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Cyks
Mar 17, 2008

The trenches of IT can scar a muppet for life

ClumsyThief posted:

I can't imagine sinking $1000+ in test fees and study materials and still not having a certification.

My $1500 invested into CCNP that I still don't have says Hi. And with the restructure, my $600 worth of completed exams is now only $400 worth.
(I did have two vouchers with $300 each, so only $900 out of pocket to date)

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BaseballPCHiker
Jan 16, 2006

Cyks posted:

My $1500 invested into CCNP that I still don't have says Hi. And with the restructure, my $600 worth of completed exams is now only $400 worth.
(I did have two vouchers with $300 each, so only $900 out of pocket to date)

How do you invest $1500 into a CCNP? Even between exam restructures? Did you just buy a bunch of hardware for the exam?

Sneaky Wombat
Jan 9, 2010

I scheduled my network+ for the 2nd week of September, I am going to CBTnuggets route and will report back how prepped I feel, and I can grab the udemy course if I really think this didn't help. My only complaint so far is that it's out of order from the book and that drives me nuts. After that, I am going to dive into RHCSA, and finally end up at CCNA if I still have the study time.

My time management sucks, and attention span sucks. so I am trying the https://tomato-timer.com/ method. Basically you go for 25 mins, short break 5, another 25, then a 15 min break, rinse and repeat.

My partner is real happy that I am self studying, so that is a bonus.

Cyks
Mar 17, 2008

The trenches of IT can scar a muppet for life

BaseballPCHiker posted:

How do you invest $1500 into a CCNP? Even between exam restructures? Did you just buy a bunch of hardware for the exam?

At 3 exams required (previously) and $300 a pop, that's only one fail before a pass on each exam.
I passed switch a week before the change so I went into tshoot with very little time to review.

Zotix
Aug 14, 2011



Sneaky Wombat posted:

I scheduled my network+ for the 2nd week of September, I am going to CBTnuggets route and will report back how prepped I feel, and I can grab the udemy course if I really think this didn't help. My only complaint so far is that it's out of order from the book and that drives me nuts. After that, I am going to dive into RHCSA, and finally end up at CCNA if I still have the study time.

My time management sucks, and attention span sucks. so I am trying the https://tomato-timer.com/ method. Basically you go for 25 mins, short break 5, another 25, then a 15 min break, rinse and repeat.

My partner is real happy that I am self studying, so that is a bonus.

I'm doing something similar. Finished up net+ and then doing Sec+ before going after RHCSA. Have you looked at the resources you would like to use for RHCSA? I suspect I'll be taking sec+ in like 5-6 weeks and then jumping into Linux. I'm probably going to go with Sander Van Vugts Linux essentials initially, and then doing his RHCSA class.

Sneaky Wombat
Jan 9, 2010

Zotix posted:

I'm doing something similar. Finished up net+ and then doing Sec+ before going after RHCSA. Have you looked at the resources you would like to use for RHCSA? I suspect I'll be taking sec+ in like 5-6 weeks and then jumping into Linux. I'm probably going to go with Sander Van Vugts Linux essentials initially, and then doing his RHCSA class.

Basically Sander and the Michael Jang book.

MrKatharsis
Nov 29, 2003

feel the bern

Sneaky Wombat posted:

Basically Sander and the Michael Jang book.

Sander is doing a 65% off deal where you can get his RHCSA ebook and class for $117, less than the cost of the Essentials class.

Zotix
Aug 14, 2011



I asked on the RHEL subreddit, and if don't know anything about Linux, I was advised to go with the essentials first. So I'm gonna go with that route. It seems like the RHCSA course can still get you there, but I think I'm gonna build the foundation with the essentials first.

Sneaky Wombat
Jan 9, 2010

Zotix posted:

I asked on the RHEL subreddit, and if don't know anything about Linux, I was advised to go with the essentials first. So I'm gonna go with that route. It seems like the RHCSA course can still get you there, but I think I'm gonna build the foundation with the essentials first.

I have the RHCSA videos, and started looking at them* and honestly, RHCSA only assumes you know how to install an OS, and use the GUI to find where the terminal is.
I think you can dive right in, but at the same time if you would feel more comfortable going through essentials, I totally get that.

