Re: Sounds good

There aren't any quotes or mention of me here, but from the content I
guess this was addressed to me!...


On 30 Jul 2003, you wrote in alt.certification.a-plus:
> So what exactly are you wanting to do? PC Repair is a decent field,
> but you usually only do well if you work for yourself, or a large
> corporation with multi-million dollar service contracts, or a large
> corporation that keeps a permanent in-house IT Service staff.

Well, I'd rather be honest and not pretend like I know exactly what I
want to do. Ideally it would involve designing, troubleshooting and
repairing the systems and network making up a LAN or MAN, I figure doing
Network+ is a good idea (I was 10% below "passing" a practice test with
what I know), then take a longer MS certification path to networking if
necessary.

> You're getting a degree in Computer Science and certifications. Good
> idea on both counts. I'd recommend applying for a job with a large
> corporation in your area.
>
> You'll do better to start out with. Get your feet wet with all the
> fun stuff, large networks, security breeches, buggy software, computer
> illiterate computer users that just happen to be CEO's. Remember,
> never tell your bosses to RTFM. Also, always document every thing you
> do and if at all possible involve e-mail with carbons so you can CYA.

Will do! I'm near the Silicon Valley and I'll settle for about any job I
can get right now.

> How much tech experience do you have?

No professional experience. Pretty much what I learned in school (not
much) plus experience building, upgrading, and troubleshooting PC
hardware and software problems, for myself and family. I started messing
with it about 8 years ago.

The A+ book I have (Charles Brooks) has filled in a lot of holes for me,
although there's a whole lot of mistakes, and some of the material is a
few years behind technology.

> Its funny it turned out to be a cable. But, that is the first thing I
> always check for when I'm troubleshooting a problem. That rule has
> been around since I started in the field.

She said they had called up two phone tech support places, and neither
suggested checking the external cabling. It's usually not the problem,
but still, it's the easiest possible thing to check and worth doing.

BTW, Xnews told me you requested a reply be by email only, but it was
bouncing back with a 553, so I'm replying here.

David

David K

David K <> wrote in
news:Xns93C87F9DC38C0davidiblindnessorg@207.69.154 .201:

> There aren't any quotes or mention of me here, but from the content I
> guess this was addressed to me!...

Sorry... Me and my newsreader aren't on intimate terms yet.

>
> Well, I'd rather be honest and not pretend like I know exactly what I
> want to do. Ideally it would involve designing, troubleshooting and
> repairing the systems and network making up a LAN or MAN, I figure
>
> doing Network+ is
> a good idea (I was 10% below "passing" a practice test with what I
> know), then take a longer MS certification path to networking if
> necessary.
>

Don't really mess with the certifications. Never needed them except for
more money in Networking. When they first started doing certifications
with Novell I figured it was some scam to bleed money out of the
computer repair tech types. Many of the CNE's (Certified Novell
Engineer's) I met had never put a NIC in a computer before. Let alone
the fact they couldn't make a cable. But they paid the several grand
involved and got the certifications by taking classes and passing the
tests.

When Microsoft started doing the certifications (for a whole lot less) I
started seeing ads in the classifieds for MCSE's. A while later I
started noticing most of the ad's asking for 2 to 3 years experience in
conjunction with the certifications.

I guess the most important thing is the Certifications and Degree will
probably get you in the door somewhere. Once you're there your ability
to solve the problems will keep you there. And the more useful you
become the more they won't feel like they can live without you.

>
> Will do! I'm near the Silicon Valley and I'll settle for about any job
> I can get right now.
>
Sounds like a good place to be. I know the economic situation has been
pretty bad for most of the tech companies. So I don't know what its
like out there. But I imagine it is a dream place for a techie.

>> How much tech experience do you have?
>
> No professional experience. Pretty much what I learned in school (not
> much) plus experience building, upgrading, and troubleshooting PC
> hardware and software problems, for myself and family. I started
> messing with it about 8 years ago.
>
Thats good. As long as you keep your feet in it you'll probably be able
to work in the field a long time. The hardware changes, but the basics
(so far) have remained the same. And much of the hardware has become
easier to install. (PC-Based strictly. There are other hardware
environments that may require different knowledge and skill sets. Like
Sun Microsystems. Even Mac's use a different architecture and requires
a different set of troubleshooting skills.)

