Network Admin Q's

Hey all. I am looking into becoming a network administrator as a career choice. My brother in law does this for a living and i am really interested in it. He recommended i become familiar with Kace and mpls. Does anyone have any other recommendation of what i should start to learn? My local university does not have any programs for this so i am not sure where to start. 

If you are new to the industry, then I would recommend starting off with a certification like CompTIA's Network+. This will help you reinforce your knowledge about the ISO layers, switches, routers, IP addressing, the basics. From there, you can branch out to manufacturer certification like Cisco. There is a broad scope of what you can learn in this field.

I am new to the industry but i have been around computers since i was 4 so i have a good basis of knowledge of computers but i know servers is a whole different animal. Are there any school programs or degrees that would be beneficial? or are certifications good enough?

if you have a local class or some sort i would recommend the CCNA program. but it is an industry standered to get the compTIA A+ certification. some high schools offer it( like mine does).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptBFdwToK-s

Is CompTIA A+ enough to get into the field so i can get enough experience to get further certifications like network + and server+? My end goal is to be a network admin and my local university do not offer programs for it so i guess i have to go the certification route and i am not sure how to go about that.

To get into the networking field? Probably not. I had an associates in Computer Networking Technologies, my CompTIA A+, Net+ before I even found a job in the IT field, not even as an IT admin. I have extensive knowledge on Windows and Linux server OSs, switch and router maintenance and routing maintenance but I still had great difficulty finding a job. The job I'm at now doesn't even require me to do any of that, so I'm working on my Security+, Cloud computing cert (CompTIA as well) and CCNA.

The catch is, people don't want to hire you unless you have experience. But you can't get experience unless someone will hire you.

I find that to be a sad reality with most every field. I can understand the need for experience but you have to start somewhere. Unfortunately for me there isn't a college with in 100 miles of me that offers any computer or network degrees not even an associates. 

Are there trust worthy online courses for CompTIA A+ and an online test for it?

Here are some good videos on it. Dunno about online test. I think they have sort of a practice test thing.

 

http://www.professormesser.com/free-a-plus-training/free-a-plus/