In This Day & Age, Should I Still Learn NT 4???

[marks70]

I'm trying to get my foot in the door to become a PC Tech, but most of the positions require some background with Windows NT 4. I've already had a class and own a book on Windows 2000 Professional, so I'm wondering if I should also buy a book on Win NT 4 Workstation. Is it worth it? Are any of the MCSE tests still geared towards NT 4 or is it all Win 2000 now?

 

[Supergax]

While Microsoft has geared up for Win2k a lot of businesses aren't so quick to upgrade, you will find a lot of places still run NT4 for many various reasons, so I would say it's something good to know. With Win2k experience it should make it pretty easy to learn since some of the system aspects are the same.

 

[Junior77]

It's good to learn NT 4.0. But if your thinking of certification, go for the 2k. NT 4.0 will expire this year. It will be sometime now, before more and more companies are strictly 2k pro. I don't think it's a good idea though to try and learn 4.0 server and 2k server at the same time. They are too different.

 

[SleepyGuy]

yeah lots of companies are still using NT and are not upgrading anytime soon. i work for a major bank and we're all nt 4.0 still. not that our pc aren't powerful enough, i guess its just that business likes things that just working now... not the win2000 isn't an excellent os, i think it's the best os MS has but out thus far. Peace out.

 

[loosbrew]

many many large business have too many pcs to upgrade to win2k. i work with 600+ machines that 99% of them have nt4 on them. they were talking about an upgrade but for them to upgrade to win2k on these pentium200's and 32mb of ram, i said GOOD LUCK!!

loosbrew

 

[Shadow07]

My suggestion would be to all newbies of Windows NT/2000 would be to pick up a Windows NT 4 Workstation and Server book. I would get the Sybex MCSE books. They will help you understand the basics about NT technology and will only help you in the long run. There are some similarities between Windows NT 4 and 2000, but not enough to say that they are the same.

Like I said, pick up a few Windows NT 4 books. They will help you learn about NT and how it works. You can build upon that knowledge to more fully understand Windows 2000.

 

[CollegeGuy]

One word, yes. There is still a lot of NT4 around, and there probably will be for some time.

 

[yos]

Yes...
I just learned NT (very very quickly I might add) and my company (13,000++ systems) isn't switching to w2k till end of year... it's good to know NT4, and not very hard to pick up....

-the Yos

 

[Blizzak]

Bah.. F' windows .. Linux baby!

 

[marks70]

Thanks to all for your input - I appreciate it! I will definitely now be looking into a NT 4 book to gain some knowledge and skills on that OS.

 

[Tripleshot]

If you are looking for a good start in the IT industry and want certs to get started,I recommend W2K for MCSE and an A+ from Comptia and chase it with a CCNE. All this about bussiness staying with NT4 is hogwash. The stability and scalability and speed of NT5 is all the justification to move off of the NT4 platform as soon as economically feasable. No IT dept should be advocating staying with the Status Quo,unless thats all they know and they don't have the initiative to upgrade thier certs to benifit thier company.

W2K MCSE track is HARD. There is no such thing as 'Paper MCSE" in the W2K track. You need "hands on" experience to understand the platform and interact with it. I recooomend instructor lead training with a lab or at least that you have a few computers around that you can use to simulate a networked environment.

I recommend A+ if you know little to nothing about how a computer is built and how it works. Also some Network principles and TCP/IP knowledge is a must.

Good Luck.