So here is the deal, I have spent my life working for smaller companies where networking was pretty straight forward and clean cut.
I have experience with TCP, DNS, and all that jazz. However I have always been the one who set up the network and the systems and therefore I already knew how to diagnose the system. I have never been in a bigger company where network issues become vastly more complicated and convoluted.
I am wondering what I might be able to beef up my experience in this area where I can start applying to larger companies as a lead systems admin.
You can also buy some networking equipment from e-bay or similar and learn that way. Really depends on what you want to do and certain approaches are better than other.
From what I recall GNS3 didn’t work great with firewalls but maybe support for that has improved.
Thank you both for your quick replies. I actually already have some networking gear and I know how to use it. I have also built my own router and used opensuse with the wicked network manager to make a really interesting piece of gear.
I am just stuck in this weird spot where I feel like I have low level knowledge and very advanced knowledge. I am just missing the intermediate level.
Here is what I am up against. This is an example of a job qualification that I keep running into.
Networking knowledge, including LAN/WAN, DHCP, DNS, TCP, UDP, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, SSH, TFTP, and other core internet technologies and services including VPN and Firewalls.
I pretty much know how to use all of those things, but I have never truly mastered any of them. Hell, I don’t even know what UDP is.
I have built servers, networks, and firewalls. I use SSH and VPNs on a daily basis. But yet I know very little technical jargon.
I could be making a mountain out of a molehill or I could be very far behind and not know it.
Firewall/router ( & DHCP)
DNS server to server all network DNS (set up an internal domain as well)
VPN server, server all your web traffic through this. plus points to set it up external in brazil and send only netflix traffic through it for those horror movies they have
Web server, get mediawiki on there with postgresql or mairadb, plus points get TLS on there (if you have a public domain use letsencrypt
Use SSH to for set everything up on your servers
extra points. manage it all via FreeIPA and puppet or something like that
If you have enough equipment put it all in some convoluded network filled with firewalls.
If not, use GNS3 to put it all in some convoluted network filled with pfsense virtual firewalls and routers.
Why don’t you post a job ad that is similar to what you’ve been running into? My impression is that a lot of the jobs require skills in proprietary technology so some company might list Cisco ASA firewalls with HP switch or similar as desirable skills.
When you say that you built a router that doesn’t really say that much. Linux sounds promising but did also use iptables commands or just the gui tools?
Have you ever used serial console to configure equipment, possibly something you’ve locked yourself out of or something brand new that that can’t be configured in any other way?
Monitoring (snmp/netflow) is something you really should explore too.
How do you manage 50 or 500 access points centrally or via cloud?
There are some companies that will go with pfsense or linux firewalls but more generally you see enterprise networking gear like cisco, juniper, hp, and so on. Ruckus or aruba are also pretty common for wifi and maybe switches.
Some companies will want certifications like CCNA so you could consider that if you want to go down that route but check the industry you are interested in. You can probably find some study material for those online to kind of validate your skills.
They’re a bit fuzzy with the networking part of that job. Probably they can take people with both advanced and basic skills in networking as Amazon’s support role is pretty broad.
I mean how much is there to DHCP? Well, for some it’s about setting DNS and GW while more network oriented work may include stuff like DHCP snooping and and DHCP option 82. I don’t really know what Amazon has in mind.
Since they mention Cisco maybe try to get some practice on Cisco IOS so you can configure a Cisco switch or router.
Iptables and Cisco ACLs use more or less the same principle so if you used the command line that’s great even if the commands are different it’s the same idea.
You’re network skills might just be sufficient for that job so maybe excelling in the areas you want to focus on like sysadmin and scripting is the stuff to concentrate on.
Yeah, I am already familiar with cisco gear (unfortunately lol).
I think were my skills start to lack is when it comes to trouble shoot stuff. I know how to build networks and set them up, but if there is a random DNS error, I usually have to do hours of research to nail down the issue. I don’t intuitively know what to do.
