moderator. His contribution and expert advice to the site's forums and articles have captured everyone's attention and he has quickly become amongst the most respected people on Firewall.cx

Sahir programs in C/C++, Assembler and Perl, and had his first brush with networking 10 years ago over a 9600bps modem, connecting to local BBSs and subsequently he made network security his pet topic.

As well as working for MIEL e-Security Pvt. Ltd where he specialises in penetration-testing, Sahir assists the Mumbai Police Cyberlab. He also has his own security website: tftfotw.blogspot.com.

Sahir plans to set up a dedicated network security company to provide security consultancy, vulnerability research, auditing and incident response. In his spare time he listens to progressive rock, jazz and blues and teaches guitar in the same genres.

As well as his Bachelors Degree in Economics and other certificates, Sahir holds Cisco's latest CCNA certification.

Arani Mukherjee

Arani Mukherjee holds a Master’s degree in Distributed Computing Systems from the University of Greenwich, UK and works as network designer and innovator for remote management systems, for a major telecoms company in UK.

He is an avid reader of anything related to networking and computing, and has recently starting working with linux and virtualisation platforms. Having completed his CCNA a couple of years ago, his ultimate aim is to reach CCIE. He also holds a bachelor of arts degree in English literature and his favourite poet is Keats. He's an keen reader of facts, books and documentaries on World War II.

He spends his very limited but precious spare time in photography, and creative arts like oil painting. He loves listening to classical music, and enjoys playing and creating music as well. He loves playing golf and has been training as a private pilot, and promises to earn his wings very soon. He is an avid follower of F1 and fast cars, but restricts his need for speed on karting tracks, and has had his fair share of successes.

Ioannis (John) Chatzikonstantinou

Ioannis is part of the Firewall.cx editorial team, mainly responsible for our world-recognised and awarded top-quality articles based on Cisco & Microsoft technologies. His field of expertise is on Microsoft services, Cisco Security, VPN, QoS and Unified Networks, including CallManager and CallManager Express.

Ioannis graduated in 1988 from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a BSc degree in Mathematics, followed by an MSc in Computer Science from University of Manchester, where he was involved in the ParSiFal Research Project, targeting on the design of a multiprocessor system based on Inmos transputers. 

From 1992 he is a CIO in an I.T. company, in Alexandroupolis - Greece, managing a team of software developers and field engineers. During these years he designed, deployed and supports numerous networks for various business sectors, mixing Microsoft and Cisco technologies. Some of them are certified by the Payment Card Industry Standards.

He is also a passionate programmer on c++, c#, asp.net and other languages and he enjoys TCLing Cisco devices. This software programming passion led him to the development of the Ph1(one)iq Dynamic Call Router and Ph1(one)iq XML Suite for Cisco CallManager Express.

In his spare time he likes to relax by sailing on the crystal clear waters of the Aegean Sea.

Software Engineering Team

Jeremy Stretch - Cisco Lab Software Engineer

Jeremy joined the Firewall.cx team in April 2006 to help with the development of our site's prominent Cisco Lab. His outstanding contribution, commitment & impressive programming skills made him an invaluable team member.

Jeremy graduated high school in 2003 and, soon after, enlisted in the United States Air Force. He's balanced his time over the last three years between maintaining enterprise networks at work and tinkering with his own projects at home. These include: his website (https://www.packetlife.net); an autonomous live CD; a full CMS written in PHP; and several other side projects.

Jeremy is experienced with web design and administration, but his main interests focus on network security. Impressively, all three of his computers at home run Gentoo Linux.

Review Team and Forum Moderators

Alan Drury (TheBishop)

Alan discovered Firewall.cx in early 2004 and has spent much time answering members’ questions on the forums and as a beta tester for our Cisco lab.

Having become hooked on electronics at an early age, Alan filled a mis-spent youth with a variety of projects including the construction of large PA systems, amateur radio transmitters, programmable stage lighting controllers and setting fire to the bedroom carpet (twice).

This led inevitably to an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and four and a half years as a Transmitter Engineer with the BBC. From there he defected into Technical Authorship where he found himself explaining the intricacies of Ethernet, client-server applications and large network installations to a varied audience. Reasoning that if he could document it then he could do it, he switched careers again and landed a network engineering post at the UK's National Exhibition Centre. The rest, as they say, is history, and Alan currently works for a large multinational company supporting a complex national network.

