Jobs in IT industry...
- Thread starter ArJay
- Start date
Hi,
I'm an Incident Manager for a major IT company. The term Incident Manager is from a discipline called ITIL which is a framework of processes designed to help business structure the way they manage IT.
Having worked in IT since '89 doing everything from print operations, to mainframe operations to service desk, it is very clear to me that business know how to put IT together, but they are hopeless when it comes to keeping track of it.
Most faults and delays in restoration are the result of lack of quality documentation and unclear demarcation points.
In my (personal) opinion, if you can learn how to configure a network, anyone can learn how to configure a network and that's going to be done by the lowest bidder.
Just a thought, rather than going into IT to try and be the best technician, go in with the goal of understanding the terminology and the needs of business i.e. why and how they are building their network.
If you're keen, get qualified in;
- ITIL Foundation V2 or V3
and if you're really keen
- ITIL Service Desk (to understand how users are managed when things break)
- ITIL Incident Management (how issues are management)
- ITIL Problem Management (how issues are resolved)
- ITIL Configuration (more about this later)
- ITIL Service Level Management (contracts and vendors)
If you can get your head around configuration management, then you can aim to be a specialist in helping business "management" their existing infrastructure.
It could be as simple as developing a way to index their network diagrams, cross-referencing doco with SLAs, etc
This would be in line with what Sim said, as you're skills wouldn't be dependent on staying on the learning curve, rather being able to manage it.
I'm currently studying for my ITIL Managers certificate V2.
And if you're unable to have someone pay for your qualifications, you can start by acquiring the ITIL core books.
for V2 there's "Service Support" and "Service Delivery" I've seen them sold on EBay, they retail for about $120 in Oz, so shop around.
Regards
Michael Gruber
I'm an Incident Manager for a major IT company. The term Incident Manager is from a discipline called ITIL which is a framework of processes designed to help business structure the way they manage IT.
Having worked in IT since '89 doing everything from print operations, to mainframe operations to service desk, it is very clear to me that business know how to put IT together, but they are hopeless when it comes to keeping track of it.
Most faults and delays in restoration are the result of lack of quality documentation and unclear demarcation points.
In my (personal) opinion, if you can learn how to configure a network, anyone can learn how to configure a network and that's going to be done by the lowest bidder.
Just a thought, rather than going into IT to try and be the best technician, go in with the goal of understanding the terminology and the needs of business i.e. why and how they are building their network.
If you're keen, get qualified in;
- ITIL Foundation V2 or V3
and if you're really keen
- ITIL Service Desk (to understand how users are managed when things break)
- ITIL Incident Management (how issues are management)
- ITIL Problem Management (how issues are resolved)
- ITIL Configuration (more about this later)
- ITIL Service Level Management (contracts and vendors)
If you can get your head around configuration management, then you can aim to be a specialist in helping business "management" their existing infrastructure.
It could be as simple as developing a way to index their network diagrams, cross-referencing doco with SLAs, etc
This would be in line with what Sim said, as you're skills wouldn't be dependent on staying on the learning curve, rather being able to manage it.
I'm currently studying for my ITIL Managers certificate V2.
And if you're unable to have someone pay for your qualifications, you can start by acquiring the ITIL core books.
for V2 there's "Service Support" and "Service Delivery" I've seen them sold on EBay, they retail for about $120 in Oz, so shop around.
Regards
Michael Gruber
You guys seem to be talking about IT hardware, OS, database, and CRM management, moreso than using, say excel to facilitate business itself.
Is there a demand for advanced excel skills? Not that I think I have them.
I just notice on the excel forums there's all sorts of guys asking for help in designing a spreadsheet that handles high level tasks in major enterprises. i.e. tracking the output and overheads of a coal mine, with whatif projections due to weather predictions etc.
Is there a demand for advanced excel skills? Not that I think I have them.
I just notice on the excel forums there's all sorts of guys asking for help in designing a spreadsheet that handles high level tasks in major enterprises. i.e. tracking the output and overheads of a coal mine, with whatif projections due to weather predictions etc.
In 2000 I completed a TAFE traineeship in IT in Systems administration.
I got a job in the private sector working as an IT all-rounder, over the past 8 years I have moved between companies and climbed the ladder being a generalist and making sure that I was exposed to as many technologies as possible, from Novell, through to Linux, and from Citrix to Cisco. I never really specialised in any technology but I understood as many technologies as possible - which I think was the key.
After about 4 years I took on the role as an IT manager for a large company then my career basically went full steam ahead and I am now in a senior role of a large company on a great salary and get to travel the world.