*(I know I should wait till after my network plus, but my brain likes to bounce between 2-3 topics or I won't learn the first one)


MrKatharsis posted:

Sander is doing a 65% off deal where you can get his RHCSA ebook and class for $117, less than the cost of the Essentials class.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

MrKatharsis posted:

Sander is doing a 65% off deal where you can get his RHCSA ebook and class for $117, less than the cost of the Essentials class.

Do you have a link for this? I have Linux+ but would like something a bit more respected. I checked his site and nothing jumped out at me.

Sneaky Wombat
Jan 9, 2010

FCKGW posted:

Do you have a link for this? I have Linux+ but would like something a bit more respected. I checked his site and nothing jumped out at me.

https://www.sandervanvugt.com/red-hat-rhcsa-8-cert-guide-ex200/ then select Bundle: eBook + RHCSA Video Course (65% discount)

Jeesis
Mar 4, 2010

I am the second illegitimate son of gawd who resides in hoaven.
So questions for WGU nerds, I have been working at my current job doing almost entirely programming work with a splash of Linux admining after having never done anything beyond a couple line shell script but now building a nearly full on API for a ancient phone system to make my coworkers lives easier as long as making my life easier making tools for them, and I am thinking of throwing away the idea of getting a networking/IT cert and just going full hog into trying for a computer science degree at WGU.

Numbered list for ease of answering.

1. How is the instruction in regards to coursework? Are there live and/or recorded lectures?

2. How hands on are the instructions? If I get stuck on something in particular can I get a 1-on-1 with a instructor if need be?

3. I seem to recall people saying they have a forum, is this considered a good source of information on working through the coursework? Is it viewed as a crutch for lack of formal direction?

4. I noticed a cursory search that calculus would require a pre-test to check if prior mathematics classes are required. Are there usually pre-tests for most of the classes?

5. Is it required to take a accuplacer or similar test before enrolling?

6. How good is the educational material? Is it all supplied or are you required to get books? If you have to purchase books, is it required you purchase through them?

7. Have there been any technical issues with accessing the site and course material? If yes, was there any type of reimbursement?

8. How are tests administrated? Is it purely a login and take the test or are there specific times when the tests are given? I assume they have time limits, how generous are the time limits? If you fail, are you allowed to retake it?

9. What is generally done for coursework? Is it essentially read chapters 1-5 then take a test on it or is it more hands on with researching what’s in the book and figuring out problems?

10. All in all, how would nerds rate your learning experience? Did it feel more like you had to learn on your own entirely or was it do the work at your own pace and if you get stuck there are resources that helped you through it?

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

I graduated in December 2018 with a B.S . in Information Technology - Security which is what the current Network Operations and Security degree was called. I also have a co-worker who went through the B.S. Software Developer program which existed before the CS degree was introduced. I had an Associates in CS before applying and transferred in about 50% of my credits.

The entire ethos of WGU is "go at your own pace". It is fully self-paced. There are no due dates, scheduled tests, anything like that. You sign up for a course and you have access to all the material and can complete it as fast or as slow as is comfortable to you. You take a test at the very end that is supposed to represent the entirety of your knowledge in the course. Either you pass and you're done with the class, or you don't and you then meet with the mentor to see what you need to work on and re-take the test at a later date. Some of my courses I finished in <4 weeks and some I finished in a few months. Sometimes I took a week or two off when life stuff came up. You pay a flat tuition for every 6 month term and if you can finish 8 classes in that term you pay the same as if you only did 2. The only sticking point is you have to have whatever classes you committed to completed by the end of the term so make sure you set a realistic goal. There's no due dates or finals week or anything. You start the classes and your goal is to pass the final assesment. It's on you to figure out that journey to get there. They do provide pacing guides if you want more structure however (I used these for every class).

I'll try and answer as best I can but much of this may have changed in the last ~18 months

Jeesis posted:

1. How is the instruction in regards to coursework? Are there live and/or recorded lectures?

Since WGU is 100% self-paced learning there's no live lectures, you just have access to the study materials and any books or videos. Think of it kinda like Udemy. WGU has coursework, usually through Ucertify or another online learning company and you can go through the material at your leisure. They also supply labs and stuff like that too.

