Walter Benton

Summary of Skills/Certificates Received (Alphabetical Order)

Certified SonicWALL Security Administrator - CSSA (Since 2004)
LTI Win95/WinNT Certified Instructor (Since 1996)
Macintosh & Laserwriter Repair Engineer (Since 1984)
Novell Certified VMS NetWare Engineer (Since 1989)
Novell Certified CNE/CNE-J (Since 1989)
Novell Certified CNI/CNI-J (Since 1991)
NetWare Server Doctor (Since 1996)
US Navy Satellite Telecommunications Specialist (Since 1977)
WinNT Server Doctor (Since 1997)

Work Experience (Most Recent Order)

SonicWALL, Inc. (Japan Branch)

Technical Support Manager {2004-Present}

Technical Support Manager for Distributors/Resellers located in Japan.
Firewall, VPN, Content Filtering, Anti-Virus, etc. security skills used to technically support the large distributors & resellers of SonicWALL products throughout Japan.
My task is to train the distributors/resellers on how to support SonicWALL products in the field. The more knowledgeable they are, the lesser the amount of phone calls for support as well as a quicker response to end users without having to wait for an answer to each and every simple question which could have been answered in the field with the proper training.

Memorex Telex Japan [MTJL]

NWS SE {1998-2004}

In charge of getting a new "SafeNet Series" security product off the ground. I received technical training on the "SafeNet Series" of products and also provided both our Salesmen and Field Engineers with the skills required to sell and support those products. Once our in-house staff were trained, my role was more of a pre-sales support where I would visit customers with salesmen and offer technical support in gathering the required information to make a proposal which met customer's needs.
I also assisted in post-sales technical support for our Field Engineers as well until they were able to stand on their own.

NWS Project Sales Dept., Manager {1996-1997}

Offer post-sales diagnosis/analysis for both NetWare and WinNT servers to find bottlenecks and perform capacity planning.
Offer pre-sales technical support for our salesmen

NWS Marketing Dept., Manager {1995-1996}

Was in charge of Fibronics equipment.
Visited customers with salesmen to discuss technical details and offered advanced design services.
Was the main overseas contact between manufacturer and Memorex.
Visited Israel twice to receive technical training and then trained our in-house and engineers and salesmen.

Solution Center, Manager {1989-1995}

Was in charge of introducing NetWare to both Memorex staff as well as to offer NetWare solutions to Memorex Customers.
Performed NetWare server installations at customer sites and also performed after sales support and trouble shooting.
As a Novell CNI　(Certified NetWare Instructor) I started a NAEC (Novell Authorized Education Center) in Memorex Telex's Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka offices.

International Consulting [IC]

President & Owner {1985-1989}

Introduced Japanese companies to overseas companies for both importing foreign goods from abroad into Japan and exporting Japanese products overseas.
Performed simultaneous translation during meetings between both companies.
Worked as a liason man for the Japanese companies when dealing with the overseas partner due to their lack of English skills.
I took commisions as a small percentage of the total import/export sales amount, and performed various on-the-spot jobs for my clients as well.
I performed LAN Consulting for various foreign banking and insurance related firms whom were looking for the type of consulting that was hard unheard of in Japan at that time.
I saved up enough money to make a downpayment on a home with plot of land here in Japan (which holds the worlds record for the most outrageous land prices), but the bank wouldn't approve the loan as an individual consultant. They required that I work for a more stable firm. At the same time, I approached Memorex Telex Japan about becoming a consultant for them, but they wanted me to become a full-time employee rather than a consultant, so Iput two and two together and came up with four (or join Memorex) as the solution to both problems so I closed out my consulting firm even though I really hated to with the clientel I had.

Micronics Japan Limited [MJC]

Marketing Chief {1980-1985}

I was in charge of gathering specs from customers to develop an LCD prober. I coordinated user's requests with in-house electronic engineers, mechanical engineers and software programmers to develop new equipment.
Assisted salesmen of wafer probers and cryogenic probers with sales to overseas partners.
Actually I started working on the assembly line for a few months and did some wire-wrapping of beta versions of electronic cards for the above machines.
Assisted software engineers with a BASIC software program which performed same task as original program, but 3 times quicker.

Fujitsu International Engineering [FIE]

Proofreader/English Checker {1979-1980}

I was in charge of checking the English translated documentation for Fujitsu's various hardware/software products.
Some of the documents checked were the M-380 Fujitsu Host Mainfraim system and it's OS/IV Operating System, the FM-8 CP/M 8-bit computer and Fujitsu's OA Word Processor OASIS.
Where translations were unreadable, I referred to the original text and occasionally had to meet with either the translators, or in case the Japanese original was vague, the actual engineer who wrote the original documentation.
After the final documentation was checked and approved, it went to publishing for shipment (at that time) to South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, etc.
The translators always performed a direct one-to-one word translation therefore I re-wrote 300-400% of what they originally translated. After I handed in my re-written version, they wouldn't accept it because it didn't use the exact same words (on a word-for-word basis) as the original Japanese, but the meaning which I re-translated it into meant exactly what the original creator meant to say, just using different words to make it into understandable English. I got tired of arguing with the translators after a year and just quit. The translators just wouldn't let me do the job I was hired to do.