My advice to others is make sure you do something you enjoy, throw yourself at it, learn as much as you can and be optimistic and positive.
IT is a great and exciting industry, and can be rewarding for anyone no matter what qualifications you have.
Good Luck
I got a job in the private sector working as an IT all-rounder, over the past 8 years I have moved between companies and climbed the ladder being a generalist and making sure that I was exposed to as many technologies as possible, from Novell, through to Linux, and from Citrix to Cisco. I never really specialised in any technology but I understood as many technologies as possible - which I think was the key.
After about 4 years I took on the role as an IT manager for a large company then my career basically went full steam ahead and I am now in a senior role of a large company on a great salary and get to travel the world.
My advice to others is make sure you do something you enjoy, throw yourself at it, learn as much as you can and be optimistic and positive.
IT is a great and exciting industry, and can be rewarding for anyone no matter what qualifications you have.
Good Luck
I've been in IT for a while and Shady's friends comments ring true of what most organizations are talking about and looking for.
As mentioned managing exponential data growth, complying with challanging (and changing) legal requirements and making sure everything is 'Green' in terms of powering all this infrastructure smartly and virtualizing (not just servers) IMHO is where the interesting (and high paying) IT roles are.
The following is a current buzz of the IT trends that I'm hearing:
Data Growth and Storage: The access to information is growing at an enormous rate. Storing this information is a massive challenge for big corporates. Not only to have it sitting on big multi-terabyte disk systems, but it needs to be intelligently stored, tiered, categorised, data-mined, reported on etc. On top of that significant portions of it need to be available all the time, everytime - if not a corporate might lose at best significant sums of money or worse be out of business overnight showered in bad publicity quickly made aware to a huge amount of people in a short amount of time.
Legal requirements: Since we can interact with someone on the otherside of the world in a few mouse-clicks, it also means we can conduct business with them in ways that wouldn't have been possible a few years ago. Big corporates obviously do this too and sometimes legal jurisidcation needs to cross countries. As a result, legal requirements for e-document management and retention are also big requirements. It's nothing to spend a few million dollars on an IT hardware/software solution that could safeguard a corporate hundreds of millions of dollars in fines...
Virtualization: Corporates are looking at ways to reduce the power consumption of their infrastructure. Virtualization tends to be the big focus here and you can get immediate gains by deploying a single (or cluster) of physical servers to host a number of virtual servers. Projects are underway in many organisations to audit environments and have them re-hosted in virtual machines as part of a refresh or a new project. Storage virtualization is also a big buzz-word here with things like virtual tape libraries, de-duplication, tiered storage arrays with a mixture of lesser capacity but higher performing disks and lower performing but higher capacity disks in different tiers, etc.
'Green' IT: Virtualization tends follow on to Green solutions where significant reduction in infrastrucutre power requirements can be achieved by virtualization. Tiereing storage in a SAN array for example rather than having multiple arrays on the floor, conoslidating a number of physical servers to virtual-servers and then hosting them on a reduced number of physical servers. Smart cooling solutions to help reduce load on external cooling systems in data centres etc. better power management and utilization of power etc.
Data Management and reporting: It's a huge challenge to report accurately and timely on all of the above information in meaningful ways and every environemnt is different, so no off the shelf product will work without significant amounts of customization.
I guess my take on IT is that it's becoming less and less about Operating Systems and hardware and more about skills in developing and architecting the above sorts of solutions where the big money is.
'Front office' people who can talk technical enough and align themselves with the above technologies seems to be where the big focus (and money) is in IT...
As mentioned managing exponential data growth, complying with challanging (and changing) legal requirements and making sure everything is 'Green' in terms of powering all this infrastructure smartly and virtualizing (not just servers) IMHO is where the interesting (and high paying) IT roles are.
The following is a current buzz of the IT trends that I'm hearing:
Data Growth and Storage: The access to information is growing at an enormous rate. Storing this information is a massive challenge for big corporates. Not only to have it sitting on big multi-terabyte disk systems, but it needs to be intelligently stored, tiered, categorised, data-mined, reported on etc. On top of that significant portions of it need to be available all the time, everytime - if not a corporate might lose at best significant sums of money or worse be out of business overnight showered in bad publicity quickly made aware to a huge amount of people in a short amount of time.
