Recent content by Serra

Honestly, I say pick up a CompTIA Network+ study guide. Network+ is extremely basic and has no presumption of prior knowledge. It provides a broad base of information that is completely vendor-neutral, and thus applicable in all situations. I will absolutely not disagree that a Cisco CCNA...

To add my personal experience here - I can verify that there are CCIE's who cannot do basic firewall administration; I used to be one. When I got my route/switch CCIE, I had been working in such a capacity that I never did have to touch a firewall... it was a pure route/switch environment. It...

To weigh in - I went to university for 3 years before deciding to change to a 2-year school and leaving with an Associates in Network Engineering. The Associates degree was definitely much more helpful in terms of providing skills for day 1, but my time at the university has turned out to be...

I definitely do not mean to insult you or anyone else, and I sincerely apologize if I have. I think though that you took what I said a bit too broadly, so I will try to clarify again to help ensure no-one is insulted by what I have written. When I say a person can play with PFSense at home I'm...

I appreciate the sentiment, but I respectfully disagree. In regards to community support, please take a look at the rest of my statements about most people setting up pfsense incorrectly and/or not to best practices because they don't know any better - it's 100% true. In addition, while...

As something of a networking buff and someone who has actually worked on networks that tally end-of-day stock prices for a 16Tn-dollar investment bank I feel like I can safely wade into this one. Don't go into pfsense. It's alright for a geek at home that wants to play with things, but that's...

For your own knowledge I would highly recommend the A+ and Security+... maybe even the Server+. They aren't really valuable industry certifications, but what you take from them will help a lot in the real world and in interviews. A thorough understanding of consumer computer hardware, the...