Jeesis posted:

2. How hands on are the instructions? If I get stuck on something in particular can I get a 1-on-1 with a instructor if need be?

You'll have an overall program WGU mentor for the entire program to plan out classes and overall program question (like a school counselor). Each course has course mentors you can email, a course message board and slack channels you can bounce questions off of. I had to have a phone call with my program mentor every week to make sure I was staying on track. You can also schedule phone calls with program mentors if you need 1:1 instruction as well. I had questions a couple times and could always find someone to help clarify anything I needed.

Jeesis posted:

3. I seem to recall people saying they have a forum, is this considered a good source of information on working through the coursework? Is it viewed as a crutch for lack of formal direction?

I wouldn't consider it a crutch, it's not much different than a discussion board from a online course at a traditional school. The mentors are in there to make sure everyone is being helped. There's also lots of pdfs, video links, whatever other clarifying material always being passed around in there.

Jeesis posted:

4. I noticed a cursory search that calculus would require a pre-test to check if prior mathematics classes are required. Are there usually pre-tests for most of the classes?

Every course I did had a pre-test. You're usually expected to fail the pre-test (it's meant to access your existing knowledge and then set learning goals accordingly) but if you do really well you can talk to your course mentor and they can move you straight from the pre-assesment to the final assessment test and skip all the material. WGU only cares if you know the material or not. If you have real-world, learned experience they won't force you to go through the class, you can skip straight ahead and prove you already know it and move on to the next class. I did this for one class and on another I spent 3 days reviewing the material and passed the class.

Jeesis posted:

5. Is it required to take a accuplacer or similar test before enrolling?

WGU does not take "freshman" students. They consider everyone enrolling to be at least a "junior". What this means is that you must either have prior college credits or can show real-world work experience to apply. If you have a current job related to the degree you're applying to then you should be fine. After you're accepted you do have to take a small math and English test that will determine your placement for whatever courses you may still need to take.

Jeesis posted:

6. How good is the educational material? Is it all supplied or are you required to get books? If you have to purchase books, is it required you purchase through them?

All material is included, tuition covers everything. This includes any certification vouchers if your degree includes them. I thought the material was adequate for most of the courses but for some of my higher level courses I sought out supplemental material. For example on my Security+ cert the included official guide is pretty lacking so I purchased some video series and practice tests from another source recommended by other students in the slack channel. On my Cisco tests however WGU provided the industry leading practice test environment and a ton of virtual labs that would have costs hundreds of dollars if I purchased them elsewhere. I probably spent <$300 on supplemental material over the course of the entire program.

Jeesis posted:

7. Have there been any technical issues with accessing the site and course material? If yes, was there any type of reimbursement?

I had maybe once or twice where the site was complete inaccessible but it was less than an hour or two and since there's not really any due dates it didn't affect anything.

Jeesis posted:

8. How are tests administrated? Is it purely a login and take the test or are there specific times when the tests are given? I assume they have time limits, how generous are the time limits? If you fail, are you allowed to retake it?

They have objective assessments and performance assessments. Objective assessments are things like graded papers. Submit your work and it gets evaluated by a mentor. Performance assessments are like traditional tests, with true/false answers and a time limit. Performance assessments that are done at home are proctored (someone online is watching you take the test) and have a given time limit. You can schedule the test for whenever is convenient to you. Some of my tests were done at testing centers but with COVID they are using in-home proctors for those now too.

Jeesis posted:

9. What is generally done for coursework? Is it essentially read chapters 1-5 then take a test on it or is it more hands on with researching what’s in the book and figuring out problems?

Depends on the course, much of it read these chapters, watch these videos, take this test. The more technical courses in my program had read these chapters, fire up the virtual lab and work on problem. They give you an issue and you figure out the solution. I know my co-worker who was working on his java courses had a bunch of instructions and videos to watch, tests to take, and then was given a problem and a list of deliverables and told to write a program to solve the problem and submit it. So depends on the course but you could either be doing one or both.

Jeesis posted:

10. All in all, how would nerds rate your learning experience? Did it feel more like you had to learn on your own entirely or was it do the work at your own pace and if you get stuck there are resources that helped you through it?

