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Hello, all!

Ok, this is going to be a bit of a long post… I will be laying out what exactly my situation is, so that you will have as complete of a picture as possible.

Some background: I have been working in IT since the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school when I volunteered at the IT department at a nursing home back in 2010. I worked there for a couple of years (and during summers, including this upcoming one), as well as the IT department of my campus. As for education, so far the only formal training I have received in computing has been my high school computer class, and the two programming classes I took last year (my freshman year). Everything else that I know about computers has come from reading online, personal experience, and on-the-job training.

So, last year I decided I wanted a break from school. Our school has a student missions department, so I decided to apply there. Long story short, I ended up being the computer teacher/network manager (pretty much the resident computer-guy) at a mission school in Palau. This has been an absolutely incredible experience… The teaching has been alright, but I’ve absolutely loved the experience of managing a network. When I arrived, the network was in very bad condition (previous computer guys didn’t really know what they were doing, so it kind of deteriorated…), so I pretty much started everything over from scratch. Set up pfSense as the router/firewall/web blocker, re-imaged all of the computers in the computer lab (for some reason they had been set up to dual-boot Ubuntu, but all of the Windows 7 partitions had become unbootable), set up an AD server, and numerous other smaller things. I’ve learned more this year than I have for a very long time… It’s been awesome!

My contract was for a year, and I had pretty much decided I was going to be done after the school year was over. I had thought to myself “Man, if it weren’t for the teaching, I’d LOVE to come back next year.” Turns out, I was just recently offered a position of just that. Next year I will be managing and maintaining the network here at the academy as well as over at the elementary school.

As previously mentioned, I have no formal training aside from a basic high school computer class and two programming classes. Because of this, I am not 100% confident in my abilities. Before coming here I had only interacted with and maintained systems and networks that were already in place, and didn’t really have any experience with actually setting much up. Here at the academy, pretty much everything I have set up works just fine (sometimes after much trial and error), but I am not sure whether it is set up “to code” or whether it follows “best practice.” Because of this, over the summer when I am back home I am planning on trying to learn as much about networking and security as possible.

What would you recommend as the best method to learn as much practical, directly applicable knowledge in the course of a couple of months? I asked an older friend of mine from back home what he would recommend doing about it, and he looked through the courses at some of the community colleges in the area, and it pretty much sounds like some don’t have much other than some very basic networking classes, and others only offer classes that are heavy on theory, light on application. I understand that it is important to know the theory, but since my time is limited I am hoping to get as much directly-applicable information as possible.

Should I pursue college classes (which I probably wouldn’t be able to attend the whole courses, due to the dates I will be home (not really a problem in my mind, as the whole reason I am wanting to take them is to increase knowledge, rather than to get credit)), or should I look elsewhere? One idea that has crossed my mind was to just study some study materials for certifications (such as Network+ (based on practice test, I believe I could pass that certification test without problem after an afternoon of studying), Security+, and CCENT). What route would you recommend?

Thanks!

Nate

P.S. On a semi-related note, how Cisco-networking-specific are the Cisco certs? For example, does CCENT mainly focus on stuff that only applies to their switches, or is it more of a general networking certification?

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As you can see from your own situation, experience > certification. The direction of your studies is really dependent on what you want to do. If you want to learn more about being a Windows Admin the Microsoft Virtual Academy ( http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/ ) is a great, free place to start. If you’re looking into more networking then the CCNA is probably your next step up from the Network exam you likely could already pass. It is, unfortunately slanted toward Cisco. That being said, most networking knowledge is generic or based on Cisco so it is not wasted knowledge. I would recommend getting the certs if you can though because of your age. Having paper to back up your experience is going to be helpful if you look for your next job.

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For the basics I would look at Professor Messer and go through all of the free A plus and Network plus videos. Test and get certified if you would like, but the material is what you are really after.

After that maybe look into getting a PluralSight or CBT Nuggets subscription and tackling other areas of interest.

If you are looking into System Administration I would suggest picking up some experience with Powershell (for a Windows Environment), and BASH / Python / Perl (Linux/Unix environment).

Study Hypervisors (VMWare, Hyper-V, Xen, KVM), set one up, and use it to run test VMs. Basic Storage and RAID levels could be useful as well.

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If you’re into videos as a learning tool (I am), then you’ll love PluralSight.

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Thank you for the replies, everyone!

I’ll definitely look into the video courses this summer… I’m thinking that may be the way to go. Much better than just reading books, and much cheaper than classes.

@Sosipater: Wait, so go from Network+ directly to CCNA? Is CCENT comparable to Network+ then? (Not familiar with the different certs at this point). (And yes, at this point I would like much of my focus to be on networking)

@Will224: Yea, planning on learning more about Hypervisors… There’s a possibility that we could get some actual servers donated here (rather than using old low-end desktops as servers), so if that happens I intend to either load them up with Hyper-V or VMWare on bare metal, and run both AD and pfSense under them. So yes, studying that topic would certainly be beneficial for when that rolls around.

But yea, definitely going to look into PluralSight and CBT Nuggets… Both seem to have a very nice variety of content. How do they compare to one another in terms of content quality?

One thing I hadn’t considered before was that with options like PluralSight and CBT Nuggets, there are also many more topics available for study for no extra cost. When I initially saw the price, I recoiled thinking “Dang, that’s a lot!” But after the initial reaction I started thinking about it, and that’s a fraction of the cost of the college classes. Just not used to the idea of paying for a subscription service with that high of a price :slight_smile:

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The CCENT certification is granted by passing the ICND1. The CCNA cert is gotten by passing the ICND1 and ICND2 or the unified CCNA exam. If you want to stop at the CCENT you can, but it is pretty worthless to most employers.

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Network plus is vendor independant; it covers the basics on network terminology, technology, security, and general practices. Network plus is an entry level certification. If you feel comfortable with the A plus material, Network plus is probably where you want to start.

I have not personally used CBT Nuggets, but I do subscribe to pluralsight. Pluralsight, at their current pricing structure is a steal. A lot of good, relevant, and CURRENT information directly related to Information Technology; to a degree you will more than likely not encounter in most college courses. However, if you have issues learning things on your own via video instruction they may not be the best route to go.

You may also want to take a look at http://www.codecademy.com . They have a lot of useful modules (for free) that can be helpful in learning python and other languages.

Also, don’t confine yourself to just Hyper-V and VMWare if you don’t have to. Learning how to deploy and manage Xen and KVM is not a bad idea.

*Linux/Unix is your friend. :slight_smile:

@VMware @CompTIA

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Hi Nathanael,

I’m glad this Spiceworks community has given you the opportunity to consider video training! While some subscriptions can be a bit hefty, you can stream Pluralsight videos for as little as $29/month with access to all 1,400 of our courses . If you’re looking to do a lot of training during the summer, I would definitely encourage you to give us a try. Take our 10-day free trial :slight_smile:

Good luck on your summer of learning and congratulations on your new position!