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Hi

I’m not only new to SpiceWorks but to IT as well. I have a background in web design/development and am being trained as an IT specialist where I work. Does anyone have suggestions as to where I could find information for beginners to IT? Books, web sites, etc.

Many thanks.

18 Spice ups
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BACK-UP, BACK-UP, and when you have free time, BACK-UP.

10 Spice ups
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Google and trial and error. I know that’s extremely general advice but that’s the only way I learned. Books do help but they’re usually theory or lab based examples. So, it’s hard for me to fully understand complex ideas, software or hardware unless I’m playing with it. :slight_smile:

5 Spice ups
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microsoft technet is a giant wealth of great knowledge on microsoft products.

virtual machines such as using VMware would be good tools to experiment different environments and let you mess around safely.

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“IT specialist” is still very vague. Help desk? Desktop Support? Networking? Servers? Security? Database management? Mail server?

There are countless books and training classes for each one of those listed. So, it’s very difficult to give any specific references without knowing more.

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I, too, am a 3yr rookie in this vast new world! A lot of trial and error, but a lot of Google search. Pinning people down to walk me thru stuff so I can understand and write it down. A lot of gotoassist to watch “masters” do their work. Wish there was a cheap and easy way to learn—not putting out 10,000$ again and getting very little, b/c the work changes so much.

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If your not working, then read spice works. Build a list of things commonly done. Document everything, if you can. Oh yah. Document, document, and document. I agree with Walter, back up.

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Get a pc for the house and install ESXi (a vm server). Get your feet wet in VM and start installing server with services.

Break it and fix it. Rinse and repeat.
Read books, stalk sites like Spiceworks, network with other IT people, and keep breaking things in your test environment at home with fixing it.

If you are in college still look for your CCDC team.

4 Spice ups
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Create a VM for lab and testing. Whatever peaks your interest, then test it out on your VM either through your laptop or desktop or a VM that you can mess with in your server room.

Whatever project or technology that your organization is running, then learn it via your VM.

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i dont agree. backup should be done at a regular schedule and checked regularly.

Start looking into getting certified. start with maybe A+(hardware) N+(networking…personally i dont like this one) MCITP\MCSA (server 2008r2\server 2012…you can get enough on networking here instead of N+).

the test materials for these are always helpful…ive learned lots of little tricks and solidified my knowledge just learning MCITP course material.

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Documentation. Learn how to read and write it. Write it a lot, keep it up to date, and revise whatever (if any…) exists.

Event Logs. You will find out everything that is going on. Look through the logs on your desktop, then on a server. Google the first error you find (EventID and source)

Learn to effectively google and find an answer, there is a wealth of information from vendors and IT staff available to troubleshoot and walk you through any situation.

Measure twice, cut once. Before you jump into a project or effect a change, think out loud what happens. Draw it on a whiteboard. Talk with your peers. I would rather ask a stupid question than wreck my own shop on a whim.

Have a post-project review for every project. There is no such thing as a 100% perfect project. What did you do well? What did you do that could use improvement? What was learned and gained from the project?

Make a list of the priorities for IT in your business. Is email the most important thing, or is it application access? If everything goes down, what needs to be back online first?

PATIENCE. This is a virtue, and will save your life in IT. Be patient with others, technical or not. Be patient with yourself, this is a learning process. I have been doing this every day for 7 years, and am a senior-level engineer, but I still learn something new every day, and even still make a rookie mistake from time to time (there I admitted it).

Good resources to learn- Google, technet, spiceworks, eventid.net (cheap pay site; ask your company to buy it), techrepublic. I like the Microsoft Press books, they have great in depth books on every Windows topic. Watch a webinar every month, check sites like events.dell.com, events.watchguard.com etc, most vendors have quarterly seminars somewhere in your area. Even if it is a sales pitch, take some notes, and think how you could adapt new technology to your environment.

Coffee. Lots of coffee.

4 Spice ups
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What are your responsibilities?

In general, you’ll want to learn as much as you can about your network. What devices do what, how things travel throughout the network, and what resources are available to you.

Google. If you can’t find your answer, then post here.

1 Spice up
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Have a question, post on spiceworks you’ll get a plethora of answers, and odds are you’ll find the one you’re looking for.

Look through the available reports in spiceworks, there are so many useful reports that can save you so much time. (ATI FireGL cards don’t like the new google earth update, scanned my network and located all the troublesome cards)

Don’t be afraid of saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out”. You’re an IT guy, not a super computer, you can’t know everything there is about IT, but you can find out.

Take the users with a grain of salt, some will get on your nerves, and some will love you, can’t take it all personally, sometimes you just have to laugh.

2 Spice ups
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I’d suggest starting in the mail room or shipping department learning how the company works and move your way up from there; the more you know about how the company does business and then looking at how IT relates to that process, will help you see what skills you need to hone to provide the best service to your company.

If they are training you to be "Specialist, then they will dictate your training path, if they aren’t then you better figure out a way to make yourself special or you won’t last long.

I’ve always felt that knowing what the company does and how it does it helps me to know how to do my job for them.

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If you’re looking for a place to gain some kick-start knowledge, I would recommend going through the A+, Network+, and Security+ videos on this site when you have the time:

From there you’ll start to ask your own questions and can search the interwebz for more answers.

4 Spice ups
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Everyone in IT got to where they are in a different way. Do whatever you are expected to do well and always have an eye towards where you want to go next and what you can do now to get you there. Ask lots of questions and try to get your hands into a little of everything so you find where your natural abilities excel. It doesn’t hurt to check the positions and certifications with the highest salaries every few years to see if you can and want to head in one of those directions.

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Firstly, you need to have some idea of where you want to be in 5 years. Work toward that goal by taking classes, reading, and daily exposure to IT in a business environment. You will likely be the toner slave for a few years until you amass some knowledge and work your way up. If you are looking into general IT, you will benefit from setting up test servers and getting them to function on small scale network. Certifications and book knowledge are good starting points but I find hands-on experience gets you further when troubleshooting a problem. Look at the hot ticket items in IT currently and start learning those things. ESX would be a definite starting point and also allow you to setup a test network and servers with minimal hardware expense. Dabble in Linux and MacOS so you can at least say you are familiar with them. There is a need for specialists but a well-rounded Systems Admin is needed to glue all the pieces together.

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Hm. Guess that depends on your base level of experience and your environment. Everyone comes in to IT with a different level of knowledge and understanding relevant to the field.

You may want to look at Microsoft’s TechNet. Go set yourself up a basic lab environment to get some hands-on experience - this doesn’t have to be a couple of boxes with esxi installed and what-not - just throw virtualbox or VMware workstation or hyper-v on a computer and you can go from there as a starting point.

Books can still be extremely useful - while you may be more able to find information on rare problems or setups online by googling, a book still tends to be the most information-dense source for learning something (man commands don’t count).

You’re on Spiceworks, so that’s a good start - it’s a good community and a lot of aggregate knowledge. If you’re not sure about something, just ask. But I’m sure someone’s already said that.

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Google is your best friend.

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When in doubt, ask yourself “What parts of the problem can you eliminate / replace with known working components?” Example: If a phone isn’t working, try a new cable, try it in a different location, try a known working phone in that same location, swap pieces out until you find the thing that isn’t working.