> The A+ book I have (Charles Brooks) has filled in a lot of holes for
> me, although there's a whole lot of mistakes, and some of the material
> is a few years behind technology.
>
Most of all the books are behind, even the brand new ones. By the time
most get to press they've been lapped almost or more than a year.

You need to build a kit if you don't already have one.

>
> She said they had called up two phone tech support places, and neither
> suggested checking the external cabling. It's usually not the problem,
> but still, it's the easiest possible thing to check and worth doing.

In the future, and as dumb as it sounds, check the cables first.
Un-plug and re-plug in. I've solved some goofy problems that way.

> BTW, Xnews told me you requested a reply be by email only, but it was
> bouncing back with a 553, so I'm replying here.
>
> David

Sorry about that... I seldom use X-News for posting replys. I'm still
trying to figure out some of the options and configurations.

Jed

Jed

David K <> wrote in
news::

> On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 11:31:23 GMT, Jed <> wrote:
>
>>Sorry... Me and my newsreader aren't on intimate terms yet.
>
> I've been using Free Agent for a long time. I tried out one called
> Xnews, but it's buggy and I got fed up.

heheh... I'm using Xnews... It is weird. But it has been the best one
I've found for downloading from the newsgroups. I've never used free
agent so I'll have to give that one alooksee.
>
>>Don't really mess with the certifications. Never needed them except
>>... involved and got the certifications by taking classes and passing
>>the tests.
....
>>I guess the most important thing is the Certifications and Degree will
>>probably get you in the door somewhere. Once you're there your
>>ability
....
>
> Right, sounds like the thing to do. I was just looking through the MS
> certs, and it looks like after Network+, 3 more exams will get me a
> MCSA.
>
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator... must be new. I don't
remember that one from a couple of years ago. It would be more in line
with what I end up doing most of the time.

>
> It's not as good as it used to be, and it's certainly a whole lot
> worse for entry level people.
>
Sorry to hear that. I thought it was worse for programmers. I've
recently heard that most of the big software development companies are
farming out their programming and support to foreign countries. I know
one guy that sat in a high level meeting and listened to his bosses
talking about sending a 75 Thousand dollar a year job to India where it
could be done for around 20 Thousand a year.

I guess it could be the "trickle down" econmical effect. A company
sends their IT work overseas where it can be done cheaper but probably
not better. Pretty soon all the hardware that was needed for the people
doing the IT work becomes un-necessary. So the need for a full time
repair staff disappears. Of course the company looks great for awhile
because they've cut labor costs and some materials costs. Of course
what they don't realize is that they kill their community. In the
process that spreads out through the entire food chain. Pretty soon
they start losing their big customers because their big customers can no
longer afford the software and other IT services they've been buying
because they no longer have a market that can afford to purchase their
services, like banks, hospitals, merchandisers, insurance companies.

You need to get a backup degree in something other than computers. Its
too late for people like me, but I suspect you're still young. Stay in
school for a little while longer and get an extra degree in some other
discipline. Preferably one you can use to leverage your computer skills
down the road. Something like accounting or legal or medical. With a
law degree you can diversify into other areas like Real Estate. Or you
could write Legal Software or create Legal IT systems for the government
or big corporations if they're still around in 10 years.

> What do you mean by a kit?
>
The Jed - Eye Tech kit. Every Tech must be able to make his own before
he can truly become a Jed... heheheh...

The Jed Eye Tech kit comes complete with all the things you need to do a
service job.

Besides tools (screw and socket drivers, needle nose pliers, pick-up
sticks, grounding straps, and a gatorade-dry mix container of all kinds
of computer pieces (stand-offs, case and motherboard mouting screws,
case feet, electrical tape, liquid electrical tape, electrical shrink
tubing of multiple sizes, a lighter, a couple of flash lights one big
one small, a telescoping mirror, power-coupling extentions and
power-splitters like the receptacles that plug into the drives, power
adapter extentions (change big to small), CPU thermal-transfer paste,
drive rails), audio cables, keyboard and mouse extention cables for
those hard to reach problems) whew...