Legal requirements: Since we can interact with someone on the otherside of the world in a few mouse-clicks, it also means we can conduct business with them in ways that wouldn't have been possible a few years ago. Big corporates obviously do this too and sometimes legal jurisidcation needs to cross countries. As a result, legal requirements for e-document management and retention are also big requirements. It's nothing to spend a few million dollars on an IT hardware/software solution that could safeguard a corporate hundreds of millions of dollars in fines...
Virtualization: Corporates are looking at ways to reduce the power consumption of their infrastructure. Virtualization tends to be the big focus here and you can get immediate gains by deploying a single (or cluster) of physical servers to host a number of virtual servers. Projects are underway in many organisations to audit environments and have them re-hosted in virtual machines as part of a refresh or a new project. Storage virtualization is also a big buzz-word here with things like virtual tape libraries, de-duplication, tiered storage arrays with a mixture of lesser capacity but higher performing disks and lower performing but higher capacity disks in different tiers, etc.
'Green' IT: Virtualization tends follow on to Green solutions where significant reduction in infrastrucutre power requirements can be achieved by virtualization. Tiereing storage in a SAN array for example rather than having multiple arrays on the floor, conoslidating a number of physical servers to virtual-servers and then hosting them on a reduced number of physical servers. Smart cooling solutions to help reduce load on external cooling systems in data centres etc. better power management and utilization of power etc.
Data Management and reporting: It's a huge challenge to report accurately and timely on all of the above information in meaningful ways and every environemnt is different, so no off the shelf product will work without significant amounts of customization.
I guess my take on IT is that it's becoming less and less about Operating Systems and hardware and more about skills in developing and architecting the above sorts of solutions where the big money is.
'Front office' people who can talk technical enough and align themselves with the above technologies seems to be where the big focus (and money) is in IT...
Cheers for the great posts folks...really interesting reading and very appreciated.
Just from what's been posted as yet there seems to be so much more to the industry than I'd concieved...which makes it difficult to decide which path/s to follow.
How did you come to be in your chosen field?
Did you get in at an entry level and then follow your interests, or was it a concerted effort to become qualified specifically for the job?
Rory
Just from what's been posted as yet there seems to be so much more to the industry than I'd concieved...which makes it difficult to decide which path/s to follow.
How did you come to be in your chosen field?
Did you get in at an entry level and then follow your interests, or was it a concerted effort to become qualified specifically for the job?
Rory
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I was always going to work in IT.
Was an addiction when I was young. Started programming at around age 10 on a zx81. Then coded assembler on the Commodore 64 for a few years then moved onto the Amiga. IT was a passion and something that I was naturally drawn towards.
Getting through school and uni to get into that field was drab and boring but a necessary evil.
Basically nagged my way into my first job. Started as a computer operator but quickly (within 6 months), proved myself and moved on to administration.
Once the foot is in the door it's much easier. Have since worked as a developer, project manager, done some bid work, budgeting, solution design etc etc.
The one thing I realise now that I didn't back in the old Amiga demo scene days was that "computers are way fun" but "business computing is the most god aweful boring application of computers in existence"
If I had my time again I would have gotten into digital imagery for medical applications and the science and IT behind that.
Making sure 10000 end users can work for the day while noble, doesn't offer excitement often.
Cheers,
Arkay.
Was an addiction when I was young. Started programming at around age 10 on a zx81. Then coded assembler on the Commodore 64 for a few years then moved onto the Amiga. IT was a passion and something that I was naturally drawn towards.
Getting through school and uni to get into that field was drab and boring but a necessary evil.
Basically nagged my way into my first job. Started as a computer operator but quickly (within 6 months), proved myself and moved on to administration.
Once the foot is in the door it's much easier. Have since worked as a developer, project manager, done some bid work, budgeting, solution design etc etc.
The one thing I realise now that I didn't back in the old Amiga demo scene days was that "computers are way fun" but "business computing is the most god aweful boring application of computers in existence"
If I had my time again I would have gotten into digital imagery for medical applications and the science and IT behind that.
Making sure 10000 end users can work for the day while noble, doesn't offer excitement often.
Cheers,
Arkay.
Ditto
Computer operators, sys admins, network admins, generally any infrastructure related jobs are going to become more and more mundane and boring, specialised and production lined. The aim is to keep the infrastructure running at the lowest cost possible, to do that it's becoming a white collar production line.
It's a good environment to learn in, if you want to learn and find out about stuff it's OK, if you want to sit down and do very little you can do that too. If you want to learn and be active you are going to have to move around, you won't be able to sit in one job for an outsourcer doing infrastructure work and grow your career.
That's my take on it anyway.
