Study mode enabled.
My (b)log about studying computer networks, with an emphasis on (Cisco) Routers and Switches.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Network Technician
Just got offered a job as a Network Technician at an ISP. I got 2 weeks before I start. My CCNA is about to expire, so I'm going to renew my CCNAs with one of the CCNP exams. I'm going to take the ROUTE exam because it's less expensive ($200) versus re-taking the CCNA exam($300). I've got 12 days to study while working full-time. Luckily, I've read the book already once, but I'll need to read a few more and practice a lot to nail the exam.
Friday, August 12, 2011
New Job, New Blog, less posts
Well, I got a job as Customer Service Rep / Tech Support, so I'll be focusing most of my time on skills that directly and indirectly pertain to my new job.
Which means that I won't have time for this particular blog that's about computer networking. I will, however, start a new blog that's related to the skills that I think will be handy for the job and life in general.
Which means that I won't have time for this particular blog that's about computer networking. I will, however, start a new blog that's related to the skills that I think will be handy for the job and life in general.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Header picture
The header picture that you see at the top of my blog is one of my first Visio diagrams that I made.
I made this network diagram for my CCNA Capstone class where I had to 'fix' the merger between 2 computer infrastructures.
My instructor at my local college signed us up for the Microsoft academy and that allowed us to use certain MS software for free (for a year.)
MS Visio was one of the programs that one could get for free and even though it wasn't necessary for my CCNA class, I did it anyway. Visio is one of the diagramming programs that real-life network engineers use to draw network diagrams. So I killed 2 flies with one swing by learning how to draw network diagrams Visio and enhance my class experience at the same time, which in turns better prepares me for the real world.
Why I created this particular style of network diagramming
When I first started out my CCNA capstone class, I really didn't know what real-world network diagrams looked like. I googled some pictures up and even though most of them looked very functional, practical and gets the job done right, I kinda felt it was a bit boring.
ratemynetworkdiagram.com was one of the main sites I looked at for inspiration and how most people draw their network diagrams. Most of them are with a white background, with 'rectangular lines' that connected the various devices. There were a few that were totally over the top, and include a 3d, isometric view of their network setup.
As a beginner to Visio, the 3d/isometric network diagrams were out of my scope and the bland, simple diagrams were boring. So, one day I was watching Tron Legacy again and thought hey, lets make a network diagram inspired by the theme of Tron Legacy and see if that looks cool. So, I learned some more features of Visio while creating this awesome network diagram for my CCNA Capstone course. The picture you see above has been edited to from dark blue to the lighter blue you see now because the darker blue was too dark for a header in my opinion. This lighter blue does give it more of a 'blueprint'-style feel to it.
There's a good reason why real-world network diagrams look so, style-wise, so simple and bland.
1) Why invest so much more time to create a different looking network diagram when that time could have been used more more productively?
2) If you were to print out these network diagrams with a colored background, it would cost a ton more than one with a white background.
Bottom line: I created this particular network diagram to learn create Network diagrams with Visio for my class and I achieved that.
I made this network diagram for my CCNA Capstone class where I had to 'fix' the merger between 2 computer infrastructures.
My instructor at my local college signed us up for the Microsoft academy and that allowed us to use certain MS software for free (for a year.)
MS Visio was one of the programs that one could get for free and even though it wasn't necessary for my CCNA class, I did it anyway. Visio is one of the diagramming programs that real-life network engineers use to draw network diagrams. So I killed 2 flies with one swing by learning how to draw network diagrams Visio and enhance my class experience at the same time, which in turns better prepares me for the real world.
Why I created this particular style of network diagramming
When I first started out my CCNA capstone class, I really didn't know what real-world network diagrams looked like. I googled some pictures up and even though most of them looked very functional, practical and gets the job done right, I kinda felt it was a bit boring.
ratemynetworkdiagram.com was one of the main sites I looked at for inspiration and how most people draw their network diagrams. Most of them are with a white background, with 'rectangular lines' that connected the various devices. There were a few that were totally over the top, and include a 3d, isometric view of their network setup.
As a beginner to Visio, the 3d/isometric network diagrams were out of my scope and the bland, simple diagrams were boring. So, one day I was watching Tron Legacy again and thought hey, lets make a network diagram inspired by the theme of Tron Legacy and see if that looks cool. So, I learned some more features of Visio while creating this awesome network diagram for my CCNA Capstone course. The picture you see above has been edited to from dark blue to the lighter blue you see now because the darker blue was too dark for a header in my opinion. This lighter blue does give it more of a 'blueprint'-style feel to it.
There's a good reason why real-world network diagrams look so, style-wise, so simple and bland.
1) Why invest so much more time to create a different looking network diagram when that time could have been used more more productively?
2) If you were to print out these network diagrams with a colored background, it would cost a ton more than one with a white background.
Bottom line: I created this particular network diagram to learn create Network diagrams with Visio for my class and I achieved that.
New blog dedicated to random thoughts
I now have a totally new blog that is totally unrelated to this one. It's at
www.willrandomthought.blogspot.com
and it's about my randomy, random thoughts. It may provide insights in the minds of one the few modern cavemans left today, but unless you're an anthropologist, don't bother to visit it.
It has had a grand total of 1 visitor since it has gone up and at it's current rate I may break the 10 visitors mark for this year. Thank you, random person from Germany!