Alan brings to Firewall.cx a wealth of practical experience and an engineering background that informs and illuminates across a variety of topics. In his spare time Alan enjoys hot and spicy food of all kinds, particularly Indian dishes, and has an insatiable appetite for Chris's olives. He is writing a series of novels, loves to listen to music and is an active member of his local church. One of these days he hopes to get round to doing his CCNA...

Wayne Murphy (Smurf)

Wayne graduated from Teeside University in Middlesbrough in 1997 with a degree in Computer Science. He has obtained an MCSE in Windows NT/2000/2003, CCNA, CCSP, CISSP, CEH, CWSE+ and is currently working towards his CCNP certification.

Initially, Wayne practised within the Microsoft arena but in the last 3 years he has extended to network security and network infrastructure. He says "I have recently begun working within the Security/Network arena and I am still enjoying the learning curve. The Security arena fascinates me and I really enjoy the new challenges this is bringing to my career."

Recently, Wayne completed successfully his CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) making him the only team member with this qualification!

He enjoys taking his motorbike out for runs, dining out (really likes Indian food), watching various TV series and, obviously, messing on his computer.

Dele Oyebande (Dalight)

Dele has had almost 15 years’ experience in the specification and development of ERP (Enterprise, Resource and Planning) systems. He combines that with a keen interest in networking and security issues as well as an unnatural enthusiasm for Open Source Software!

He is a qualified Electrical Engineer with expertise in the area of condition monitoring and the design of computer-controlled test equipment for use in manufacturing industry.

He is currently involved in projects utilizing content management systems to provide solutions for businesses.

Dele holds a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering.

Nikitas Skembris (Nske)

Nikita, joined the Firewall.cx Team in 2006 and is currently a student in Athens studying Political Science and History. However, despite his line of studies, Nikita's interest in computers arose in the mid nineties. Since then, his experience grew due to his envolvement in several community based projects on networking and security.

His knowledge of administration on Unix-like operating systems and related issues, as well as coding, is extensive and keeps growing. Like many, Nikita's knowledge has grown from experience rather than certifications, though this doesn't rule out the possibility of obtaining a degree in computer science.

Currently, Nikita works as a network administrator in an internet café, which aids in purchasing equipment for his expensive hobby and aims to conquer his CCNA certification in the near future!


John Watters (Rockape)

John has been a member of the Firewall.cx family since 2004. Typically you’ll find him inside the site’s forums, ensuring everything is running smoothly and people are not misbehaving :)

John works for an I.T. firm as a Network support engineer, however, his job also encompasses desktop support, certain software support and everything else the Unix and Oracle Teams don’t do.

To help prove John does have a life (unlike most of us!), is also a Civilian Instructor with the Air Training Corp and is the Chairman of the Parent/Teachers Association of his son’s (Isaac) School.

Ammar Muqaddas (S0lo)

Ammar has been a member of the Firewall.cx community since 2006 and accepted Firewall.cx's invitation to join the Site's Team in 2008 as a Forum Moderator. Ammar holds a Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree in Computer Engineering from Kuwait University, where he currently works as a Systems Administrator.

Ammar also currently holds the CCNA certification and is the only CCNA Instructor amongst our site's Team members!

Apart from his working skills, he's very familiar with programming using Visual Basic and C/C++, Java and is currently conquering PHP and MySQL. Lastly, Ammar has created a number of applications including DiskSims (Master's degree project), Hegons (Heterogeneous Grooming Optical Network Simulator), GAVec (A Genetic Algorithm based Automatic Pattern Test Generation tool) and much more. All these, plus a lot more, can be found on his personal website: http://www.solostuff.net

Harry Mylonadis (The_Berzerker)

Born in 1982 in Athens, Greece he recently moved to the UK in order to pursue an MSc in Information Systems Management at Brunel university. His experience with computers began when he was 10 years old and started programming in Basic, Pascal etc. During High school he became interested in PC Hardware and started offering PC support to anyone that wanted help.

Harry's qualifications are a BSc in Information Systems Engineering from TEI of Piraeus and Cisco's CCNA. He is currently working on an MSc in Information Systems Management.

