I posted this in 'networks and internet connectivity' but I may have been directing my question to the wrong place.
Basically, I'm currently a System Administrator (windows), and slowly I'm trying to move myself/my career towards network administration and hopefully onto network security, pentesting, digital forensics etc..
After doing to some research it appears a lot of infosec and network security professionals use macbooks as their main pc/laptop for their job.
Native access to a terminal being one of the big reasons (also being beneficial when connecting to a switches console etc), and that they apparently run linux and windows vm's very well.
So this got me thinking, maybe they have a point and as I'm currently looking for a small portable laptop/ultrabook for both traveling and to use to help my test and give me personal experience to help me progress my knowledge/career I should consider the Macbook Air (11" for portability).
I had been looking at the Lenovo Yoga 11S, and it's design appealed greatly to me, but it really needs a haswell refresh and a better Wireless network adaptor (owners reporting issues with the wireless being unreliable, affects the yoga 13 too).
Now I'm very much a windows user and have very little exposure to using Mac OS X in anger, but I am open to the suggestion. I'm just not sure how much of a gamble the OS change would be.
Whatever I get will need to be able to handle running atleast 1 VM with ease for testing (versions of linux (backtrack, kali, Deft), versions of windows etc.)
It needs to have a good reliable wireless network adaptor in it. So that I can reliably test diagnosing a network with wireshark capturing packets etc.
I will need to get a USB to Serial adaptor to allow me to connect into the console port of a switch or router, so the fact I would need a USB ethernet adaptor to physically plug into a network as almost all ultrabooks have done away with the ethernet port isn't an issue.
Anyhow, does anyone here use a MacBook Air for what I've described above and if so what have been your experiences in doing so?
Basically, I'm currently a System Administrator (windows), and slowly I'm trying to move myself/my career towards network administration and hopefully onto network security, pentesting, digital forensics etc..
After doing to some research it appears a lot of infosec and network security professionals use macbooks as their main pc/laptop for their job.
Native access to a terminal being one of the big reasons (also being beneficial when connecting to a switches console etc), and that they apparently run linux and windows vm's very well.
So this got me thinking, maybe they have a point and as I'm currently looking for a small portable laptop/ultrabook for both traveling and to use to help my test and give me personal experience to help me progress my knowledge/career I should consider the Macbook Air (11" for portability).
I had been looking at the Lenovo Yoga 11S, and it's design appealed greatly to me, but it really needs a haswell refresh and a better Wireless network adaptor (owners reporting issues with the wireless being unreliable, affects the yoga 13 too).
Now I'm very much a windows user and have very little exposure to using Mac OS X in anger, but I am open to the suggestion. I'm just not sure how much of a gamble the OS change would be.
Whatever I get will need to be able to handle running atleast 1 VM with ease for testing (versions of linux (backtrack, kali, Deft), versions of windows etc.)
It needs to have a good reliable wireless network adaptor in it. So that I can reliably test diagnosing a network with wireshark capturing packets etc.
I will need to get a USB to Serial adaptor to allow me to connect into the console port of a switch or router, so the fact I would need a USB ethernet adaptor to physically plug into a network as almost all ultrabooks have done away with the ethernet port isn't an issue.
Anyhow, does anyone here use a MacBook Air for what I've described above and if so what have been your experiences in doing so?
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