Info please

TechNine

Greetings everyone, i'm new to this site. Seems like a lot of knowledgeable ppl here. Hope we can pick brains and get info.

About me, i graduated from a tech/business school with a bachelors of applied science in networking (which is crap but i wont go into it here). Shortly after i went into business with my parents. thats over and now im restarting my IT career.

i just began as a support tech for a call center. poor pay but important thing is my foot in the door and experience.

My plans for the future is getting certs and moving on to network admin? engineering? securtiy?

Im planning on setting up a home lab to practice and self learn and I have some questions

1. what equipment should i purchase ie. routers, switches, workstations
2. where to purhcase
3. what order of certs should i attempt
4. any tips or suggestions would be appreciated

fadeone

1. what equipment should i purchase ie. routers, switches, workstations

Depends what you want to do. If you are going to start with A+ all you need is a spare old PC to practice with and a good A+ book. If your going to do CCNA and beyond it gets expensive, but you can always rent. If you want to do MCSE I would recommend 3 PC's to practice Active Directory and other server stuff on.

e2. where to purhcase

I'd say eBay, but I really don't know.

3. what order of certs should i attempt

I would say A+ and Network+ for a foundation, then move onto either MCSE or CCNA depending on whether you want to administer windows server and administer Cisco routers, switches etc.

4. any tips or suggestions would be appreciated

Go to monster.com or any other job site and look up jobs and their requirements so you know what you will need to achieve.

BTW, good choice finding that help desk job, experience is a must to get anywhere.


Good luck

ajs1976

how much basic hardware and networking was covered under your degree? If it was a decent ammount you may want to skip the A+ and Network+ and go straight to MSCA/E or CCNA.

TechNine

Thanks for the info guys.
i'm planning on getting 2 cisco routers (2600?) and a switch (1900?) then getting 4 or 5 pc's and then dissect every nook and cranny possible. i think that should be enough equipment to study for my mcse and ccna. But i dont know if i should try to get my A+ and/or Net+ before mcse and ccna.

louisrunner_me

i wouldn't skip a+ or Network +, they come in handy for MCSE and cisco really needs network +

Webmaster

louisrunner_me wrote:

i wouldn't skip a+ or Network +, they come in handy for MCSE and cisco really needs network +

I disagree entirely. Even though A+/Network+ combined is a valid elective, not taking A+ or Network+ when pursuing MCSE has nothing to do with 'skipping', and you certainly don't need an Network+ for CCNA. Simply put, nobody 'needs' CompTIA certs before going for Cisco or Microsoft certification. And whether it's actual useful to go for CompTIA certs (apart from the extra letters on a resume) depends a lot on the amount of experience and previous knowledge (eg. from traditional education such as a degree) you already have.

skully93

I really got a lot out of training for the comptia exams that I took, but then again it really filled in some gaps for me.

I would agree that it depends. If you have next to no real world experience, the A+ and Network+ provide a great historical and 'how-to" way of getting started.

If you'v already worked a help desk job for example, then perhaps a microsoft cert would be more in order.

good luck!

ajs1976

having the A+ and Net+ certs are not necessary before going for the CCNA or MCSA/E. Knowing the information that they cover is very important.

I went back and got my Net+ after already having already completed the MCSE track for NT 4.0. I think Webmaster even questioned why I did it at the time. In retrospect because of the higher level cert I already had and my experience, going back for the Net+ was a wast of time and money. That is just my opinion, others will have their own opinion based on their own experiences.