Networking Certs

holycrapawalrus

So I work for a small business in the IT department, mostly working with HTML and design. I set up home networks for friends and family every once in awhile and I'd like to look into getting some formal education in computer networking.

My problem is that I have no idea where to start. I have pretty extensive knowledge in building computers, troubleshooting, hardware and web work. Any advice on where to start would be appreciated. Thanks.

PirateJon

Start with where you want to go in your career.

"computers" is an impossibly huge field and "networking" doesn't narrow it down much. You want to do telecom installs and troubleshooting, do cable or fiber installs, LAN switching, WAN routing, wireless, security, hell the dudes that lay and repair undersea cables have a pretty neat job.

Example: I work for a midsize company with very high uptime requirements. I'm involved in all the above (except the undersea cables) but I specialise in unified messaging and VoIP. I deal with routing, QoS, mail systems and all the fun that goes with that.


Generic advice: network+ and CCNA.

holycrapawalrus

Precisely the kind of advice I'm looking for. My experience with any networking is installing wireless networks and securing networks, but the undersea cable installation and repair sounds fascinating.

Are the network+ and CCNA courses usually taught at a university or what?

PirateJon

A big deal with the undersea stuff is "slack control", or so I've read. I'd love to tell someone i'm in charge of slack.

Anyway, both certs have week long classes, and I've seen evening courses at the local community college but you can self study and do fine. Network+ is from the same guys the do A+. It's a very basic cert - shows you can spell IP. I'd be suprised if you couldn't pass it or come close with the knowledge you have already. Also if you've never heard "a+" before, google that and go get it.

CCNA is cisco's low end cert and is a big step up from N+ in difficulty terms, in dollar terms, and in respect from people doing the hiring. It covers general networking plus cisco specific commands and configurations and some troubleshooting. You can get more info here:
http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/PrepCenter?page=main

Snowcone

I'm not a fan of certs, as I favor the college degree + experience route. That said, PirateJon's advice is sound. Start with A+ and N+ as they are lifetime certs, or used to be, meaning they didn't expire or require re-certification. From there, go with something directly related to your field of expertise. I've been in IT for 10 years now and have a grand total of 0 certs. I've got all the books, taken the classes, and just never managed to schedule the tests.

Jimmy King

Agreed on the get A+ and N+. Honestly, I think those are the only ones you should get right now. I've said this in other cert threads and I'll say it again. Certifications aren't for learning the material, they're for showing that you know it after having worked with it for awhile. You've got the right experience for A+ and N+ to be reasonable.

After that (or during or whatever) start looking at local community college and university networking programs. If at all possible I'd lean towards the real university route in this case. I'm going back to community college after being in the field for years. The classes are pretty pointless and I think most of the problems will be seen at any community college as I'm pretty sure they stem from just not having enough time to really teach anything properly. For example I'm in the highest or second highest level networking class right now. Most of the students have never configured tcp/ip, never touched anything in active directory, never setup any kind of server at all. They can quote you a textbook definition of subnetting and vaguely know what it is. The same goes for routing. I think it comes from 2 years just not being enough time to squeeze in the needed theory plus very necessary hands on to truly understand the theory.

Along with that, I'd try to take some classes that give you experience with a variety of things... windows administration, unix administration, and the more overall network administratoin side of things with routers and switches and such. It'll help you understand whatever you do end up working with better if you have worked with and understand the other things imo and of course will let you play with more things to see what really clicks for you.

The above kind of falls in line with what snowcone said about figuring out what you really want to do before bothering with in depth certs as it will let you figure out what it is you want to specialize in. To add some anecdotal evidence for why that's a good idea, here's my little story.

I started out thinking I was going into networking. I got my A+ and N+ after doing time as a tech at Best Buy. I slowly moved up to real desktop support for real corporations. While doing that work I got a couple MS certs although never bothered to go all out for MCSE. Skip forward 10 years from that job at best buy and what am I doing? I'm a Perl (and rumor has it C at some point in the semi-near future) developer on Linux systems working on a large content management and delivery system in the mobile content industry. The MS certs mean nothing to what I actually do and have almost never been relevant to anything I've done beyond desktop support for windows systems. Even the relevance to that work is questionable as they were primarily related to server administration.

holycrapawalrus

As of next semester, I'll be finished with my AA from the local community college in accounting and starting a 4 year program at Florida Atlantic University, so I'll definitely look into the networking programs offered there.

The plan I'm working out right now is to take the A+ and N+ next semester while I finish my two random general education classes. I'm a big fan of doing whatever I can to put myself ahead of the curve on pretty much everything I do, so what I want to know now is this: will getting those certs give me any kind of a head start on the university coursework?

And I'll definitely look into the administration courses, Jimmy. Thanks everyone for the advice so far.

Jimmy King

holycrapawalrus wrote: »

I'm a big fan of doing whatever I can to put myself ahead of the curve on pretty much everything I do, so what I want to know now is this: will getting those certs give me any kind of a head start on the university coursework?

More than likely the first few classes at least will overlap a little bit of the A+ stuff (This is a nic. These are the bus types which a nic can use. These days it'll normally use <whatever> and so on). N+ will probably greatly overlap your first few classes where you're learning basic IP stuff, topologies, cable types, etc. I think I've taken 2 or 3 classes that I literally could have just used my old N+ study guide for the class.