Overall I felt it was a good experience. I turned to WGU because of the flexibility, the included certs and it was an accredited university. I would consider it to be the most legitimate of any of the online-only schools. They really do expect you to do the work, there's no rubber stamping of any crap you submit. Many of my courses required you pass an industry cert to pass the class which means you had to actually know and demonstrate the material, you couldn't fake it.

One downside of the degree is that since WGU is exclusively a pass/fail grading system, your GPA will be a 3.0 no matter what. Does this matter? It depends. I will say that I was considering a masters program and I applied to ~10 schools, all of them traditional B&M schools with online masters programs. I was accepted into all of them with nothing more than my WGU degree, including really good schools like University of Maryland and Georgia Tech. If it's good enough for GA Tech then it's good enough for me.

cosmin
Aug 29, 2008
Man I just finished my AWS Solution Architect Associate exam 2020 and I have to vent off

Harder than I expected, never spent this much time in a certification exam (only 20 min left at the end)

Had an annoying proctor that told me she will revoke my exam for not keeping my eyes on the screen while doing mental math on the % of question flagged uhh

Much harder than I expected and than all the practice tests i’ve done at whizlabs and acloudguru, I think it’s the 2020 update as a lot of the answers felt written in jest at the quiz and training industry, with distractors that included the sure shot buzzwords mentioned in the trainings

All in all, harder than I thought but fair and enjoyable. It said I PASSED and i couldn’t believe my eyes, still refreshing my email to get that confirmation but i understand it could take a while.

Also - i only studied for the last 5 days but pretty hardcore, very little aws experience but i am a certified professional cloud architect for a competing vendor so that helped :)

I am eyeing an AWS Enterprise Architect position, hope this would help. I remember there were some aws TAMs on the forum, if you read this pls drop a PM as I’d like to ask some questions about the recruitment process

Anyway - my take is that the 2020 exam is harder than it seemed from the practice exams, i don’t think they had time to properly update them

Feels good that I actually got it and not squandered my own personal money for the exam, hope it will pay back in time

Cyks
Mar 17, 2008

The trenches of IT can scar a muppet for life

cosmin posted:

Man I just finished my AWS Solution Architect Associate exam 2020 and I have to vent off

Harder than I expected, never spent this much time in a certification exam (only 20 min left at the end)

Had an annoying proctor that told me she will revoke my exam for not keeping my eyes on the screen while doing mental math on the % of question flagged uhh

Much harder than I expected and than all the practice tests i’ve done at whizlabs and acloudguru, I think it’s the 2020 update as a lot of the answers felt written in jest at the quiz and training industry, with distractors that included the sure shot buzzwords mentioned in the trainings

All in all, harder than I thought but fair and enjoyable. It said I PASSED and i couldn’t believe my eyes, still refreshing my email to get that confirmation but i understand it could take a while.

Also - i only studied for the last 5 days but pretty hardcore, very little aws experience but i am a certified professional cloud architect for a competing vendor so that helped :)

I am eyeing an AWS Enterprise Architect position, hope this would help. I remember there were some aws TAMs on the forum, if you read this pls drop a PM as I’d like to ask some questions about the recruitment process

Anyway - my take is that the 2020 exam is harder than it seemed from the practice exams, i don’t think they had time to properly update them

Feels good that I actually got it and not squandered my own personal money for the exam, hope it will pay back in time

Congrats! I've been studying this exam pretty hard for the past few days as well. General consensus over on the aws subreddit is acloudguru and whizlabs practice exams have been lacking since the 2020 change and Jon Bonso's are the current gold standard. I don't know enough about them to know if that is true or just reddit being an echo chamber of advertisements though.
David Bombal just released a class on Udemy featuring Anthony Sequeira and Network Chuck as instructors and I'm not at all impressed, but I've never been impressed with ITPro.TV and the first half has been all just Sequeira. I switched to Stephane Maarek and he has been much better (and on sale right now for $10).

cosmin
Aug 29, 2008
Thanks! I sort of went with the resources i had at hand (and really just used the trial for ACG 😁) but I think reddit is right, whizlabs tests helped but felt a bit outdated (like classic ec2, vpc, s3 that are good for getting the fundamentals but the exam questions are a lot trickier!)

