Okay so when I say beginners I don't exactly mean people new to tech but I suppose asking this will help them also.
I am looking to pursue a career in network security hopefully for enterprise level, and I feel I'm finally at an age where I feel ready to begin progression so I'm looking at certifications, I currently like Linux over MS due to the flexibility of the OS and freedom, but I can't decide which path to pursue I would prefer to be vendor neutral over cisco etc, and would like to focus a lot on administration and security so which would be best? I'm thinking linux+ with network, server and security+ certs maybe a mix of Microsoft thrown in for good measure.
What are your personal suggestions for my career path?
Well it all depends on where you are now in your plan for this networking security career.Are you still in school? what is your age? Are you sure what this is exactly what you want to do? I know these are question's you have heard on many occasion's throughout your lifetime, and I know it is annoying but it is generally a broad and layered topic that we all have too plan ahead for and make changes as we go along whether it be for internal or external problem's or changes. With this all in mind I'm only in 9th grade, and you might not even want my advice, but I am planning to go into the field of network engineering my own self. I'm starting early, I've learned as much about it as I could even without classes that I can't take until eleventh grade, it may change you outlook on the whole thing.
Sincerely,
Ben-|creaser of the tinfoil hat|
P.S. excuse me if I made any grammatical error's, and reply if you feel the need too.
Firstly get a good handle on mathematics. This will make things easier if you go to university, especially with programming. Become proficient with topics like algebra, geometry and functions and if you study higher level maths in school, calculus. Even if you don't plan on tertiary studies, mathematics and networking often go hand-in-hand. It teaches you about problem solving and analytical thinking.
Learn C. Learn about variables, arrays, functions, pointers, structures and memory concepts. If you know C (probably the best procedural language to learn), you can code C++ programs, and learning other languages becomes relatively easy since C is a "hard" language for a beginner to learn. If you don't already have some programming experience, try Python first.
For the specifics of networking, I would recommend learning about network protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, FTP, ICMP, etc), error correction and detection (parity, Hamming code, etc), transmission fundamentals (transmitters, receivers, channels, limitations, etc) and switching concepts (circuit switching vs packet switching). Some of these ideas are very complex but if you can grasp the fundamentals now you will be far more prepared than your peers when it comes to formally learning this stuff.
I left college at the age of 19, I am now 21 doing repairs on a daily basis, I have done Network setups but only Home Networks.
When I was at college I graduated with a Level 3 Extended IT distinction (Basically 3 A levels if you know the UK education system) but while at college I was unsure of what I wanted to do, I was just leaving hardware as it became stale to me and wanted to go back to my roots which was security, which all started by been hacked. After leaving college I realised Network/Security is where I wanted to be, possibly a Cert hacker, but that is a long way off yet, So with this I begun to learn Security at a more in depth level, Following on here I asked some questions on where to start learning, and followed, I eventually got a Network+ book to learn from that, I havent finished it yet.
I also started to hang around in the Linux section in the forum, this is starting as of almost a year ago, and again realising I wanted Unix in my life over MS, the fact I can also practice security better through things like Kali Linux also.
Now I want to be certified, To actually start a career in Linux/Networking/Security, and this has nothing to do with money as I am very happy to start as a Junior as I more than likely will.
Hope that provides enough information about me to help you :)
First Im crap at maths lol, although my girlfriend is very good at it, she understands everything you have said, in rather good detail so maybe learn from her, I did want to take a more advanced maths class, my GCSE maths sucked but she suggested do higher tier maths, once I have the basics learning the rest can easily fall into place.
Programming does not fit well with me a lot of the time, It doesn't stick due to college and having a teacher that couldn't teach it, although I have always loved the fundamentals of what programming can do and give you, where would you suggest learning C? I did VB.Net in college as well as HTML/CSS which surprisingly actually stuck in my head, although nothing too advanced.
and thanks Ill have a look into them when I have a book I can write in, I presume Network+ will teach you all that stuff also at some point?
I can help a little bit there although it is me asking which would sound weird lol anyways heres my personal 2 cents.
Watch Eli the computer guy to get an absolute base, Hes very good, I didnt like him at first but he grew on me.
Follow professor messer, hes a comptia cert engineer, he does Networking+ A+ and Linux+ with great detail, a brilliant addon from Eli.
read into some CISCO technologies and decide do I want to work specifically with CISCO or vendor neutral like I want to be, regardless of decision, learn CISCO IOS using freesco http://www.freesco.org/
Play with different OS, I have used MS/OSX/Linux and Linux is my fav, so get VMWare installed and play a bit, live on each for a week and see, Dont use Ubuntu unless you wish to work with Landscape, so for something that shows the power of Linux like Manjaro or Mageia/Fedora in a VM :)
Try this. It is C++ but it teaches you C in the process:
http://www.learncpp.com/
If you struggle, go to Python:
http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/
The guy who does the "Learn Code The Hard Way" books above also does C very well:
http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/
I'm not familiar with Network+ and my networking knowledge compared to other Tek users is very limited. But I know understanding protocols is paramount to learn how the Internet is engineered and therefore how networks can be implemented within it. But find other information on networking knowledge, I can only comment on some theory.
The Wireshark program is extremely useful to really come to terms with Internet protocols: