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well, i have already tons and tons of books and tuts and still i want to improve my skills in my field (which is networking).
a lot of people told me that no matter how much u read, it still will be a little help when you actually go and do it.
I asked one of my good networking friends on how i can improve my skills and they gave me a one sentence answer.. "get a job"
so does anyone here agrees that getting a job that is in-line with your field of expertiese would be a great help?
Couldn't agree more. Hands on experience is invaluable. Good luck!:cool:
I think it does:
1) at work you can play with some nice toys you never can afford on your own. Let's say a Storagetek tape bot, an IBM mainframe, parallel unix servers,...
2) if there are other realy good admins you can learn a lot from them.
3) You get paid
4) Work pays for courses and seminars
I was told that the best way to learn network security was to build your own network. It should be tcp/ip and consist of computers running at least two different OS's. It was suggested one be a flavor of linux and the other windows. These were suggested since you probably already have windows, and you can get linux for free. You can use this network to test for vulnerabilities on the computers and learn hacking skills. This will teach you to become "elite" without having to break the law. Currently I am setting up a network in the way that was suggested. It consists of mandrake 8.1 on one machine and windows me on a seperate machine. Both have 10baseT ethernet cards in them, and are connected to an inexpensive linksys hub. I hope to learn from this and become more skilled in network security.
I'd suggest building a "large" home network.
I have something like (on and off) 8 machines running set up to be routers and nodes and stuff.
You get a lot of practice that way.
PLUS: You can take known vulnerable programs and see how they behave when put under stress.
If you break your own stuff no-one will want to get back to you.
Doing that on a job is a bit tricky, cuz you can't try that much in a production environment...
Getting a job and going to hacking conferences.
AT the hacking comferences you can volunteer and work with more skilled people or work with equipment you could never afford.
Work is the perfect oppertunity to get the skills you desire, that is if your determined enough to land a quality job, its not easy. This is only my word, but if your looking for the most money and technical detail, I would suggest aiming for a networking field somewhere along the lines of *nix/Linux. Not neglecting Micro$oft, it would also be a well thought idea to take in accout these OS versions as well. Any company or oppertunity that offers a combination of the three, *nix, Linux, Windows is a worthwhile investment.
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Education granted, Experience Inevitable.
Well of course getting a job is the best way to learn about a skill you wish to increase. If your good at basketball do you think the best way to learn how to be better is to play out back with urself or play against another team and learn how other people play so that you can play better. Even sex is like that, sure its fun to beat off every so often, but when it all comes down to it theres no better way to get better at it then accually doin it ;)
And i agree with one other point, You do get to play with thinks you could never afford at home but you can at a job, such as a nice fast T1 connection.
Oh yeah and them cool paper weights!
haha thanks for the replies d00ds... damn, now i hafta go and look for a job.. hahaha for a moment there, i can feel that the Real World is calling me.. hahahah
I've spent hundreds of hours in classes and reading, but what I learned doesn't come close to what I've learned on the job.
I've found that books and class teach you "how it works in theory", but being on the job teaches you "how it really works."
Of course a job is going to help you learn.
I'm a networking student, I read a whole lot and I also have a job on the networking field. I learn in all three ways, and I still have tons and tons to learn.
I have installed at least 4 networks myself, all from scratch. From my home network to businesses networks. From Unix to Windows to Netware.
Getting a job is a definite! Building a home network is equally imperative....
At a job you will be exposed to scenarios that you wouldn't think about on your own....end-users are amazing....absolutely unpredicatbally incredible....it's the only way you'll ever get to work with the ID10.T interface that connects between the chair and the keyboard...you just can't emmulate that on a home network:jester: There are just "issues" that come up in an office and in interconnecting offices that are facsinating....like showing up on a Monday morning to find that a previously hardened web server has been infected with NIMDA and that some other admin has changed user accounts...that things that were working when you left Friday are no longer working and there's no damn reason why they shouldn't be!
.....But getting a job alone won't do it....won't hone ur skills....
You've got to continue to sharpen ur skills by bldg a network at home...reading and interacting with others....testing and experimenting on your own.
It's a 2-edged sword that continually needs to be sharpened on each side.
i'm going to assume that you didn't know this already but you could simply study for, pass, and receive some of the network certifications by CISCO Systems, e.g. CCNA, CCDA, Network+, CCIE.