Ps. I'm probably gonna post some random idea's that I sometimes have on my new blog. Things like "Which constellation is our sun part of?", " 'Chatty', as a work requirement", "Finding a pattern in prime numbers, the other, other way.", "How to multi-task multiple exciting ways to bore the heck out of yourself", "OMG, some ghost moved my keys [Finding out you need new glasses]", and much, much more!*
*Or not, since, besides the fact that it's random, I'm also very forgetful. Don't hold me to it if a much anticipated title doesn't show up in the following decade or so.
www.willrandomthought.blogspot.com
and it's about my randomy, random thoughts. It may provide insights in the minds of one the few modern cavemans left today, but unless you're an anthropologist, don't bother to visit it.
It has had a grand total of 1 visitor since it has gone up and at it's current rate I may break the 10 visitors mark for this year. Thank you, random person from Germany!
Ps. I'm probably gonna post some random idea's that I sometimes have on my new blog. Things like "Which constellation is our sun part of?", " 'Chatty', as a work requirement", "Finding a pattern in prime numbers, the other, other way.", "How to multi-task multiple exciting ways to bore the heck out of yourself", "OMG, some ghost moved my keys [Finding out you need new glasses]", and much, much more!*
*Or not, since, besides the fact that it's random, I'm also very forgetful. Don't hold me to it if a much anticipated title doesn't show up in the following decade or so.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The path to Network Engineer? Technical Knowledge...
What technical knowledge do you need to become a network engineer? I don't know for sure, but I tried to find it by looking at job postings at 5 big job search sites like Monster.com. I looked at ~10 entries of each site for a total of 50+. I made a spreadsheet and figured out what the most common keywords were on job listings for "Network Engineer".
I'm splitting this into 3 parts: 'General area of knowledge', 'Specific area's of knowledge' and 'Other commonly listed items'.
The job listings used are with the title "Network Engineer" only. Job Listings of "Senior Network Engineer" are not included because that would be way, way too long.
Note: The second column denotes occurence.
Job Postings from 5 job search sites, 50+ postings combined:
General area's of knowledge:
Other common misc. General Area's of knowledge with only 1-3 entries:
Other commonly listed items:
Thoughts:
It looks like even though the commonly required education states "BS in Computer Science or equivalent experience" plus a CCNP, it seems you need more than just the CCNP in Routing and Switching.
Here's a quick overview of some CCNP certification exams:
CCNP: ROUTE, SWITCH, TSHOOT
CCIP: ROUTE, BGP, QoS, MPLS
CCNP Security: SECURE, FIREWALL, VPN, IPS
CCDP: ROUTE, SWITCH, ARCH
The common denominator for your average Network Engineer seem to correspond to the following certifications/area's of knowledge:
I'm splitting this into 3 parts: 'General area of knowledge', 'Specific area's of knowledge' and 'Other commonly listed items'.
The job listings used are with the title "Network Engineer" only. Job Listings of "Senior Network Engineer" are not included because that would be way, way too long.
Note: The second column denotes occurence.
Job Postings from 5 job search sites, 50+ postings combined:
General area's of knowledge:
| VPN | 12 | |
| LAN | 10 | |
| Firewall | 10 | |
| Network Security | 9 | |
| TCP/IP | 8 | |
| Voice/VoIP | 7 | |
| WAN | 7 | |
| Wireless | 6 | |
| Network Design | 4 |
Other common misc. General Area's of knowledge with only 1-3 entries:
- IPv6
- Video
- VLAN
- Dynamic Routing Protocol
- OSI
| BGP | 16 |
| OSPF | 14 |
| MPLS | 9 |
| EIGRP | 8 |
| IPSec | 7 |
| QoS | 5 |
| HSRP/VRRP | 5 |
| PPP/HDLC | 3 |
| Multicast | 3 |
| DHCP | 3 |
| SNMP | 3 |
| STP | 3 |
| T1\T3\DS1\DS3 | 2 |
| ATM | 2 |
| Frame Relay | 2 |
| ARP | 2 |
| 802.1Q | 2 |
| 802.1QinQ | 2 |
Other commonly listed items:
- Scripting (Perl, Php, Python, Shell)
- Load balancers (F5)
- Linux
- Juniper
Thoughts:
It looks like even though the commonly required education states "BS in Computer Science or equivalent experience" plus a CCNP, it seems you need more than just the CCNP in Routing and Switching.
Here's a quick overview of some CCNP certification exams:
CCNP: ROUTE, SWITCH, TSHOOT
CCIP: ROUTE, BGP, QoS, MPLS
CCNP Security: SECURE, FIREWALL, VPN, IPS
CCDP: ROUTE, SWITCH, ARCH
The common denominator for your average Network Engineer seem to correspond to the following certifications/area's of knowledge:
- CCNP, CCIP, CCNP Security
- LPIC-1 or LPIC-2
- A scripting language (Perl/PHP/Python)
- with possibly: CCNA Voice, CCNA Wireless and CCDA/CCDP
- Load balancers (F5)
The path to network engineer? Education...
Disclaimer: This blog is just an opinion and based on my experience and looking through 50+ job postings for the job "Network Engineer".
What eduation will you need to become a network engineer?
What certification is most often listed as a requirement?
What eduation will you need to become a network engineer?
- BS in computer science(or related field) OR equivalent experience
- BS in Computer Science
What certification is most often listed as a requirement?
- Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
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