BrianOKeefe
New member
Hey everyone,
As the title states, complete newcomer to server administration looking to learn as much as possible to get myself back in the IT field.
I have a little experience in the field having done tech support for a local WISP back in '07/'08, left the job for personal reasons and haven't been able to get back in since so I am trying to make myself as marketable as possible by studying in my off time from my current job.
I have a LOT of computer experience starting from a very young age (5 or 6 I believe) and from my own hobbies with computer gaming I have picked up a lot of good knowledge about PC's. I just have no official training or schooling in the area. I went to college for Game Art & Design and that major did not work out well at all so I'm going back to what is reliable work and my biggest source of knowledge to put that to use.
So I'm currently working toward completing my studying for the A+ exam. Should have it within a month or two and I've also been fortunate enough to have my brother (a seasoned IT network technician) facilitate me with a great home lab environment to learn server administration on. Currently working with one PC set up as a user with Windows XP and have an old gaming machine I used running Windows Server 2008 R2 connected to a Cisco 1841 Router, Cisco Catalyst 1900, Cisco 3560, and a Juniper SRX210. Lots of great stuff for me to learn with. Been spending a few hours tinkering around with 2008 R2 today after having setup the DHCP and DNS server as well as mapping a network drive on my User PC to a shared folder on the server and am starting to get in to areas that I'm unfamiliar with, so that is why I am here.
I hope it isn't a bother to anyone being a complete newbie for a while, as I'd like to be able to contribute to the forum as well once my knowledge grows. This seems like a great area to learn.
I look forward to getting to know you guys
As the title states, complete newcomer to server administration looking to learn as much as possible to get myself back in the IT field.
I have a little experience in the field having done tech support for a local WISP back in '07/'08, left the job for personal reasons and haven't been able to get back in since so I am trying to make myself as marketable as possible by studying in my off time from my current job.
I have a LOT of computer experience starting from a very young age (5 or 6 I believe) and from my own hobbies with computer gaming I have picked up a lot of good knowledge about PC's. I just have no official training or schooling in the area. I went to college for Game Art & Design and that major did not work out well at all so I'm going back to what is reliable work and my biggest source of knowledge to put that to use.
So I'm currently working toward completing my studying for the A+ exam. Should have it within a month or two and I've also been fortunate enough to have my brother (a seasoned IT network technician) facilitate me with a great home lab environment to learn server administration on. Currently working with one PC set up as a user with Windows XP and have an old gaming machine I used running Windows Server 2008 R2 connected to a Cisco 1841 Router, Cisco Catalyst 1900, Cisco 3560, and a Juniper SRX210. Lots of great stuff for me to learn with. Been spending a few hours tinkering around with 2008 R2 today after having setup the DHCP and DNS server as well as mapping a network drive on my User PC to a shared folder on the server and am starting to get in to areas that I'm unfamiliar with, so that is why I am here.
I hope it isn't a bother to anyone being a complete newbie for a while, as I'd like to be able to contribute to the forum as well once my knowledge grows. This seems like a great area to learn.
I look forward to getting to know you guys
