Becoming qualified

[nomad147]

Hi,

I have a big interest in networking and would like to know how I could get some sort of well recognised qualification in this area.

Could anyone help show me how to go about doing this. Study guide, resources, which qualifications are best etc.......

Thanks in advance

 

[Tallgeese]

<< I have a big interest in networking and would like to know how I could get some sort of well recognised qualification in this area. >>

Experience is the BEST qualification you can get. No employer in their right mind would pick someone with a certification over someone with solid knowledge and experience. So, I'd start trying to get my hands on as many different types of networking equipment I could.

Things to study:
OSI Model - If you want any kind of career in networking, you HAVE to know this backwards and forwards. Total knowledge of this subject means that you can immediately place any component in a network at the correct layer.

TCP/IP - Best protocol to learn, since it's become the dominant protocol. Also, familiarity with the Internet helps ground some of the theory.

The Way Things Break - This is not a resource per se (apologies to David Macaulay), but I've always found that the most important thing to learn, especially when not working with production networks or systems, is how such systems behave when something is WRONG. This does two things: 1) It hones your troubleshooting skills in a non-pressure situation, and 2) prepares you for times when something is whacked in a pressure situation so you won't panic.

Resources for study:
www.practicallynetworked.com - Focused on SOHO market, but a great place to get started
www.howstuffworks.com - A lot of useful info about nearly any subject. Good explanations (lots of diagrams) in the data networking section.
www.cisco.com - Comprehensive site, with every piece of documentation and white paper about any piece of Cisco equipment you could ever want.
www.faqs.org - Great spot to find Usenet FAQs and RFCs
Vendor documentation and websites - most people completely ignore vendor web sites to get free info and documentation about configuring products
Network Troubleshooting from Agilent - This a brand-new book, but is absolutely AMAZING! Written from a trouble-shooting standpoint, I have to say this is one resource I wish had been around when I first started doing this kind of work. (Disclaimer: No affiliation with the author, or Agilent).

Cert programs:
Cisco has a great cert program, focusing specifically on networking. Of course, their CCIE is the top of the heap as far as certs go (and with good reason, it's harder than H*LL!)
Novell's cert program used to include a fairly balanced mix of OS specific info and networking, and although the course material looks like it has shifted a bit with more recent OS release, the inclusion of Pure IP in the OS has in some ways made a Novell cert a bit more valuable in the age of the Internet.
Microsoft's cert program is probably the weakest as far as networking information goes, IMHO.
There are also the Network+ and other cert programs, although their general acceptance in the job market is not a strong as the first 3.