Networking Training (engineer)

devious93

devious93

devious93

Associate
Joined
29 Jul 2012
Posts
340
Location
Brighton
Hi All,

I work as a "Technical helpdesk engineer" and found myself in a bit of a slump learning wise and struggling with deciding where to start looking. I know there's loads of stuff out there I don't know but I don't know why direction to start looking in.

Are any of you aware of any useful resource material or online courses of books for overall computing knowledge (not basic this is a router, this is a network cable thing) instead of specific vendor products. I know of all the various qualifcations by Comptia, Cisco, Microsoft and then vendor specific ones but they're generally hardware specific and not overall knowledge.
For example it's great you've explained to me that this device allows 50 VLAN's and you can set options like layer 2 bridged mode, it does DPI SSL but what are the concepts of these things, how do they work, why are they used.

I'm sure there's much more out there but this is just quick things that I cold think of on the spot, stuff like the following for example NAT (explaining double nat, resilient lines etc), voip trunks and voip protocols/how it works, hyper v, VLAN, IIS, Powershell, how synchronisation is setup between servers/pc and when/why it's used, VMWARE/Citrix/VMSphere, ITIL.

Does this sort of knowledge just come from going through the learning material and acquiring the qualifications for Hyper V, MCSA, MCSE, CCNA, A+, network+ etc and I'm looking at a step that simply doesn't exist?

FYI, I've been working on a helpdesk for 18+ months covering first/ possibly second line support for companies using a whole array of software/hardware which is all predominately network based support but also covers desktop support. I'm looking at trying to get up to that next level.

The kind of things I may do in a day in my current role:

general AD/exchange administration, create/modify login scripts, troubleshoot networking speed issues, installation of new software (sage, troy, PBX, anything network based essentially)/ general sharing/security based permissions on server, administration of VDI, some basic VOIP support, VPN setup on a client (not server based), DHCP scope changing/reservations, port forwarding via firewall/router/PC. Management of DNS/MX records etc. The list is huge and I could be here all day.

Any suggestions about which course would be best to start looking at. Personally comptia a+ doesn't seem worthwhile at all as desktop support is extremely simple at this point and I rarely ever have an issue with supporting a user on their desktop/generic network devices such as printers.


Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks in advance :)
 
good courses from train signal and cbt nuggets on all topics.

I suggest trying to learn more within your current work environment if you can. Try get in to the group policy and see how things work. The type of things you would need to know is how to set up a DC, how to decommission a dc, how to work vmware vcenter, how the storage in the network works. What roles and features are installed on the servers and what do they do and be able to add and remove them and utilise them. Then you will need to know how the switches work and how the wan works. Voip is often out sourced to third party companies with smaller firms. I have not worked with voip much last few years.

If you want to work in voip then there is the cisco and avaya products that are most popular.

Watch some windows server, vmware and exchange videos and you get more exposure to next level.
 
Thanks @anything I don't mind

group policy I play around with from time to time, generally used for windows updates restrictions/browser settings though to be honest, most people tend to not want their network much more limited than that.
Domain controller is one I need to take a look at, VMware centre I rarely touch other than to shutdown a server and start it or make minor modifications if it's not working.
Switches are fairly generic and basically plug and play and the WAN I believe I know enough on it for now.
Voip we cover, we use a particular vendor where it can sit on a physical server and use some resources instead of a massive physical installation.

Looking at Trainsignal (now pluralsight) and CBT the winner will be Trainsignal hands down. I see you have to pay per person though, I can probably get away with the premium plan at Pluralsight if two of us could use it at that price. Is there anyway they could actually know this as I doubt they'd block IPS or make content one time use only, I presume only one person could use it at a time?

anything I don't mind said:
Watch some windows server, vmware and exchange videos and you get more exposure to next level.
Click to expand...

Probably best I take a look around on usenet/youtube for those :)
 
VMware downloaded, Server 2012 downloaded (Microsoft partner portal, not torrenting before someone shakes a fist at me) and some guide on setting up/configuring server 2012 from Pluralsight as well as an In depth server 2008 virtualisation (used a lot now with the new 2012 release),Active directory and exchange 2010 unfied messaging guide to get me started.

Some of this will be a pain to learn considering 2008 will be redundant in the next 2-5 years for most of our customers and with the price of exchange 2013 or backwards compatibility issue (can't remember the exact reason why it shouldn't be used right now) most people will probably also be on hosted....
 