Fyi had questions on snowball edge, dynamo on demand, a couple on windows fsx, global accelerator, KMS and key management, OUs and policies, Storage Gateway, transit vpc (this was for a multiple vpn tunnels question, i think transit vpc was the answer), lambda step functions etc

Actuarial Fables
Jul 29, 2014

Taco Defender
Most was already covered, but to add to this

Jeesis posted:

1. How is the instruction in regards to coursework? Are there live and/or recorded lectures?
Depending on the course, there are sometimes live "cohort" sessions where a course instructor goes over a particular topic or section live. It's meant to be supplemental material, and I found having someone lecture to me after I've read the material helped me retain info better. The downside to the live sessions is that with no universal class start time, sometimes you'll start a class and the only live sessions for the next week are test prep and review sessions.

Jeesis posted:

10. All in all, how would nerds rate your learning experience? Did it feel more like you had to learn on your own entirely or was it do the work at your own pace and if you get stuck there are resources that helped you through it?

I had taken online courses previously through a community college, where no one cared that I wasn't doing the course work and no one noticed when I didn't log in for a month and eventually gave up.
Very different experience at WGU, mostly because of the weekly mentor calls where you have to report on the previous week (were your goals met? run into problems?) and make a goal for the next week, which can help motivate you because no one wants to say they didn't meet their goals. It's also very easy to schedule time with a course instructor if you need to go over a topic or have questions on the course itself.

Sneaky Wombat
Jan 9, 2010

Dumb question but how are people doing cert exams? is it remote and they require you to be on webcam?

ClumsyThief
Sep 11, 2001

Sneaky Wombat posted:

Dumb question but how are people doing cert exams? is it remote and they require you to be on webcam?

Yes. I've recently done A+ and Net+ through PearsonVue's online proctoring.

Edit: Depending on your area's COVID situation I've heard a lot of testing centers are open so I'd look into it if you might want to do that instead.

cosmin
Aug 29, 2008
And your experience may vary depending on the proctor.

Had people that never said anything or proctors that had me cover my bookshelf (which is 3m behind me), berate me for covering my mouth or threatening to kick me out for not keeping my eyes on the screen (while doing mental operations)

I hate it.

The Iron Rose
May 12, 2012

:minnie: Cat Army :minnie:

Vintimus Prime posted:

Congratulations on the pass! I’m looking at the networking cert to tackle next myself.

Same as it happens! I’ve booked it for early September. Anyone done the exam and have any tips?

George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





What's the optimal way to get ITIL these days? What book or course?

NPR Journalizard
Feb 14, 2008

Got my DA-100 today. Went into it thinking I was def going to fail, but there were a bunch of questions in the Udemy prac exam that carried over so I just scrapped in with a pass.

RightClickSaveAs
Mar 1, 2001

Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...


Searched back through this thread but didn't find anything recent, are the SANS courses worth doing online if my employer is going to pay for it? Was looking at the SEC504 on demand option https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/hacker-techniques-exploits-incident-handling/ and it would cover the GCIH exam too. Found an old post saying the online is nothing like actually going and it's not really worth it, but the in person courses (which I'm surprised SANS is offering at all with the pandemic) I'm not going to be able to sell to my boss this year, although there's already money budgeted for training until the end of the year.

Any other online courses anyone would recommend I pitch?

Boba Pearl
Dec 27, 2019

by Athanatos
I did 4 years of customer service telling people how to use word, reset their routers, set up webcams and stuff for wfh stuff like that.

I'm switching my degree to network engineering AS because that's closer to what I want (a 80 - 120k Sysadmin position in silicon valley where I live.)

As part of my degree I'd get MSCA 1/2/3 CCNA 1/2/3 (I don't know how this relates to the CCNA cert path) CompTIA A+ / Cloud+/ Security+

Is that enough to get me in the door for a 50 - 60k a year job in the bay area? This is a cross post from the IT megathread.

Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Aug 27, 2020

BaseballPCHiker
Jan 16, 2006

Boba Pearl posted:

I did 4 years of customer service telling people how to use word, reset their routers, set up webcams and stuff for wfh stuff like that.