Currently working for a large outsourcer doing infrastructure support.
Regards
Graeme
How did you come to be in your chosen field?
Did you get in at an entry level and then follow your interests, or was it a concerted effort to become qualified specifically for the job?
Rory
I started of as a programmer.
I soon discovered programming was about people - not computers. Programmers (I think they're called software developers these days
) is all about finding the cutomer's requirements, and converting that into a set of instructions computers understand. Easier said than done when most people have a vague idea of what they want, and an even vaguer idea of what they need! Not only that, in an enterprise wide system where making a small change to cater for the whims of a few (or one) could affect many, it was about talking and negotiating to a whole range of people. Got so good at talking and politicing to our clients that they put me in charge of a small helpdesk/support team. Over time, our operation has grown to the point where the first level helpdesk is now a separate department from us, as are the developers. I run the second and third level applications and infratructure support teams, as well as the operations of a datacentre.
These days, it's all about making sure my cost centre recovers enough money to pay my staff, pay the bills and replace worn gear. It's just like dealing with IP's - dealing with people like tenants, managers, sales people; dealing with rain leaks, utility costs, insurance; dealing with concepts like depreciation and financing - all in an effort to add capital value to the business
Cheers,
The Y-man
Can I make an assumption and say that 12 months of some type of network role would be invaluable? What would a role be called that involves installing and setting up networks? Engineer Hardware/Engineer Network/Engineer Software? Is there any chance in hell that a novice could get into something like this?
Does that mean it might be easier to get a job with an outsource house?
Cheers
My advice, never ever work for an outsourcer if you can avoid it. Maybe use it as a stepping stone. But outsource houses underquote to get jobs and have to make up the difference anyway they can. Usually the only fat in it is how hard they can milk their staff. So you end up with overworked, underpayed, unhappy people in a not very nice environment to spend your day in. Until you leave for greener pastures
Cheers,
Arkay.
Does that mean it might be easier to get a job with an outsource house?
Cheers
I'm in IT too, telecoms specifically. Been here since Uni. 11 years and counting...
Unfortunately the "good old days" for telecom have long gone (before the tech bust of 2000) and I've been waiting for a recovery ever since. I don't see it happening any time soon what with the glut of telecom engineers and industry consolidation yet to work itself out. In terms of compensation, can't really complain. Quite decent pay when compared against others in the IT industry (although nowhere near the boom sectors like SAP).
What I'd recommend to anyone wishing to enter the telecom industry is to make sure you are educated on the latest and greatest technology as soon as possible (preferably as soon as you join up). The trend I have seen in this business is that once a technology becomes mature, it is passed on to "lower cost centers" like china or india. You have to stay ahead of the game, if you wish to continue to get paid a first world salary.
Unfortunately the "good old days" for telecom have long gone (before the tech bust of 2000) and I've been waiting for a recovery ever since. I don't see it happening any time soon what with the glut of telecom engineers and industry consolidation yet to work itself out. In terms of compensation, can't really complain. Quite decent pay when compared against others in the IT industry (although nowhere near the boom sectors like SAP).
What I'd recommend to anyone wishing to enter the telecom industry is to make sure you are educated on the latest and greatest technology as soon as possible (preferably as soon as you join up). The trend I have seen in this business is that once a technology becomes mature, it is passed on to "lower cost centers" like china or india. You have to stay ahead of the game, if you wish to continue to get paid a first world salary.
My people are called IT Network Specialists or IT Network Engineers.
One of them started in the call centre. We were impressed with his drive though - he went and got a CCNA in his own time, doing weekend courses, and (as all serious guys in this profession seem to ... ) had a LAN set up at home with 2nd hand cisco gear ....
Cheers,
The Y-man
When I started in IT, after getting a good grounding in programming, and learning the business, my role covered talking to clients, writing specifications, programming based on my own specs, testing my own stuff with a little input from the end users, and throwing it straight into production.
Today, especially in a larger organisation, things have become more disciplined. This is not the least because applications have become so much more complex.
I haven’t worked in IT for a few years now. But when I was, the steps were something like:
1. The business analyst talked with the end users (obviously after a requirement was identified, discussed, funded and all the rest) to determine what was required. A business spec was written.
2. A technical analyst may have translated that into tech speak for the programmers.
3. The programmers started work. Other teams may well have been required- perhaps data analysts and database administrators.
4. While this was happening, implementation and testing plans were being drawn up.
5. Testing started on the first stuff submitted by the programmers. There were usually heaps of little errors at this stage. Every error was documented, and sent back to the programmers.
