Putting it all together..What to do?

Wow, that was refreshing. Been a while since I have seen a question that was actually well thought out before it was posted. Now, seeing as you called this thread "putting it all together..." you have gotten quite a bit of good advice, but its in a lot of different places, so...

learn an OS (not just how to point and click, but learn it)
learn to program
learn new technology (internet/networking technology especially)
set goals
experience experience experience

People used to complain about the old MCSE NT4.0 certification. You could read a couple of books and get the certification. Why is this bad? Because certified people didn't know **** about what they were doing. They were getting paid good money, and had no idea what they were actually looking at because they had never seen it before. Reading is great, but retaining that information is hard if you don't actually use it. It is also hard to understand if you don't know why you need it. If you can, test your knowledge in a controlled environment (home network if you have more then one computer and your family will let you).

The goals thing is also very important. Stay on the right path and decide what you want to do. Besides benchpressing 400 pounds (I never got past 380 ;) ) what do you want to do? Network Administration, System Admin, Security consultant, etc etc? Decide where you want to be in 1/5/10 years. I know this may seem crazy at 14 (I was there once) but it makes a difference. Once you know what you want to do, you can start specializing in what you want to learn.

Anyway, if you continue to make well phrased questions, you will continue to get good help. Your off to a great start, so keep it up. Oh yeah, btw, the guy in Enemy of the State doesn't exist...

I agree with the other peoples that have posted.

Learn a programming language
read as much as humanly possible
USE what you have learned
ask questions! :eek:
Set goals to make what you are learning worthwhile!

I have been where you are before and understand what you are going through. I first got interested in computers at age 10 when my school got an apple computer and scheduled time for every student to be able to play learning games. (I played oregon trails the most) Once I saw how much could be done with a computer I set a goal to learn how to make these cool computer games. While my goal has changed my method of obtaining it hasn't. I am now in a job where I do desktop support, network support, server maintenance and telecom support for a company of 5000+ people. I have no certifications and no formal training yet here I am. Just remember that anything is possible and never give up on your dreams and you will one day be able to answer questions in a similar manner as the techie gurus you see in movies and read in these and other forums!

May Everyone Find the Happiness That They Deserve!
Raisor

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People used to complain about the old MCSE NT4.0 certification.

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i thought this one died out? isnt the new one is MCSE Win2K and XP?

s0nIc> Thats what I said...the OLD mcse nt4.... It no longer exists. With the 2K/XP certs, they have changed parts of the tests, so it is a LOT harder to pass without haveing some hands on experience....

well you could try some different programming languages;
here are a few that ive used and know a little about, visual basic (nice easy for beginners), c++ is a good one to try after a while, can be tricky to debug but is worth it.

if you havnt already, you could also try some html coding (in notepad or your fav text editor), also try linux out if you want, buy a book on it that comes with some form of it on cd (redhat is popular).

and of course theres the forums here at antionline, much can be learnt if you have the time to read them :-)