I'm switching my degree to network engineering AS because that's closer to what I want (a 80 - 120k Sysadmin position in silicon valley where I live.)

As part of my degree I'd get MSCA 1/2/3 CCNA 1/2/3 (I don't know how this relates to the CCNA cert path) CompTIA A+ / Cloud+/ Security+

Is that enough to get me in the door for a 50 - 60k a year job in the bay area? This is a cross post from the IT megathread.

Thats enough to get you 80-120K most places.

You probably already know this but your CompTIA certs will be worth gently caress all if you already have a CCNA and MSCA. What specific areas of IT are you interested in? Or do you want to be more a jack of all trades type?

Boba Pearl
Dec 27, 2019

by Athanatos
I don't know enough about the field, but I really enjoyed doing Help Desk, and remoting in. Ontop of that, I enjoy playing with my home routers, so networking would also be cool. I'd like to be a jack-of-all trades type that kind of has to do it all or at least figure it out.

George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





Man I'm not pleased with passing the ITIL. Material was pretty easy, was near acing the practice tests and then come test time I barely pass with 1 question over the limit. Talk about close. I don't think I've seen such a swing before. Oh well a pass is a pass

FlyTB20C
Sep 16, 2004



RightClickSaveAs posted:

Searched back through this thread but didn't find anything recent, are the SANS courses worth doing online if my employer is going to pay for it? Was looking at the SEC504 on demand option https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/hacker-techniques-exploits-incident-handling/ and it would cover the GCIH exam too. Found an old post saying the online is nothing like actually going and it's not really worth it, but the in person courses (which I'm surprised SANS is offering at all with the pandemic) I'm not going to be able to sell to my boss this year, although there's already money budgeted for training until the end of the year.

Any other online courses anyone would recommend I pitch?


I've been through 2 SANS courses and I think they're pretty good as long as someone else is paying. My understanding is GCIH is a respected cert (or at least the government loves it), so I'd say go for it. One co-worker went through an OnDemand course and didn't think it was that bad. I've personally done one in person and one "Live Online" (during pandemic) that was fine. The good thing for the exams is that you can take your books and an index in for the test.

RightClickSaveAs
Mar 1, 2001

Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...


FlyTB20C posted:

I've been through 2 SANS courses and I think they're pretty good as long as someone else is paying. My understanding is GCIH is a respected cert (or at least the government loves it), so I'd say go for it. One co-worker went through an OnDemand course and didn't think it was that bad. I've personally done one in person and one "Live Online" (during pandemic) that was fine. The good thing for the exams is that you can take your books and an index in for the test.
Awesome! Hearing about the open book made me a little worried as those were the hardest tests I had back in college, what's the difficulty like for those in general?

I ended up only have one evening to look into it, as my boss gave me a deadline to decide, so I pulled the trigger and did the On Demand SEC504. It comes with the GCIH exam and study materials, so I will be taking that sometime in the next 4 months I have to complete the course.

FlyTB20C
Sep 16, 2004



RightClickSaveAs posted:

Awesome! Hearing about the open book made me a little worried as those were the hardest tests I had back in college, what's the difficulty like for those in general?

I ended up only have one evening to look into it, as my boss gave me a deadline to decide, so I pulled the trigger and did the On Demand SEC504. It comes with the GCIH exam and study materials, so I will be taking that sometime in the next 4 months I have to complete the course.

I believe the GCIH has a lot of hands-on lab questions, not just multiple choice. The tests I've had have been challenging but not over-the-top hard. Just make sure you have a highlighter and some tabs for the books, make a good index of where things are in the books, and you should be fine!

Domus
May 7, 2007

Kidney Buddies
Trying to get my A+ without forking out a ton for study stuff of unknown worth. Spent like ‘95 to ‘98 repairing PCs for the blind, but haven’t done anything except for personal use since then. Watched professor messer vids on YouTube, and took a couple of practice tests. The free ones vary wildly in difficulty and topics. What study materials or practice tests are worth shelling out for?