6. When the detail testing was completed it was sent up to the next level. The first of several.
7. If users identified a shortfall in their own requirements, it had to be documented, sent back to the project team for analysis, and (especially) costed. With a cost benefit analysis. And any approved changes were sent back to the programmers.
That was a few years ago. And I’ve probably forgotten a few steps- as well as having missed out on some more developments.
A few years back, I had the opportunity, as a mere “coder”, after years of performing a number of other roles. I was able to contribute a few ideas to a project in progress. The ideas I contributed helped (substantially) to bring some people to justice. I am very glad of the role I performed in that action. But, in the current environment, I would not have been able to contribute even that.
Not necessarily. You still need the qualifications and to some extent experience. Outsource houses pay penalties for not meeting SLA's so they're pretty pedantic about hiring the right staff that present the least risk to them.
In terms of "easy to get a job" I would say people like IBM's contracting division, or any of the business partners (advent one, synergy etc), and equivalents for HP, Sun etc would be good to go for. They get paid to place people in positions and are often not concerned with the skill level or competence of the individual placed (as bad as that may sound). We had a contractor start with us on placement from one of those a couple of years ago. He literally started with us a day after he got off the boat from China. Nice guy, probably new his stuff well, but couldn't speak a word of English. Talk about thrown in at the deep end.
Cheers,
Arkay.
Agile can work when people know their business environment. I've seen it work really well when that has happened- I've also seen it as a disaster when people who have been strictly coders and who don't know the business try to contribute.It's all agile now, geoffw
Forget the waterfall, it's very inefficient in business environment.
Seems to be that most people are in hardware and infrastructure, any programmers around?
Programmer here
Started off as a programmer then moved into system architect role for awhile. Sometimes it was fun but sometimes it was so boring, figuring out how old infrastructure works that has no documentations on it then making the documentation yourself is not that fun. After a while I said stuff it, I'm going back to programming so I'm a programmer again and enjoying it a lot more
I swiped this from another web site and wondered if these were simple questions that any IT person should know the answers to or whether they were on the difficult side?
What % would you know the answers too?
MCSE and System Administrator Job Interview Questions.
* What is an IP address?
* What is a subnet mask?
* What is ARP?
* What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
* What is the ANDing process?
* What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
* Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
* What is a subnet?
* What is APIPA?
* What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the numbers, just the ideas behind them)
* What is RFC 1918?
* What is CIDR?
* You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your network?
* You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
* You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools
* How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
* What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
* What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
* Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
* What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
* What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
* Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
* What is DHCPINFORM?
* Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
* What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
* What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
* How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
* What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network infrastructure?
* DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
* DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
* Describe the process of working with an external domain name
* Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
* Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
* What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
* What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
* What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
* What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
* What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
* How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
* Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
* What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
* You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
* What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
* What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
* What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
* How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
* How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
* What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
* What is WINS and when do we use it?
* Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?
* Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
* What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
* Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.
* Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
* What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
* What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
* In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
* What is NAT?
* What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
* How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
* How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
* What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
* What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
* What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?
* What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
* What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
* What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
* How does SSL work?
* How does IPSec work?
* How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
* What types of authentication can IPSec use?
* What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
* How do I monitor IPSec?
* Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?
* What can you do with NETSH?
* How do I look at the open ports on my machine?
What % would you know the answers too?
MCSE and System Administrator Job Interview Questions.
* What is an IP address?
* What is a subnet mask?
* What is ARP?
* What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
* What is the ANDing process?
* What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
* Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
* What is a subnet?
* What is APIPA?
* What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the numbers, just the ideas behind them)
* What is RFC 1918?
* What is CIDR?
* You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your network?
* You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
* You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools
* How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
* What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
* What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
* Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
* What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
* What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
* Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
* What is DHCPINFORM?
* Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
* What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
* What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
* How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
* What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network infrastructure?
* DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
* DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
* Describe the process of working with an external domain name
* Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
* Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
* What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
* What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
* What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
* What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
* What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
* How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
* Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
* What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
* You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
* What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
* What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
* What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
* How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
* How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
* What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
* What is WINS and when do we use it?
* Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?
* Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
* What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
* Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.
* Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
* What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
* What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
* In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
* What is NAT?
* What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
* How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
* How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
* What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
* What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
* What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?
* What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
* What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
* What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
* How does SSL work?
* How does IPSec work?
* How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
* What types of authentication can IPSec use?
* What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
* How do I monitor IPSec?
* Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?
* What can you do with NETSH?
* How do I look at the open ports on my machine?
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