First impressions.....

As some of you know I just started a new job (started almost two weeks ago). I just wanted to put down some of my first impressions. Read if you want

We have about 50 users (customer support), a few finance folks and such. My fellow admin is many years to my senior (about 14 ) and makes me feel like a kid sometimes. I thought he simply didn't trust me, which is why it took so long for me to get stuff but apparently (after talking with the CITO) it is just his personality. She told me that once we settle down and get the job roles ironed out, I am pretty much going to need to be ballsy and tell him to back up (in a good way). I am fine with this. The admin whom I replaced had a lot of issues with getting **** done so my fellow admin was brought on to help him out. Apparently A LOT of **** went down with the last guy which made Greg uneasy. It also probably doesn't help that I am 22 but the CITO trust me and she wants me to get deep into our network and fix some stuff and that is exactly what I want.

The other guy is pretty much handing me all of our network stuff. I still need to figure out QoS for our iSCSI traffic and VOIP and IAS authentication for our boxes (actually the later is pretty easy) and I feel like I can learn a lot from him.

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Comments

Devilsbane

Sounds like you are in a good place. Congratulations.

veritas_libertas

Hey, have fun!

Sounds like you are going to really enjoy things, congratz!

RobertKaucher

Nice! I'm glad to hear it.

dynamik

Sounds good dude. I'm happy for you

ipconfig.all

looks like a good career development chance, congrats.

Bl8ckr0uter

Thanks guys. I am just trying to digest it all. We are using an old POS cisco 2610 and we need to update. We are looking to leverage open source technologies for our router. I am thinking PFsense, monowall, or vayatta. I need to compare the options and draw up a proof of concept for my boss in the next few weeks.

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Nice! I'm glad to hear it.

I need to talk to you about something you suggested in a post.

RobertKaucher

knwminus wrote: »

Thanks guys. I am just trying to digest it all. We are using an old POS cisco 2610 and we need to update. We are looking to leverage open source technologies for our router. I am thinking PFsense, monowall, or vayatta. I need to compare the options and draw up a proof of concept for my boss in the next few weeks.

I need to talk to you about something you suggested in a post.

Still got my number?

Bl8ckr0uter

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Still got my number?

lol yea. I totally forgot I had it. I'm pretty much busy from dawn til midnight now of days lol. But I need to speak to you.

Oh yea and update your blog! I've been waiting for the next SQL post lol.

RobertKaucher

knwminus wrote: »

lol yea. I totally forgot I had it. I'm pretty much busy from dawn til midnight now of days lol. But I need to speak to you.

Oh yea and update your blog! I've been waiting for the next SQL post lol.

LOL. Life has been crazy here. I'm tired of the two job thing. No time to learn new stuff worth posting.

rogue2shadow

Glad to hear things are great bro!!

Pump up the volume!

Bl8ckr0uter

RobertKaucher wrote: »

LOL. Life has been crazy here. I'm tired of the two job thing. No time to learn new stuff worth posting.

I understand that. Fortunately my weekend job is in a NOC so I can get some reading in.

rogue2shadow wrote: »

Glad to hear things are great bro!! Pump up the volume!

Things are cool. I am about to go over our pix config so I can start to prepare of configs for our Sonic wall NSA240s and Sonic end points. I promise I am going to finish the S+ book tonight lol. I can't let you leave me that far behind lol.

rogue2shadow

knwminus wrote: »

Things are cool. I am about to go over our pix config so I can start to prepare of configs for our Sonic wall NSA240s and Sonic end points. I promise I am going to finish the S+ book tonight lol. I can't let you leave me that far behind lol.

Hah. Once you get to the end of that book, especially with the extra research you're doing, you'll be ready to score almost perfect on the exam.

I thought I'd hook you up with an update

.

I'm 1/4th through my ICND2 studies (if we count taking the class in fall as a percentage). I'm currently at the last chapter of the CCNA course 3 for the Cisco Network Academy and will hopefully start CCNA course 4 today as well. Before classes in fall, I want to review my notes from my first viewing of the CCNA nuggets, read Odom, and read Network Warrior (I only read the chapter on spanning-tree so far because it just didn't make any sense to me at first lol). Doing all the Cisco Network Academy labs have helped get better understanding of each of the objectives. My only gripe with packet tracer is port-security doesn't work and it doesn't recognize vtp domain server advertisements as being a entries in client switches (ie. you can't get 100% without manually typing in vlan x name x etc on every switch lol).

CCNA security wise, I have notes from the nuggets but need to watch the VPN configuration videos to finish the series. I also bought the bryant advantage book which I think still is $20.

LPIC-1 wise, unfortunately I am failing at getting time to actually sit down and focus solely on it. By mid July, I should be able to get back on it.

That is all for now :P

Bl8ckr0uter

Personally I really don't think you need to go to the classes. I think you could probably do it on your own.

I need to get in the network warrior book so I can work on putting together a new wan solution for our site. We have a 4m connection and it ain't cutting it.

rogue2shadow

I agree but unfortunately my CCNA course 2 didn't transfer as that course so I have to take it at the new school to get my network engineer cert with the B.S. lol.

Bl8ckr0uter

rogue2shadow wrote: »

I agree but unfortunately my CCNA course 2 didn't transfer as that course so I have to take it at the new school to get my network engineer cert with the B.S. lol.

Huh?

My "degree" (well my WIP Network Engineer degree) is kind of the same way. Out of the 98 or so credits, a good 28 of them are the CCNA (1-4). They wont let you articulate the credits once you have started the degree or something? My school let me do it for 10 bucks a class (once the CIS Dean signed off on it). So for 40 bucks, I saved 28 credits and 1 year of time

. I have to go take it to registrar but once I do that I will only have a few CIS classes and gen eds left (which is why I am probably going to do the software development track as well).

phantasm

Sounds like a good place to be.

My first IT job was much like it. The Director of the IT department was a smart guy, he knew everything in the network and where it terminated. Dealing with him at first was trivial because he always treated me like a kid and I was constantly proving myself to him. However, we still talk to this day and he actually engages me from time to time on some Cisco stuff he needs done or questions he has. Overall he's a great guy and I'd work for him anytime.

GAngel

just an FYI but you should never say exactly where you work, what equipment you use or the size of your company. It only takes one bad apple etc etc...

Congrats on the job hope it goes well.

rogue2shadow

knwminus wrote: »

Huh?

My "degree" (well my WIP Network Engineer degree) is kind of the same way. Out of the 98 or so credits, a good 28 of them are the CCNA (1-4). They wont let you articulate the credits once you have started the degree or something? My school let me do it for 10 bucks a class (once the CIS Dean signed off on it). So for 40 bucks, I saved 28 credits and 1 year of time . I have to go take it to registrar but once I do that I will only have a few CIS classes and gen eds left (which is why I am probably going to do the software development track as well).

Nice Nice. Yea, the reason it doesn't transfer is because WAN tech and advanced switch functions (STP, VTP, VLAN etc.) were in CCNA 3 and 4 and I did not take those. CCNA 2 stopped at EIGRP/OSPF tshooting. CCNA 1 did transfer though

. I do hear ya on probably taking the test before the actual class; I seem to be picking up things quickly and am now reading through the CCNA 4 material. I'm pretty sure I can knock this out towards the middle of August but I don't want to get too cocky just yet lol.

Bl8ckr0uter

I don't think that is too cocky. I think you should be ok.