And dear god, do you have to know that many port numbers in real life?

dkj
Feb 18, 2009

Domus posted:

Trying to get my A+ without forking out a ton for study stuff of unknown worth. Spent like ‘95 to ‘98 repairing PCs for the blind, but haven’t done anything except for personal use since then. Watched professor messer vids on YouTube, and took a couple of practice tests. The free ones vary wildly in difficulty and topics. What study materials or practice tests are worth shelling out for?

And dear god, do you have to know that many port numbers in real life?

I searched for a bunch of free practice tests for the A+ a few months ago, and found a lot of repeat questions that ended up being actual test questions. Professor Messer’s videos are good.

I bought a course on Udemy but didn’t think it helped much. I also bought some practice tests on there as well.

George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





If you ever need a port number you simply google “blah port number” and you have it on n under 10 seconds. you don’t actually need to know all of them in the real world.

Kazinsal
Dec 13, 2011



Only ones I know are important day to day stuff. Most software that cares about port numbers for analysis etc. accepts the name of the protocol instead like "https" or "dns" or "finger" so for day to day work sometimes you don't even need that.

For everything else there's google.

erenoyo
Jun 30, 2019

by Fluffdaddy
I work at a veterinary hospital as an assistant and I have zero IT training, but I am a nerd and so know how to do basic computer stuff. I've made a few improvements/changes to the hospital's hardware and set up a couple new features for our software because most people that work here are computer-illiterate, and now my boss is asking if I would be interested in being the hospital's full-time IT guy. They would pay my way through an entry-level course for what would essentially be small business IT support, so troubleshooting network issues, being the point guy with our vendors for software/hardware upgrades, basic website management, etc. What course(s) should I be looking at? I apologize if this is a lovely/stupid question

Zotix
Aug 14, 2011



Messer is a bit dry on his presentation but he really does cover the material needed without other nonsense. I briefly watched his stuff for A+, and then uses his stuff second on Net+. Each time I found if you don't mind his powerpoint style, he covers what you need to know in a very straightforward manner. In using his material first for Sec+

Heer98
Apr 10, 2009
My contract requires us to obtain an MCP, but since those aren't available, they're allowing us to use one of the new MMDA certs (MD-100) as a substitute.

I read through the whole book twice, and felt like I knew the material pretty well... But when I started using the practice tests on CBT Nuggets, I realized I actually don't know powershell very well, be or the specific GPO trees they want you to memorize. This is going to a much harder test than I expected, and I'm trying to start by learning the Po wershell and CMD Line commands.

The MS website has thousands of PS commands listed in a very unhelpful database. Does anyone know where I could find what commands I actually need to know for MD-100?

As an aside, I'm noticing tons of federal contracts that want four year degrees and an MCSA to do deskside support.

Cyks
Mar 17, 2008

The trenches of IT can scar a muppet for life

erenoyo posted:

I work at a veterinary hospital as an assistant and I have zero IT training, but I am a nerd and so know how to do basic computer stuff. I've made a few improvements/changes to the hospital's hardware and set up a couple new features for our software because most people that work here are computer-illiterate, and now my boss is asking if I would be interested in being the hospital's full-time IT guy. They would pay my way through an entry-level course for what would essentially be small business IT support, so troubleshooting network issues, being the point guy with our vendors for software/hardware upgrades, basic website management, etc. What course(s) should I be looking at? I apologize if this is a lovely/stupid question

There really isn't any general "small business IT" courses that I'm aware of (at least not on a certification level) and the generic CompTIAs really won't be that useful. I would probably recommend a office suite course since there's a lot of functions built in that you probably aren't aware of that would be useful for day to day operations.

With that said, I would highly recommend politely declining the offer, unless there is a substantial pay increase offer and even then. You don't want to be on the hook because "the internet is acting slow" and have no support to fall back on.

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Beaucoup Haram
Jun 18, 2005

Got 24 hours before my AZ-900 exam, haven't sat an exam in 20 years, cramming through the ACG course.

Any other tips ? I know this should be easy because I've worked in IT for over 15 years but haven't had a huge exposure to Azure and I think the process of sitting an exam is more daunting than the content. Any good practice tests other than the ACG one ?

Beaucoup Haram fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Sep 2, 2020

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