Kitkatninja

We use Precedence Technologies for our domain registrations & SSL certs when we order via PO/Invoice. They're pretty good -Ken

The MCP/MCDST/MCSA/MCSE credential does not expire, the new MCTS/MCITP does retire at the end of the life of the product. Originally the MCITP was earmarked to be renewed every 3 years, however MS made a uturn on that and brought it inline with the MCTS. For the laptop, make sure that it's powerful enough to run a few VM's (Servers as well as clients) if you're going to study for the MCSA/MCSE. -Ken

Congrats on the new job, sure you'll like it. The best thing about working at a College/Uni is the team that you work in -Ken

I would say buy yourself either a TomTom or a Garmin (imo TomTom's are better). A mate of mine bought one of the cheap SatNav's and 6 months later found that he couldn't update it anymore. He ended up buying a TomTom. I've got the TomTom One v2 (I believe v4 is out now) and it still updates and is a very good product, the only problem I've had was due to having out of date maps (over 2 years old, I didn't update for a while ) which now has been fixed -Ken

IET and Microsoft sign membership agreement I am waiting to hear back from the IET as to which/what level of Microsoft certs they will accept as part of the fast track route. -Ken

You'd be surprised... For example... Spar's headoffice in Oz, only has a handful of people in their IT dept. Granted private companies spend more on IT, however don't forget that in the public sector/education we get a very big discount. In fact when I use to teach part-time at the local college, my budget was sometimes 2-3 times larger than alot of private companies. That's true, but then again you can say that going between two different private companies. -Ken

Good luck with your search You may have to drop down to a senior tech or team leader (from being an IT manager in a school if you don't have line management experience), in order to build up certain skills. You could also do a couple of courses like ILM Intro to Management course/modules. What is wrong with a school size? Ok granted I don't know what type of school you work at but any business that has approx 1350 users and 500-600 PC/laptops is classed as a large organisation, out of the realms of a SME (small to medium enterprise). While it won't make you a demi-god, have you thought about getting certified in either Sharepoint and/or Exchange? Everyone has to start somewhere, surely as an IT Manager, you've done a project or two? Don't mix/combine standard jobs and projects as the same thing. For example: 1. Upgrade of server & network hardware and infrastructure from Windows NT4/2000 to 2003/2008? 2. School wide AV installation, you would have done the investigation of projectors, security considerations, interactive whiteboards, etc... 3. Site wide wireless... Ok we're not going to be talking about £250k per project, however it's the experience and what you've done/accomplished that is important. You're not going to walk into a £60k pa PM job, but maybe on the same pay, hopefully a little more than what you're on now.

Some parts I would say yes, especially points 10 (the finance side, however it does not mention if you control your own budget or not), 15 & 18. -Ken

Beat me to that question -Ken

Yes, we banned music/video site for students, but allow them for staff. We use both Netsweeper (from EMBC) and Sophos web security (internally) and both have a filter category in them for streaming media (Sophos is based on Google categories, Netsweeper I'm not sure what that is based on), so listing them down isn't one we could do. -Ken

Don't know myself. I had to ring EMBC to get them to send the e-mails thru... Didn't ask, didn't have the time... -Ken

If you're still using 2k3, why not do the MCSA/MCSE then do the upgrades to either the MCITP: SA/MCITP: EA when you migrate over to 2k8. -Ken

I would say, if the Head is giving you money for training, look into the NVQ 3 in Systems Support with the MCDST/MCSA integrated. That way you get a vocational level 3 qualification (with that & post 5 years experience you can go for the ICTTech mark offered by the IET and soon the BCS, plus the LCGI diploma which is a level 4 qualification) and you'll have Professional Microsoft certs. Best of both worlds -Ken

1. CHeck out prometric's website. 2. It's about £88 per exam (can't remember if it was VAT on top of that or not, again check out Prometric's website) 3. You can see here, I did a rough mapping of professional certs with the UK NQF. 4. Yes 5. Depends, 1 week full time per module to 6 weeks per time per module to how fast you can self-study. 6. The Network+, I would strongly recommend doing that course first before the 70-291. 7. The A+, the MCDST, the MCTS Vista, the MCITP: EST, the list goes on. I did the HNC and found it to be a good qualification, plus if you want you can always top it up to the following qualifications: HND, DipHE, BSc/BA with or without Hons. -Ken

That'll be interesting, the things you do just to get us going A+ at level 3, how are they doing that? Unless it is grouped with the Network+ or the CCNA, iPro has classed the A+ at level 2. I would say go the self-study route, take a couple of practice exams and see how you go. If you get pretty descent scores, go for the exam without the course As for the Uni or job question, why not do both? Quite a few of us kept our full-time job and went to Uni part-time in the evenings. If that's not an option for you, there's always the Open U, where's it's for the most part home study. Positive side: You get continous job experience as well as the qualification at the end of the program, plus it's cheaper (take a look full-time fees vs part-time fees). Negative side: Takes longer, 2-3 years longer (depends if you do the HNC->BSc route and whether or not you do the Hons parts or not). -Ken

Good luck with the exam -Ken

I've done both the MCITP: EST and the MCITP: EA by self-study, I may do the MCITP: SA at some point, but not at the moment. Self-study is not everyone's cup of tea, plus I've been using/working with the technology ever since they were in beta. You mention that you've been working in schools dealing with networks since 2001, how much experience do you have with Windows Server 2008? And is your set-up vanilla or something along the line of RM, etc... It's alot different than 2k/2k3. And unless you have a certain level of experience with the technology, I would not recommend an intensive course. Have you checked out your local colleges to see if they do it? College's that do MS course and are MS academies normally offer the courses alot cheaper than alot of other training providers. Hope that helps -ken

Nice find, been looking for something like this -ken

How long have you been trying to get into the IT field? It took me 5 years and it took someone I know 10 years to get into IT. Each time I asked for feedback and it was always because I didn't have this or that (it was because I didn't have a driving licence or qualifications at the time). -Ken

Just let one of my mates know about this job -Ken

Happy birthday mate :party: -Ken

Hey Kim, Where are you escaping to? -Ken

Hi Guy's/Gal's A question for all of you out there... Has anyone here got experience of D-Link centrally managed wireless solutions? What are your thought on them? We actually recommend 3-Com due to experience, and because they are mid-range. We've used D-Link switches in the past, but found them to be unrealiable/not as managable compared to 3Com & HP; however their wireless kit (apart from the home stuff, which was shocking) we've had no direct experience with. Thanks for any help. -Ken

Did the course yesterday, all I can say is that is was very, very good. I learnt quite a few things and would recommend this to anyone. The course is rated level 3 of the NQF by Conventry University. The only down side that I can think of is that none of the software tools would work on my laptop (Vista 64-bit), if you do go on this course take a wireless enabled laptop with the 32-bit version of XP -Ken

You can sign up and create an account on PearsonVue, Prometric and Certiport and then find all the exam costs there. Plus when you're ready you can book the exam with them Hope that helps -Ken