A ? for all the network & system admins

[Delinquent]

I've been talking to some and they say that that networking as we know it, is going to be obsolete in a couple years as soon as they work all the bugs out of wireless communications. I'm curious as to what you guys and gals think b/c I just finished my first semester for a degree in computer networking and I don't want to waste my time and money if it's gonna be useless when I get done.

 

[JohnnyO]

Like anything computer related, you have to keep up with technology .. but I find it hard to believe that EVERYTHING will be wireless in a few years.

Just learn something about Gig Ethernet and Fiber Optics.

 

[Latimer]

Wireless communications scare me. All that sensitive information floating in the air.

 

[Delinquent]

yea that's one of the main bugs they have to try to work out is the security issue of it. The degree gives me certs for A+, cna, msce, net+, and ccna. What I'm thinking is just learn the core classes like winnt, win2k, unix, and the routers and switches. So I'll have to knowledge of being able to work in networking but leave my options open to wireless possibilities.


BTW if I remember correctly Johnny O you work for cicso right? Everyone keeps saying the market is really flooded with just basic ccna techs. Also that I heard that Cisco is building a school in India and they plan on pumping out an estimated 100,000 cisco tech per year. Any truth to that?

 

[Delinquent]

Damn I guess I gotta re-evaluate my goals. Only thing that seems to be in demand are programmers (which I will never do) and Oracle which I really don't wanna do either since a lot have to code also plus do the whole database management.

 

[JohnnyO]

I'm sure we're flooded with CCNA's at the moment .. that's a VERY easy test to pass, and anyone can do it with about 18 hours of studying .. it's only a TCP/IP test, OSI model test, with basic IOS commands.

I haven't heard of any school in India .. however I have heard of vocational partnerships with high schools to make recent HS grads CCNAs.

 

[Delinquent]

Yea that's true. My old high school just hired one this past year. Pisses me off that they didn't do it a few years ago when I was there.

 

[Latimer]

Get your foot in the door first. That's the most important thing. Then worry about what direction you want to go. Experience will always outweigh a certification. Paper certs aren't going to last long in the IT field. A certification will get you an interview and that's about it. It's not money in the bank.

A bunch of High Schools offer the Cisco Networking Academy Program. It's even offered in two juvenile detention centers - one in Texas, the other in California. It's a great program.

 

[HappyScrappy]

some of the bluetooth stuff will certainly be big soon.

also, for a while there will be much overlap, so there is still a need for the base knowledge - the stuff might be sent via wireless, but it still needs routers and stuff - it isn't like there will be this big black box that just does magic wireless actions for you

 

[Latimer]

it isn't like there will be this big black box that just does magic wireless actions for you

Actually, I'm working on that right now. I'm gonna call it snaggletooth. The box is going to be navy blue though.