You need known good cables for floppy, UDMA and standard IDE, long
network, long cross-over network, loop-back plugs for the parallel
ports, serial ports, adapters for changing parallel to serial, serial to
parallel, and male to male, male to female, female to female on the
afore mentioned adapters.

You to have known good test cards for video (isa, pci, agp), and network
and maybe a pci drive interface (they can come in handy for determining
if the motherboard is working with the drive interface). Most other I/O
cards can be tested in the system.

There are probably some other things you might pick up. A network cable
tester is always nice. But its cheaper to just carry a long network
cable. Although if I could afford one I'd get it. It will pay for
itself if you start doing network troubleshooting or making your own
cables. You probably should get a network cable making kit with RJ-45
and RJ-11, and BNC connectors, BNC terminators,
stripper-cutter-crimpers. If you go into fiber optic you will need even
more expensive, specialized tools for cutting and creating connection
ends.

Also, A can of air, or a little vacuum is useful in the field. I just
blow the dust out of the way, or in the case of a really bad system I
use my little fan or an air compressor with a jet handle (when I work
from home).

You should have serial and parallel cables, cross-over of the same. A
good USB cable. There are probably some USB testers out there. I don't
know for sure but if they do it will probably be good to get one.

You will also need software. Diagnostic utilities, multiple boot disks,
CD-ROMs with different OSes if you need to pull something off the CD for
an OS problem and your customer can't find their disk, a command line
virus scanner with up-to-date virus definitions (some of those you can
modify and burn to a CD to save space).

A pair of head phones to use as test speakers, or some small portable
test speakers. Probably wouldn't hurt to carry an extra PS/2 or USB
mouse. They make a USB-PS/2 converters as well that you can carry to
adapt the keyboard or mouse for PS/2. You might also want to carry a
paint brush for cleaning the fan's on the cpu and power supply. Also,
you should have both a known good power supply (ATX, AT) and appropriate
case switch to power it on and off. You will want to seal the metal
body of the switch with electrical tape or electrical shrink tubing.
And a good VOM meter.

Also if you are going to be hauling machines out I recommend a portable
dolly (like the kind for luggage) and bungie straps. It beats the hell
out of the computer under the arm technique.

And finally, if you are going to work from home you need a good bench
with good lighting and a comfortable seat that allows you movement but
doesn't stress your lower back. I recommend having your bench set up
with a good monitor (preferably 17" or better for your eyes) and good
surge strips. If you plan on working on more than one system on your
bench at one time you can get a multi-port KVM switch that will allow
you to use one keyboard, mouse, monitor and speaker set for multiple
computers simultaneously.

Most of this stuff I've aquired over the years. I don't have everything
I mentioned, but wish I had when I was on the go.

> Right... but I'm saying I didn't even get a chance to look at it. They
> fixed it.

Yeah, I got that. I was just emphasizing for future references.
Although I'm sure you already filed it away for future reference.

> David
>
Best Of it all David,

Jed

Jed

On Sun, 03 Aug 2003 07:45:22 GMT, Jed <> wrote:

>David K <> wrote in
>news: :
>
>> On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 11:31:23 GMT, Jed <> wrote:
>>
>>>Sorry... Me and my newsreader aren't on intimate terms yet.
>>
>> I've been using Free Agent for a long time. I tried out one called
>> Xnews, but it's buggy and I got fed up.
>
>heheh... I'm using Xnews... It is weird. But it has been the best one
>I've found for downloading from the newsgroups. I've never used free
>agent so I'll have to give that one alooksee.
>>

I have been using Free Agent for years also. It's nothing fancy (the
paid version apparently has a lot more features), but I have found it
to be reliable, and it does everything I need of a news reader. It is
also easy on resources, and releases them when closed as well.

Hope you like it if you try it.

Tom

Tom MacIntyre

Your welcome, and God's blessings in your quest to find work.

Jed

Jed