Roadblocks in Learning IT

Being new, naturally I always have many, many questions. And naturally, I belong to several forums. There is always a newbie section/forum (some kinder to new people than others) and there are always newbies who ask the common "how do I hack hotmail/yahoo/aol" and etc. and get flamed. And on some occasions, people who ask questions which I think are valid but they still get flamed. One thing I have found in the IT world, is that often, before finding an answer, you have to figure out the question. Now I'm a research analyst by trade, and not to sound rude, but I know I'm a very capable analyst. What I don't know, I know where to go and find it. And my studies are pretty straight forward. But when it comes to technology, there are a million different avenues to take (depending on what area - programming/web design/hardware etc). I find that the hardest part of my learning computer/media technology is, 3/4 of the time, I'm not even sure what my question is. And although there are many forums and support pages, how can I research if I don't know what exactly I'm looking for? It becomes very difficult when you don't what the problem COULD be, but yet you try to google anyway. This is often times very frustrating and I was wondering if anybody ever feels the same way or felt the same way when they began to learn. Just a little rant and rave.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...in+Learning+IT


;-)


Sorry couldn't resist.
I think most of the flames are just the result of many posts by people who simple haven't bothered to try to look for any information or who haven't thought about their question properly.

Alternatively you could have just chosen forums where the resident population enjoys burning newbies and you might need to move on.

A very good forum for real newbies is www.pcadvisor.co.uk. That forum is aimed at those who know very little if anything and it's quite heavily moderated to keep the flames in check.

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Originally posted here by Aspman
I think most of the flames are just the result of many posts by people who simple haven't bothered to try to look for any information or who haven't thought about their question properly.

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Absolutely! What do I want to do? What is my problem? You do not have to be a techie to ask or search for an answer. If you want to hack hotmail, ask yourself why you want to. If you want to read your significant others email to see if they're cheating on you. Hacking skills are probably not the tools you need or the best approach to clarify relationship issues.

If you want to know how Networks work, ask yourself why. What do you want to do? Build one, connect to one. Or do you want to know what the thing is called where you plug you cable modem into? Asking yourself the questions first, will help you decide course of action in determining what forum to present the question - be it Google, AO, library, whatever.

Granted, my intentions are not, whatsoever, to learn how to hack (not maliciously - I would like to practice eventually on my own systems to learn about vulnerabilities and concepts). I think an area that I can clarify more on are areas such as TCP/IP. Now I have spent 3 months researching this and studying the OSI model but to not be able to physically grasp the concept and see it in motion (hands on - such as rebuilding a car engine), becomes very frustrating. So I google and then I start to get off track with going sideways on the subject. Such as entirely different research on each layer and eventually everything runs together and I'm stuck at a point where I see something happening, want to know why or how, but I don't understand how to ask the question. Outside of that, there could be 10,20,30 other things that involve that layer but since I've never heard of them and don't know they exist, how can I ask that question? Confusing and broad I know, but in the end, I'm left frustrated because I feel like I've only managed to ask so many more questions without answering my original. Perhaps I am going about the research wrong. Any suggestions?

Continue as you are.

AND

Get another box, make your first network.
server / client or peer to peer

As you so rightly say :

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but to not be able to physically grasp the concept and see it in motion

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Hands on wins hands down :)

You will only really make true sense of it when you actually SEE it doing its thing, then and only then will you be able to progress.

Rain


You might be going a little too deep. Might I suggest backing up a little. Take the "rebuilding a car engine" analogy. Learning to rebuild an engine wouldn't start with learning how to manufacture individual components, rather how the components fit together. Once you know how to put the individual components together and make the car work, then you can learn how the individual components work.

Take a quick look at this post: http://www.antionline.com/showthread...ight=OSI+Model

The only reason I even dove into the protocol stack was to figure out how the thing got corrupt in the first place. I rarely need to go that deep.

But I wouldn't have needed any understanding of the OSI model to reinstall the OS.

I think I am probably trying to dive too fast and too deep right now. But I appreciate all of the suggestions.

Can I suggest the 'toy network' setup I use at work.

I have a couple of old machines (P3s) hooked together with an old 10Mb hub.
One machine has Windows XPpro the another has a Windows server OS 2000/2003 (trail CD from MS so it's free). I also have two Knoppix STD disks so I can run a Linux box without having to install anything.

I usually run Knoppix on both boxes so it doesn't matter how badly I attack or damage the machine all I have to do is reboot to get started again.

I can also run the knoppix tools against the Windows OSs without much reconfiguration.