Anyone here work non-security related IT

[mirado.kelly]

I would guess most people here with certifications would be within the security domain, but what about A+ certification. Does anyone here work in computer repair, if so have you studied from any books and which ones.

I have already experince with PC repair since I have a few clients I do the odd job for, and of cource I fix all my computers. Ive also recently built a brand new computer for someone. Haveing gone to college for Electronics Engineering I have also kept all my books. Can anybody here relate to me?

Just interested.

[foxyloxley]

I work for anyone prepared to pay

and I do whatever is required

done 1st 2nd and 3rd line support
break fix
network installs [cat5 / fibre]
OS migration
server install / config

done Comp TIA A+ and N+
doing CCNA
read ANYTHING I can get my hands on
read it at least twice, as my memory is the pits .........

will continue to study for as long as I work in IT
to put it another way :

my friend has been in IT for 10 years
if he hadn't bothered learning the new stuff, he would be finding it DAMN hard to source work as a W95 engineer

next year vista
where will we be in 10 more years ?

I'll be studying for it, whatever it is ...........

HTH
Pax

[mirado.kelly]

Interesting, yea I read about vista, operating systems are creaping up all the time, but in any of your work in the recent years has any of your clients still useing old systems like dos or 95?

How important is it for me to wory about old stuff like Win 3.1, 95, Dos. Or even ISA slots or old SIMM memory. Should I be focuseing on the current and upcomeing stuff like NT, 2K, XP and Vista

I read that you can transfer drive data drom one PC to another with Serial, Paralel. I know about the Parallel but should I even bother with Serial or should I focus on newer stuff like USB and Firewire.

[foxyloxley]

you need to be aware of the older routines / systems
but you shouldn't be running into them as much nowadays

and yes, I was working on W95 boxes only recently
some people are just TOO cheap

concentrate on the present day kit
but, as stated, be aware of what WAS around

[Nokia]

Originally posted here by mirado.kelly
How important is it for me to wory about old stuff like Win 3.1, 95, Dos. Or even ISA slots or old SIMM memory. Should I be focuseing on the current and upcomeing stuff like NT, 2K, XP and Vista

If you are having a stab at A+ your going to need to know about all of the above!
With the exception of Win3.1, they dont ask questions on that anymore, but they do throw it in with the multiple choice answers!

As loong as you know things like the data troughput of an ISA slot, what SIMM stands for, refresh rate of it etc you will be ok. You dont need to knoe everything about it!

Win 95 does tend to trip a few people up though, research things like MS CD Extensions and stuff like that - just things you need to worry about with 95 is all!

[nonades]

I just finished a computer repair course (it was done with the cisco.netacad.net A+ stuff).


For the A+, they asked questions on gereral OS stuff (just knowing the *NIX OSes and Mac OSes are there), they asked indepth about windows stuff (98 up to XP, Filesystems, how memory is handled, where objects are in windows (control panel and the like), moving around the DOS shell). They also asked about hardware (IRQ numbers, I/O numbers, different expansion slots, all the processor slots, RAM types, SCSI, IDE, that sorta stuff).

Probably over the summer I'm gonna start taking the certification tests (ccna, mcsa, A+)