cdunn93 Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Hi all, I am fairly new to the IT world and have just started a new role in a primary school as an IT Technician to enhance my learning, however networking and servers are not my strong point. Was wondering if anyone could give me any helpful tips to point me in the right direction. Thanks for the help.
Tesla Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Are they giving you any training/putting you on an apprenticeship scheme?
Little-Miss Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) Hi all, I am fairly new to the IT world and have just started a new role in a primary school as an IT Technician to enhance my learning, however networking and servers are not my strong point. Was wondering if anyone could give me any helpful tips to point me in the right direction. Thanks for the help. You've done the first step, you joined Edugeek! Welcome! I've been a Technician and then Network Manager for 8 years now and i still don't know what i'm doing. If you've got any questions, just ask! As mentioned, there are all sorts of courses you can go on too. Edited March 3, 2014 by Little-Miss 1
abillybob Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 Youtube learning is probably the best way to go. Create yourself a virtual environment either using VirtualBox or VMware Workstation. Make a Windows 7 VM and a Windows Server VM. Make sure the Server VM has installed roles of Active Directory, Group Policy, Printing etc... then add the Windows 7 VM to the virtual domain. Now you can learn and have a play with things and see how it impacts the Windows 7 VM as you change %Group Policy%. Watch YouTube video's and browse the web if you're ever stuck. If you find a feature you wish to implement make sure it works on VM's first and then add it to the live environment. 1
cdunn93 Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 I am being sent to another school for 2/3 days to shadow their technician to get more of a background on the role and also help with any questions/queries that I'll have. I'm not being put onto and apprenticeship scheme as such however at interview they did discuss with me possible courses that I could attend. I have already passed an NVQ Level 2 apprenticeship in IT however this was a fair while ago so would need a bit of a refresher. I am being trained on software such as SIMMS and Target Tracker however not quite yet as they want me to obviously settle into the school first.
cdunn93 Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 Ah right, haha thank you very much I was suggested this site by a new colleague
cdunn93 Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 Ok thank you I'll have a look at VirtualBox and VMware so I can have a bit of a play but yes Youtube and even google would probably be able to help me out, thanks again
Tesla Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 NVQ level 2 is what they put me on, along with an IT essentials course, and i have an A+ qualification and currently studying for my network+ I would really try and "get in" so to speak, with the technician at the other site, they may be able to offer advice and guidance to you, i went to a few local schools when i started, they all seemed happy for me to email them if i ever got stuck with anything, may be worth arranging visits with other schools too, not all places operate the same way. 1
Tesla Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) Worth noting not everything you see on google and youtube is strictly correct.... These is an introductory forum on here, put yourself on that http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/947-new-edugeek-users-introduce-yourself-here.html Edited March 3, 2014 by Tesla 1
cdunn93 Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 that is true obviously a bit of common sense would be required to know what to trust etc..... but yes ok thank you I shall have a look.
GeekyPete Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 The NVQ with A+ and N+ will give you all the basics you need for a technicians role. After that remember who your freinds are (Edugeek and Google). Conenrate on learning what you have. You will probably only ever be an expert on YOUR network. That's fine, never be afraid to seek advice especially if your looking at something new. Every project, everything that gets installed isn't complete until YOU know how to use it or atleast enough to support it. Remember, Practically everything you are using now will be replaced over the next five years. So you're only 5 years behind any of us and we're all playing catch up. 1
Bev Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 I started in this role 6 years ago. I come from a programming background but I knew nothing about servers or Network Management at all. I have learned a lot from Google and EduGeek. I also found a few colleagues in other schools I could call on for advice.
bondbill2k2 Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 A few great sources I used both at work and tinkering at home were CBT Nuggets which isnt cheap but has huge amounts of information, thousands of hours on video and they add stuff on new versions of most software before public releases, compare it with the cost of a training course your getting loads of information for a year similar to a weekend course. Then professer messers A+ and N+ tutorials are great for general computing stuff and networking fundamentals
mikeyd101 Posted March 3, 2014 Posted March 3, 2014 As others have mentioned youtube and google are about 2 best resources for finding answers. If your Microsoft shop I recently found Microsoft virtual labs (TechNet Virtual Labs) which have some great exercises and provide the virtual environments without having to setup anything. Although alot can be learned from setting up your own environments. My advice is first learn what you have, what technologies they are using, and concentrating supporting/learning that, then once your comfortable with that tech look how you can improve it. If your working with servers and networks my advice is to get some monitoring software, I use 'the dude' which may not be the best it's free and fairly straight forward to setup. That allows me to monitor pings (to various switches, servers, ip cameras, wifi arrays), server stats (mem,disk,cpu) using snmp, and network traffic again using snmp to the switches. Get a good inventory of your hardware, I put all ours in active directory, inventory tags, s/n, mac addresses etc. Hope some of this helps, good luck.
jimmy_2k Posted March 7, 2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Welcome! I first started out in 2003 working at a Primary school with just myself and a server 2003 book to start off with. Don't panic too much if you don't know something but also don't rush into anything either. Always understand the reasoning behind any changes which you may make and that will help you learn.
Griff Posted March 7, 2014 Posted March 7, 2014 right took me ages to find this but http://www.edugeek.net/forums/behind-red-door/125475-everyone-free-use-edugeek.html enjoy its well worth the read
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