NMCI and Other Nefarious Adventures Comments

Anymouse: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (Anymouse) — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:49:05 -0700

Wow, didn't even know most of these problem existed.

I joined the Navy in 2001 and went through the NMCI transition with my first command. We were one of the "have not" commands but while the hardware was a big step up, the service was not. Only one person would be allowed to log on each day because it would take upwards of twenty minutes to get onto the network. If somehow your security certificates became corrupted, it's a huge ordeal to get a new ID card and get the certificates back on. And if you have to call NMCI, it will take at least an hour to resolve any problem.

The network has gotten a lot better. It takes about a minute to log on now. But the software is terribly outdated and the limitations on hardware are really starting to make it difficult to do our jobs. In my job, we are starting to do all paperwork online. This actually makes thing a lot easier but implementing something like this means you need a reliable network. With NMCI it's hit or miss.

Lastly, the IT staff is all but impotent now. They still hear all the complaints, they just can't do anything about it while the NMCI support staff sits far away in a central location, occasionally dealing with the problem but more often than not, finding it's not their 'contract'.

Robert Stancton: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (Robert Stancton) — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:43:05 -0700

And I could show you hundreds of commands that got sent back in time. I don't think anyone here ever questioned that there were commands that benefited from NMCI. That's not the point. What you are arguing for is essentially what the communists argued for: There is no division between rich and poor -- we are all poor. Equality is good.

More to the point. NMCI is a huge waste of money. Those commands that needed help could have received that help a thousand other ways. Just because they got some good out of NMCI doesn't mean NMCI is a good thing. We didn't need to rape the American taxpayer just to bring a couple Devil Dogs into the 21st century.

Financials aside, it is a technical failure also. Read the GAO report they have posted elsewhere on here.

Robert: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (Robert) — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:48:02 -0700

You all need to stop your complaining- NMCI finally gave the have not commands equality- you all probably came from the Have Commands- the Commands that Have been used to having all of the newest gear- the highest speed Internet- having the newest appications and toys- I can show you so many instances of operational units who:
Had NT
Had dial up connections
Had 256MHz processors
Had to scrounge just to keep PC's running
Had to borrow from returing MEU to be outfitted
Had to ask EDS for hand outs on the turn ins from the Have Commands-
Sick and tired of the have hads crying when the operational forces have gone without for so long- well guess what, now we all equally have the same shitty gear- the way it should be. Semper Fi

DG: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (DG) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:16:47 -0800

I love how my NMCI desktop has 256mb of RAM and about 340mb allocated in private bytes - mostly from Symantec crapware bogging the computer down. It takes 20 minutes to "run startup scripts". The hard disk is not going to survive another year. THE MOUSE HAS A BALL IN IT! Of course when I suggested getting a bit more RAM and shove it in the motherboard the local NMCI rep blew up.

Queue: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (Queue) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:54:48 -0700

As a systems and software developer for the Navy, it is impossible for us to accomplish our tasks with NMCI alone. Legacy networks (RDT&E) have been allowed with reasonable justification and have allowed us to continue.

Recently, we've received notice that the Navy has a goal of 100% elimination of RDT&E networks. They are tightening the screws, forcing us to go through major justifications for these networks and requiring that we scan and update all equipment on these networks even if they're not hooked to the outside world. To do this would likely cause huge failures of custom software and hardware solutions and cost the government billions in lost productivity and irreparable software and hardware.

I can only hope that something comes to a head before they do an audit to see if we are complying with this ill-conceived and misguided attempt at standardization and security.

Ovid Seclorum: NMCI Runs Afoul Of DISA

nospam@example.com (Ovid Seclorum) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:07:02 -0800

I'm afraid my experience with DISA over the past ten years is that they are even more screwed up than NMCI, and that's saying a lot.

NMCI Blocking Worldnetdaily: Mighty Quiet Out There

nospam@example.com (NMCI Blocking Worldnetdaily) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:58:42 -0800

It may interest you to know that NMCI is blocking a perfectly good conservative website, www.worldnetdaily.com. It beats me why they have done so. I suppose there are too many liberal embracing NMCI types to be able to stomach the truth.

unknownsailor: Working Within the Software System

nospam@example.com (unknownsailor) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:09:12 -0800

If you think a Dell laptop is bad in the NMCI environment, try bringing one on a ship that has the new IT21 system on it.
Local user accounts have a 5MB limit for data. This means that if you have 5mb or more of data in your local account folder, the machine won't let you log off.
This policy results in people hard rebooting their machines instead of logging off, because they can't figure out were all these files came from. 2 out of 3 laptops in my workcenter have had their windows installs corrupted due to this. Of course, our ITs do not have Windows 2000 install disks handy, and therefore cannot do repair installs. So, each laptop got re-imaged.
I personally lost all my locally stored data, including 3 years of email in an Outlook local folders .pst file, and several critical applications not included on the image disk, due to this.
The suggestion to use a bootable linux CD for recovering files in the future is belatedly noted, and will be implemented by myself in the future.