United States Navy [USN]

Radioman {1976-1979}

I performed Radioman tasks on board two flagships:

USS Oklahoma City (CG-5), a Guided Missle Cruiser
USS BlueRidge (LC-19), a Light Amphibious Communications ship

I spent 2.5 years on the USS Oklahoma City (nick named Oki Boat) while it was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan as Flagship of the 7th Fleet. It was decommissioned toward the latter part of 1978 where I cross-decked over to the new relieving flagship, the USS BlueRidge.
I performed various radioman tasks including various cryptographic equipment and satellite antenna maintenance, receiver/transmitter/transceiver Quality Control checks. Used FSK (Frequency Shift Keying encrypted) teletype and satellite equipment and after receiving my SBI (Special Background Investigation) Clearance, started to handle various Top Secret messages including authentification and personal delivery to/from the then Four-StarAdmiral Foley.
After I cross-decked to the BlueRidge, I only had about 7 months of service remaining, so I was assigned a Yeoman's position with the Flag staff under Cmdr. Hess until my tour of duty was over.
I was recommended for approval to Petty Officer 2nd class if I re-enlisted for another tour of 4-years, but kindly declined the offer and was discharged with Full Military Honors in Japan, where I've been ever since.

Education

Radioman A School (Military Telecommunications College)

San Diego, California {1976-1977}

Received Satellite Tracking and Telecommunications Certificate from the US Navy
Worked with UNIVAX MPDS-11 system interconnected to a NAVMAGS satellite at 3GHz back in 1977.

Seminole High School

Sanford, Florida {1974-1976}

Graduate Certificate with Honors
I was a member of the Seminole Marching Band and appeared at several state high school championships as well as all of the football games at half time. We had a special "Gulliotine Routine and a shuffle" group within the marching band which performed a special encore at the end of the half-time show.

Seminars/Events That I've Spoken At

Sep 12~13, 1991: Solutions '91 Seminar (2 days at the Keidanren Kaikan; Tokyo, Japan)

I gave a speech on "Principles of Downsizing";. As Japan was just starting to introduce LANs in the workplace, my speech was how to effectively implement Host & Network systems to operate simultaneously rather than totally replace the Host. The main points were to offload minor tasks that did not require the MIPS power that hosts were infamous for like simple printing tasks, allowing off-line data to be input from PCs daily and then have the data batch-updated to the host master each night, etc.

Other speakers were:

Mark A. Whiteside, Vice President of Nantucket Corp. who gave a speech about "The Future of Application Development";
Arthur Fuller, President of Artful Applications Inc. who gave a speech about "Expectations of New Concept OOPs";
Steve Hess, Executive Vice President, Creative Strategies Research International who gave a speech about "Problems of Integrating Applications into and onto LANs";
Tim Bajarin, Executive Vice President of Creative Strategies Research International who gave a speech on "Penbased Computing Revolution & Movement of Strategic Alliances and Multimedia";
Alex Nicolson, Asia/Pacific General Manager of Banyan Systems, Inc. who gave a speech on "What is Enterprise-wide Networking?";
Colin J. White, President of Database Associates who gave a speech on "Distributed Computing and Client/Server Computing"
and also
Masakazu Hihara, President of Datamasa Corp. who spoke about "Requirements and Solutions in Downsizing a Case Study".

Nov 08, 1991: Tricord Seminar (at ???? Hotel; Tokyo, Japan)

I gave the same "Downsizing Your Network" speech at a Tricord Seminar. My speech was modified a little promoting the Tricord Super Server as the NetWare file server.

Nov 29, 1991: NorthWest Orient Study Seminar (at NorthWest Orient H.Q.; Tokyo, Japan)

A regular study meeting of foriegn Banks & Financial Institutes convene at various locations throughout Tokyo several times a year and I gave my "Downsizing Your Network" speech at this one.

'92 Dec 17 & 18: Triceps Seminar (at Triceps Seminar Center; Tokyo, Japan)

I gave a speech on "Grounding Your LAN To Real Earth and Power Line Problems". This speech was given in coordination with Toshiba's speech on their newly released UPS system which had all of the fault tolerant and other surge suppression, etc. features which my speech lead into.

'93 Jan 26: Toto Seminar (at Toto Kiki H.Q.; Kokura, Japan)

I gave a speech on "Network Management" covering the topics of cable, hubs, protocol, server, application and user management. I also spoke about SNMP and capacity planning.

'94 Nov 29: Switching Hub Seminar (IBM System Plaza; Osaka, Japan)

I gave a GigaHUB switching architecture speech to various customers visiting the IBM System Plaza in Osaka.

'95 Jan 30: ATM Seminar (at MTJL H.Q, Omori, Japan)

I gave a speech on "ATM" and how ineffective it will be until at least 4-10Gbps speeds can be reached in the backbone. Drawbacks on mixing voice, video and data across current existing IP and IPX networks.

'95 Mar 02: Enterprise Network Solution (at LAN Expo; Tokyo, Japan)

I gave a speech...