Harry has also worked as a Network Engineer for ATHENS 2004, offering network services to critical applications and network backbones created specifically for the Olympic Games 2004.

His goals are to obtain the MSc and work as either an IT Consultant or a Business Analyst and, in the far future, maybe open his own consulting firm.

We also can't forget to mention that Harry is a Mac enthusiast and uses only Mac computers in his everyday life. According to Harry.... anything that can be done on a PC can be done on a Mac ;-)

Charalampos Kioroglou (Babis)

Charalampos has been with Firewall.cx since early 2008 and has helped maintain and develop and number of services currently offered to the world IT community.

Amongst other duties,Charalampos has offered valuable help and guidance in the writing of Firewall.cx's most popular Cisco articles. In addition, he is also responsible for the reviewing of Network & Security articles for partners such as Cisco Press, Pearson Education, Addison Wesley, Symantec Press and Prentice Hall.

Charalampos is also well-known amongst the Firewall.cx community forums for helping thousands of IT engineers around the world, providing solutions for Cisco network problems (routing, switching, VoIP & Wireless), plus a number of Windows server operating systems.

Charalampos holds the popularCisco CCNA and CCNA Securitycertifications.

System Engineers

Emmanouil Partsenidis

Emmanouil's role as a Systems Engineer for our site and Cisco lab servers has proven to be a key-role in helping us maintain all services provided to our community.

His responsibilities include daily check of all Internet services (www, mail, dns e.t.c) to ensure they are up and running without problems, while at the same time monitoring our Cisco lab network and Firewall activity.

Emmanouil's contribution to our site's Cisco lab has been enormous. He helped with the original lab design, including the VLANs that needed to be carefully designed to ensure that every Cisco lab remained logically separated from each other, while allowing them to use services such as DNS, TFTP and FTP, provided by our main Cisco lab server.

Emmanouil graduated in 2003 from City University, London, where he obtained his degree in Computer Systems Engineering. In addition, Emmanouil holds the Comptia A+ and Network + certifications and is now Cisco CCNA & CCNA Voice certified.

His work experience includes working for one of UK 's largest computer firms such as Dixons and PC World as a Senior Systems Engineer.

News Editor

Jack Burgess

Jack joined our team in late 2004 and is no stranger to the world of computers. His first encounter was back in 1983 when he started out with a 286-8MHz PC with 1 Meg of Ram and DOS 2.1.

Since then, he has dealt extensively with various Operating Systems and has obtained qualifications in Computer Science and in Networking.

He was employed as a computer technician for companies such as Apple Computers and Symantec, though now runs his own business located at www.idahojack.com. When he is not preoccupied with work, he enjoys spending time working with shortwave radios and scanners and is a licensed HAM operator.

His interest in this area has led him to currently work on a website dedicated to HAM radio. Although he likewise enjoys outdoor activities like Four-Wheel-driving and photography.

Jack joined the Firewall.cx team early 2004 as a Forum Moderator, supporting our members and visitors with their complex problems and questions! In 2006, Jack undertook the responsibilities of the site's News Editor, ensuring we all stay up-to-date with the latest IT news from around the world.

Graphic Design Artist

Theano Tsanaktsidou

Theano joined the Firewall.cx family in December 2004 as our senior graphics designer, undertaking full responsibility for all site graphics.

Theano's unique and creative mind produced the Firewall.cx logo back in 2004, which has since become globally recognised in the IT community.

As our site's graphics artist, Theano is in charge of designing the well-known network diagrams and illustrations used in our articles.

Theano worked alongside Chris and Cisco's design team in 2010 to produce the world's first 'Official Cisco Press Reviewer' Logo - an extremely important project that had no room for mistakes. The result, of course, was exceptional!

Theano graduated as a Graphic Designer from the Department of Graphic Design, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design of the Technological Educational Institute (T.E.I.) of Athens, and is constantly seeking ways to expand her knowledge and give birth to new exciting ideas that our huge community has come to love!

At present she lives in Kent, England where she is continuing her studies in English language at Working Men's College, Desktop Publishing at City Lit College and computing at City and Islington College.

Theano enjoys reading, visiting art exhibitions, painting and, of course, working with our team:)