TomB: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (TomB) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:44:13 -0800

Less security / False Claims
Before NMCI we could use our CAC certificates to encrypt and sign e-mail. Along comes NMCI and we no longer have access to versions of e-mail programs capable of this. Finally, NCMI upgrades to Outlook 2003. They then take credit for providing us with improved e-mail security!

Jay: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (Jay) — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 18:17:58 -0700

"Go ahead, drink from the cool aid!"

I was so glad to happen upon this site. I have been working in military IT for 14 years, and I have"cutover" to NMCI on four different bases now. Every time it is the same situation you described. The only reason the cutover was successful (not that NMCI is a success) was because of the very hard work from the military members who busted their butts to make the transition happen. Telling our customers that we would do our best to take care of them through the transition put us in a sticky situation. NMCI, of course, made liars out of us. It is hard for our users to understand that, they are not "our" (the unit IT guy's) customers anymore. All we can do is convince them to "drink from the cool aid".

George Steppon Olivus: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (George Steppon Olivus) — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 00:41:12 -0700

I am in touch with many people where I work and I do not know anyone who is happy with NMCI. Everyone hates NMCI. Everyone.

As of July 2006, we still have Windows 2000 and Office 2000.

I do not personally care what version of software I use, but Excel 2000 has problems that are fixed with the next version, but we can't get the next version, so I have a whole stack of Excel spreadsheets that are corrupted. Many hours of work down the drain every month.

We also have a number of legacy applications occasionally available via Citrix. For a particular application created in MS Access, we must first run Citrix, and then run RASS, and then from RASS we can select the MS Access application. The whole login process to start that string of applications is about 5 to 10 minutes (when it works).

Last week we arrived at work on Monday, and the MS Access application was nowhere to be found! Just disappeared. It took the local IT help over 7 hours to find it and get it back online.

Every single time we open a new document, or do something like "Save As", we have to wait 30 seconds while a lot of traffic goes back and forth over the network and freezes the application. Every time.

Our work requires informational security, and the NMCI contract did not include the consideration for this. So we are set up with a situation where we can easily, accidently copy sensitive information to a network drive or email account that is not approved for sensitive information.

When a hapless employee accidently falls victim to this setup-for-failure, he is reprimanded for carelessness and written up for causing a security violation. However, the idiots who established the unsafe network are blameless.

We are still connected simultaneously to NMCI and to our legacy network. We have a common network legacy hard drive that is totally full. We are regularly requested to delete unnecessary files because the hard drive is full.

One day I was actually unable to save a record to my database because the network drive was "full". I had to delete a file somewhere so I could add records to my database.

We could get a new hard drive for $200 at the store, but NMCI owns everything and refuses to upgrade our legacy network drive.

At the same time, our NMCI common drive with billions of gigabytes of storage remains unused. Why? They won't let us have access to it because nobody can decide how to fairly divide up the hard drive space among the different departments. So it goes unused.

I have been therefore working off my C: drive and backing up to the network. Even working off the C: drive requires long waiting times when opening an application or doing a number of other operations.

Ain't it great.

Mark D: Working Within the Software System

nospam@example.com (Mark D) — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 22:04:47 -0700

As far as running Linux, you could use a program such as QEMU to run a Linux distro of your choice from your thumbdrive in a virtual environment. Performance would be terrible, but it could be done.

Can't Read This: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

nospam@example.com (Can't Read This) — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 22:34:00 -0700

If you are reading this you are not using an NMCI workstation. NMCI blocks nmcistinks.com.

Sam D: Ya Who Not You

nospam@example.com (Sam D) — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 15:29:44 -0700

Yes, block that e-mail; because we wouldn't want some information getting out that might have privacy info in it like what happened at the Vets Administration! Another fine example of a government agency that was used as a best practice example. And what has been used over and over again as a best practice example with NMCI ? Why General Motors of course... the one who bought EDS from Ross P. years ago. When the CNO tells the rest of the Navy to get with it and be run like a business, the least he could do is pick a better example... one that perhaps makes a profit ???

Chief: Mighty Quiet Out There

nospam@example.com (Chief) — Sun, 07 May 2006 19:54:36 -0700

They have you blocked at the IP level. The domain resolves but it times out when you attempt to make a connection. I wonder if this is blocked in the proxy servers or at the firewall.
What a bunch of losers.
The Emperor has no clothes!