The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Java to Cisco

I've been developing software for the past 5 years with a bit of unix sys admin as a consequence of it. But I grew tired. Work is usually on a project basis and it tires me to no end to not know what's going to happen after those 6/8 months.

So, I decided to take a Cisco certification. Work on the field for some time as a cheap network guy to gain experience and then launch my career. Or whatever comes next. Did any of you ever did this change? Programmer to network admin?

Thanks a lot
Alex.

Alexandre
Friday, January 30, 2004

If you want to do general networking, use win2k, linux etc.. If you want to do some firewalls, routing etc..try user mode linux (UML) and setup a few under your current machine and see how things work, break etc.

If you are starting in networking, you probably won't be doing too much cisco stuff, probably just some basic two static routes, one being a backup, some basic RIP maybe, but getting a CCNA won't get you any jobs in serious networking, that's for sure.

You want to do something pretty practial here, so I'd suggest you look at setting up little networks, even if some of the hosts/bridges/whatever are under user mode linux. While most places won't want this, if you want to move to real networking, lookup ipv6, multicast, ospf, ibgp and ebgp, router filtering, access lists, snmp, write some monitoring software in java for yourself, and run it on some networks.

Oh, and if you do end up doing some serious cisco things, learn expect, to automate most of your job, gathering customer stats etc..

fw
Friday, January 30, 2004

I went from programming to Information Security. Read some books and got a certification even. But I missed programming and now I am back doing what I love: programming. If you work for a small company like I do you get to do both admin AND programming!

Bill Rushmore
Friday, January 30, 2004