Just a thought from my point of view.

I'm an IT geek, not an expert, however events at work have moved me from what I joined to do into a 1st/2nd/3rd line IT support role.

I've done 6 courses with QA (not bad at all if you can get funding), covering Windows server, CompTIA, Cisco ICND and OpenVMS.

Decide where you want to be in X years time, for example, how much do you want to earn when you're 50.... I know how much I want to be earning when I hit that age, and the only way of doing that in IT is to be a project manager etc. I'd look at jobs available, and pay schemes associated, then decide what would be the best course of action. For example, you might find becoming a CCNP is better value for money than being a Microsoft Certified Professional etc.
 
It's hard for me to decide quite which specific role to get into. I want to stick to the security based sector at a later date whether that be cisco, firewalls, retina scanners, an analyst/consultant I'm unsure. But that's my long term goal for now.

CCNA seemed to have a lot of money in it over MCSE....
 
the bad news is that whatever quals you get the next job advert will require one that you havent got and thats part of life.

that being said you need to focus and target your exams to your goal. there is no point doing say SQL 2012 if your goal is VOIP for example but MCSE Communication (Lync) alongside CCNA with Voice would be invaluable. also get an MCSA in at least server 2008 preferably 2012 as this is always required somewhere down the line.

also worth noting is the VMWare situation, and by that I mean they are now starting to price themselves out of the market especially now Hyper-v has come of age (at last)

dont chase the ace though. I have spent 26 years in the IT game and have currently 38 IT cerst in various technologies but over 80 expired - think of the cost and which ones you really need. for example I passed Lync 2010 MCSE a few years back 0 never used Lync since. If the company aint paying only take what you need, and remember most are only valid for 3 years!

BTW the Cisco stuff is a bitch now with the IPv6 stuff so be warned! if you want some specific advise on Microsoft Exams ask me as I currently hold a full set of core MCSE's with the exception of sharepoint as it bores me to tears lol
 
devious93 said:
It's hard for me to decide quite which specific role to get into. I want to stick to the security based sector at a later date whether that be cisco, firewalls, retina scanners, an analyst/consultant I'm unsure. But that's my long term goal for now.

CCNA seemed to have a lot of money in it over MCSE....
Click to expand...

If you already have 18 months experience on a helpdesk doing network based stuff, then the CCNA would be ideal tbh, you'll probably find it a decent challenge, but it's very relevant - most of what you learn will be of use.

The CCNA teaches a lot of theory behind the technologies and concepts, rather than the configuration, so it gives you a good scaffold to work from and will give you a taste of what it's like to work in networks.

CCNA is pretty much a standard requirement for most network jobs, you'll struggle to compete without one, my advice would be to just go for it - get the CCNA books, apply yourself and pass the exam, I think you'd find it pretty worthwhile,
 
I agreee. and the biggest help of all for your CCNA is knowing the OSI model inside out.

you need to know whats at what level and you need to know it without thinking if you get my drift.

If you are worried about it then take the CCENT part first. the CCENT is part of the CCNA but you can take it by itself. Oh and avoid if you can a "boot camp" type approach to the CCNA as you will never get enough in your head before the exams and I guurantee you that if you dont know the basic off the top of your head you will run out of time on the exam.

that being said, once you have your CCNA then upgrading it to a specialist area is easy.
 
Thank you all for your opinions :)

Regarding CCNA, do any of you have any tips or good reviews of any reference material I can start learning from as I have NO experience with Cisco networking equipment. My current job tends to deal with SonicWALL firewalls that do the brunt of the work, server support and third party support.

In the mean time I'm going to brush up on my server configuration based knowledge (which is fairly limited currently) until I do some digging on CCNA costings to get me from start to finish.
 
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Get yourself the Cisco Press CCNA books, a copy of packet tracer/gns3 and the CBT Nuggets videos.

After you are comfortable with all that, get some lab kit and get practicing.
 
I personally would recommend CBT Nuggets (I very much enjoy Jeremy Cioara's teaching style) to get an understanding of what the subject is about and then buy the official books (very dry) and study, make notes. Buy some routers and switches on ebay so you are familiar with the kit and lab as many different things that you can think of. I'd setup a GNS3 lab too.
 
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