A new career for me !?? (CPU Networking question)

[DougW]

---- Everything before the bolded is background, etc. The question is in bold at the end - for those anti-wall of text people . ---

I currently work as "general labor" in an environment with minimal computer usage. That is to say, computers run many of our machines, and our supervisors use them for various admin tasks. But, normal Joe doesn't need to touch them.

Personally I've always been comfortable with computers. I've never had any formal training or education, but things in and around a computer are one of the things that "sink in" for me.

What I mean is that, some things - for whatever reason - just stay in a persons brain. I can follow a recipe out of a cookbook to make lasagna - and if you asked me about it tomorrow, I'd have to consult the cookbook to make it again. On the other hand, I can read that Billy Sims ran for 1303 yards his rookie year, and there is a very good chance that I'll remember that a year from now; or at least be close. And, things computer related usually fall into the "sink in" category for me. I'm sure everyone can relate with one thing or another.

Anyway, I've always been the guy that my friends call with their computer questions (I'm certain that the lack of a "true" techy in my "circle" plays a key role here haha), and the guy that around the shop fixes many of our computer problems before we have to call engineering out. I've occasionally helped supervisors with easy tasks. Most likely just to be nice to me for having helped, I've often heard "You should've done this as a career", etc. I've always wanted to, and wished that when I got out of the USMC that I would've went to school and pursued something in the tech field. But alas, marriage, bills, kids, etc pushed me to make some coin full time.

Well, it appears there is a chance that could happen. There is an opening at my work and I have a legitimate shot at it. I am fortunate to have some connections in the office area (unfortunately, not exactly within the cpu department) and was asked if I'd be interested in the position. I certainly am !

I have an informal "chat" with someone in about a month, and if that goes well a formal interview with the head of the department (at some point in the future). My first concern was my lack of education, but that isn't an issue. The job doesn't require me to have a degree of any kind.

The issue however is what the job actually entails. My "connection" did some probing for me, and apparently the most important thing to know is networking. This is something I've never been exposed to. I'd really like to learn what I can in the next month before our chat, so I can at least have some idea of the basics of what he'll be talking about. After that, I can polish up with more reading, or even some schooling to be ready for the "official interview" in 6 months or a year-ish.

Sooooo .. my question : Before I start googling I thought I'd ask on some forums I frequent : Any tips on where I can get some down and dirty basics about computer networking so I can at least have a conversation in about a month (and not sound like I'm totally lost) ?

[Alan T]

I think before I lead you the wrong direction, it might help if you help clarify the role a little further. When you talk about computer networking, to me that means mostly the layer 2-3 stuff (with some higher and lower level layers included in various things). Dealing mostly with network switches/routers/firewalls and other such devices.

What you are describing seems to be more higher-layer, such as "microsoft networking" where you might have an active directory and are responsible for the systems that make up the active directory and support it, such as domain controllers, possibly email servers, file servers, print servers and the like.


If you are talking pure networking (such as my line of work), for entry level, you should at least know the basic CCNA level stuff. (unless it is not a cisco shop, and then you should know the appropriate entry level for that gear). CCNA is a simple exam that is easy to pass with a book test and doesn't mean much in the industry, but the information from it is likely important for you in that entry level position. You don't necessarily need to go pay for the exam (unless you want to), but you should at least learn most of what is in that exam.

If you are instead talking more of a functional network such as the microsoft active directory, I don't really deal with that other than allowing that stuff to function on my tcp/ip network. So others here may be able to give you better suggestions on how to go there, but I assume probably the same idea is true there, learning the basic microsoft server environment instructions.

I guess in a nut shell, I could recommend trying to find out what environment you would need to support and then look at the entry level exam path for that environment. While you don't have to get the certification, it likely will point you in the best learning direction.

[cartman]

Assuming this is going to be a Windows environment, here is a good overview of general Windows networking concepts:

Computer Network - Lesson 1: Introduction to Computer Networks

You will definitely want to get familiar with TCP/IP, which is the "language" that computers use to talk to one another. It is very math intensive, but once you get the basics down, it is pretty easy to understand. Here is a good intro to it from a Microsoft perspective:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc307741.aspx

If there are going to be Linux and/or Unix and/or Mac in the mix, then the info expands out to those. But TCP/IP is the basic glue that ties them all together.

[Marc Vaughan]

The stuff cartman posted above sounds sensible - I would also advocate if at all possible actually trying to get some hands-on experience meddling with the kind of network you're likely to require knowledge about, presuming its windows based you can probably poke around on your own PC and learn the placement of the various settings etc. - if its Linux based then I'd recommend picking up any old $30 second hand PC and downloading a SKU and rummaging.

(if you get stuck with anything then feel free to give me a shout and I'll try and help out - I'm no network admin, but I can stumble my way through most things on various OS's ...)

[DougW]

Thanks a ton, you guys are great. I'm going to do some reading within those links, as well as get some more information about the specific system they work with.

Thanks again for the info