Hi.


20 yrs old guy, living in Europe

My employment agency offered me a very unusual job, they did not really specify what exactly it was till I sat down with the boss of the other company. Apparently I was needed to write new policies, manage switches, networks, security, servers, come up with ideas, recommending purchases etc.

So here I am having a laptop and a Network+ study guide in front of my nose, learning stuff about networks. And I must say, I really like it .


The reason why I registered on this forum is to ask and receive advice from the experts, just today our 'motherswitch' died which was the backbone of them all. My heart really skipped a heartbeat when I saw 30 employees standing there, playing with their pens waiting till the problems gets resolved. Luckily I had an unused switch stored up in the server room, but it still was quite a shocker because I realized that I am not fully prepared for a rainy day, what if an esoteric problem pops up? What am I supposed if that kind of shit hits the fan?

Anyways, I hope you guys can help a noob on his track to become a battle-hardened professional.
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This was my introduction, pardon é moi for grammar errors.

Welcome. Where in Europe?

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www.mellowd.co.uk/ccie/

Holland

Welcome Aboard!!!

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"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

Sounds like a fun day...

Holland? We shall call you the Dutch Oven.

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Welkom

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http://reggle.wordpress.com

Welcome!

Sounds like you have a lot of catching up to do! My suggestion for moving forward is start reading on topics that you are weak at or need the most attention now. Also the best thing you can do to start learning is build up a lab and start playing. Try to replicate your production network as close as possible and then start running through situations you would normally see.

As long as you keep pushing forward with your knowledge and admit when your wrong or dont know something you will be fine.

Good luck dude!

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http://blog.movingonesandzeros.net/

Welkom

Do you have any suggestions what sites I should check out to brush up my troubleshooting skills?

Also, can you name the top 3 (open source preferrably) software programs that a network admin can't live without? Just to get an idea of what I should be using for my new job.

And thanks everybuddy for the warm welcome, I appreciate it ^^

There is no real way to learn troubleshooting outside of hands on over time. playing with lab gear though will give you a good start.

There are tons of tools out there just depending on the job you are trying to do and what technologies you are working with. But for general use here are what comes to mind:
1) Putty (SSH/Telent/CLI access to Linux or network gear (Windows only)
2) VNC remote desktop for workstations/servers (For Windows servers use RDP)
3) MS Visio - Document, document, document!

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http://blog.movingonesandzeros.net/

Groetjes

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Good Luck,

David

I would add a good syslog server, helps to know what events are going on...
kiwi syslog is always good

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"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

Guys, this is helpful.

I will definately give this a shot.