Is this a good idea

C

Cottonwood00

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
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Hey I'm currently a computer science major but also looking to expand into networking so i can keep my options broad. I'm currently reading the cisco books for my CCNA, but i my question has to do with practice. So far i know how to run cables(capping and setting up cable cable boxes) and have done professional work with this. But i was wondering if it would be worth making my next computer a server so i can work with software/Hardware networking. When i ask that, do you think its worth the experience or is it better to try and pick it up during training(job)? And if i do this what kind of stuff do you guys work with software/hardware wise? - thank you
 
any practice is always good. if you have the opportunity to mess around with stuff, do it. also, what you install depends more on what you are looking to do. In my job, I work mostly with actual networking equipment (switches, routers, vpns, firewalls, proxies, etc), while some people who work in the SMB market seem to do more with things like AD and the like.
 
why not use VMWare, you can make your next computer anything you want.
 
Jay_oasis said:
why not use VMWare, you can make your next computer anything you want.
Click to expand...

I would agree... The hardware side of "having a server" isn't that big of a deal if you're "into" computers already. Most can be picked up quite quickly, and having a server wouldn't help you that much with your CCNA goals.
 
Job experience is going to provide you with more skills than just getting your feet wet.
 
For getting used to IOS command lines, try pyios.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyios/

For studying servers, nothing beats virtualization. You got tons of choices
Vmware is the standard, but anything is possible. You also got Xen, Virtualbox, Qmenu, and Parallel. There are many others I haven't tried, so I can't recommend others yet.

Also, if the budget fits, you can rent a virtual cisco lab over the net for few hours.

Have fun.
 
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