'95 Mar 06: Drawbacks of Switching Hubs (published in Nikkei Communications pp.95-100)

My 6-page article on "The Drawbacks to Implementing Switching Hubs in the Backbone" was published in the Nikkei Communications Japanese magazine (Issue #193 pp.95-100) discussing the problems with backpressure when implemented in overcrowded switches placed on the backbone. The buffer size of switches at that time were very shallow and they soon overflowed causing an endless cycle of retransmits which only worsened the situation across the complete backbone. The article was voted one of the top three stories of 1995 later on that year and still holds true for ATM switches today.

'96 Mar 18-19: NetWare Server Management (at Novell; Tokyo, Japan)

My speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose NetWare server troubles.

'96 Mar 21: Management Tools Seminar (at Nippon Steel; Tokyo Japan)

Several vendors were invited to give speeches; my speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose/analyze NetWare server troubles.

'96 Oct 16, 18: NetWare Server Management (at Novell; Tokyo, Japan)

My speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose NetWare server troubles.

'96 Nov 15: NEC Fair (at World Trade Center; Tokyo, Japan)

My speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose NetWare server troubles.

'97 Feb 12: NetCom '97 (at Makurari Messe Convention Hall; Chiba, Japan)

My speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose NetWare server troubles.

'97 Aug 06: IntraNetWare Special Campaign Seminar (at Novell; Tokyo, Japan)

My speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose NetWare server troubles. Otsuka Shokai spoke about OnTrack Data Recovery, Soliton　Systems spoke about Replica, a tape backup solution & Novell wrapped up the seminar with a few words on ManageWise.

'97 Oct 03: IntraNetWare Special Campaign Seminar (at Otsuka Shokai; Osaka, Japan)

Due to the overwhelming request to attend the Aug 06th seminar at Novell, a 2nd seminar was set up for those in Western Japan.

My speech was centered around how to use NetTUNE PRO to fine-tune and diagnose NetWare server troubles. Otsuka Shokai spoke about OnTrack Data Recovery, Cheyenne Software gave a speech on ArcServe & Novell wrapped up the seminar with a few words on ManageWise.

'98 Aug 10~12: IRE SafeNet Technical Seminar (3 days)

My seminar was developed to bring our technical staff and our resellers up to par with the latest SafeNet Technical Security Related Information.

'98 Oct 7~9: Participated in NTT's 2nd IPSec VPN Product Interoperability Testing

I performed numerous interoperability tests between IRE's SafeNet/Soft-PK VPN Client with 12 other vendors. All participants (manufacturers, vendors, resellers) worked together trying to establish Phase I and Phase II compatibility using Pre-shared key.

'98 Nov 17: Mobile Security Seminar

My speech was centered around explaining how one of our SafeNet users, a large Japanese Pharmaceutical corporation was implementing a 2000 completely mobile sales network for all of their Medical Representatives using IRE's Client SafeNet/Smart-P with a special IC chip embedded into a plastic smartcard for user authentication.

'98 Dec 17: VPN Market Trends Seminar at NTT (Nippon Telephone & Telegraph)

My speech was centered around the current state of IPSec, it's current drawbacks and how IRE's SafeNet Series of products would bridge their Secret Key Security System with the up and coming IPSec technology. It gave a run-down of all that was still missing with IPSec (either still in draft state or not even drafted yet) and how much stronger IRE's Secret Key Technology still was.

'99 Feb, Apr, Jul: VPN Market Trends Seminar

I repeated the same seminar I gave NTT in Dec '98 with bits and pieces of some of the latest information added at various locations.

'99 Mar 10:
I performed a follow-up testing (after NTT's 2nd IPSec testing) of IRE's SafeNet/Soft-PK VPN Client using their latest VPNet's VSU-10 firmware with NTT PC Communications to see how the IPSec functionality of VPNet's latest firmware upgrade had improved. Results: It was better than the previous version, but there still were some re-keying issues on the VPNet VSU-10 box side which needed to be ironed out.
'99 May 12 ~ Jun 3: Participated in NTT's 3rd IPSec VPN Product Interoperability Testing

I performed numerous Pre-shared Key IKE Phase I & Phase II compatibility tests including re-keying with 18 other vendors to see how compatible we all were with each other. I was surprised to see how poorly the implemented level of IPSec was for many of the vendors products. IPSec still has a much longer way to go than I ever thought..

'99 Jul 21~23: IRE SafeNet FE Training (3 days)

My seminar was based around IRE's SafeNet series of Security Products. It was presented for our in-house as well as for reseller training to teach technical engineers the basics of security, how to properly install and diagnose IRE's products when installing them in the field. It included actual hands-on training to allow each engineer to get the feel of what he would be doing in the field before he even went out on his first installation.

'99 Sep 1~3: IRE SafeNet FE Training (3 days)

This seminar was the same as that given in Jul '99 for a new prospective reseller. They had all of their Japan-wide top FE's attend the seminar.

Activities and Interests

Cycling, Hiking, Skiing (Snow & Water), Surfing, Swimming, Snorkling, Any Water Sport
Computer Hobbyist, Igo, Shogi, Chess

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