Meet David Twigg, Server Hardware Technician

 

David Twigg is one of the latest additions to the FastServers.Net team. As the Server Hardware Technician, David's responsibilities include doing much of Wade Weisbrod's monotonous tasks. "I do all of Wade's grunt work. To be more specific, I do a lot of the hardware support on our servers." David told us that he spends a lot of time installing hardware and operating systems on new servers. And he does a lot of the cabling in the data center for customers that request backups and/or private switches. "My primary responsibility is to make sure the server hardware and cabling are working properly. If they are not working properly, it is my job to fix the issue as quickly as possible."

David's college experiences are unique. After taking classes at three separate institutions, he has mixed feelings about continuing his education at the college or university level. "I have attended three different colleges and universities, changed my major four times, and still never found what I wanted to do once I graduated." Although he has not graduated, David has extensive knowledge in the computer industry. Most recently he was part of an IT professional program sponsored by a local organization. Through the program he earned his A+ hardware certification and his CCNA certification. Recently David received his Net+ certification and plans on getting MCSA certificatied in the near future. "I would like to gain more knowledge of Linux, but most of what I do online is not supported for Linux." Don't tell anyone, but David grew up with Macs!

While attending college (one of the three), David discovered the world of Counter-Strike, the ultimate tactical first-person shooter game. It was then that he decided to start managing game servers. "After my stint with college, I became part of www.2frag4fun.com. Within a year I earned the position of head admin. Shortly after that, I became the owner." David claims 2frag4fun is not a clan; rather it is an Online Gaming Community (OCG). "We do not compete professionally in anything. We are just a bunch of people that like to play for fun." 2frag4fun host Counter-Strike and DoD servers and many other games. "We started as a major Natural Selection community, but have since moved on to other games. Now that I dedicate my time to FastServers.Net, I depend on administrators to maintain the 2frag4fun.com servers while I maintain the web site." The site now has 20,000 unique players each month. In David's free time, he likes to play BattleField 2 and Lineage II. "My gaming name is 'SilverSquirrl' (yes no, 'e', you can thank Windows for that)."

David believes his experience with 2frag4fun.com helped him learn about backend server operations. He taught himself how to setup and use Apache, IIS, MySQL, PHP, Perl, FTP, MSSQL, HLDS, and a variety of other dedicated game servers. Admin tools related to gaming on the Windows 2003 platform helped him learn the technologies. "For the past three years, online gaming has been my life. Outside of FastServers.Net and gaming, I really do not exist."

An avid Stargate fan, David told us about his current rants regarding the television show's carrier, Sci-Fi channel. "This year I have not been happy with Sci-Fi and the Stargate writers. I have seen every episode of both SG-1 and Atlantis. First, the Sci-Fi channel is canceling SG-1. Second, the writers have been filling Atlantis with so many non-important filler stories." David enjoys the main story line of both series and hopes next season will be better than any of the previous ones. Heroes has become another one of David's favorites. The NBC hit television show airs on Monday evenings at 9PM Central Time. "Heroes is the one television series that you need to watch every episode. Each one builds on the next. It makes for a fantastic series that you cannot afford to not watch."

When David's not watching SG-1, Atlantis, Heroes, or playing computer games, you can find him listening to Rock and Top 40 music stations. "Anything with a good beat and a lot of bass gets me going. My car was one of the reasons cities starting passing 'loud car' ordinances." David has had a nice sound system by Infinity (the speaker maker, not the car), in his car for the last seven years. That includes subwoofers too. "My car is loud, very loud. The base is insane!"

If you have read the other FastServers.Net profiles, you know that the majority of employees are big time sports fans, especially the Chicago crew. We had to ask David if he's another sports fanatic. "I enjoy watching football, but I don't keep track of any teams or stats, and I usually don't plan to watch a game. If one is on, and I don't have anything else to do, I'll watch it."