Crash course for overwhelmed techie

June 13, 2008 10:11 AM

Hivemind, please help me out with a crash course in networking!

I've been the IT guy for a small Louisiana service company for a while. I know my stuff for what it's worth, and if you imagine basic IT support, that's me. I also get coffee for some people, but that's neither here nor there.

Here's my problem. I'm being transferred to a new branch to break down and set up a network in the new office. Pay's better, but I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. I can set up a simple network just fine, but I'm pretty sure that's not what they want. I voiced this to the regional director, and he said "all you have to know is Novell networks and you're golden."

What the heck? Novell networks? Crap! That's not even proper grammar, boss!

So can anyone help me out? Maybe point me to a crash course on the subject? I'm counting on you, hive mind!

posted by Willie0248 to technology (9 comments total)

Honestly, if you're that clueless about how to proceed you should admit that to your employer and hire a consultant. The consultants can work with you and train you on the systems they put in place and also recommend various Mircrosoft, Ciscso, Linux, etc courses to take. Good luck.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:39 AM on June 13

Networking is a topic that describes a discipline, methodology or grouping of technologies, there is no generic crash course for "networking" as it differs dependent on the context of what you are referencing.

It looks like you want some guidance on Novell networking, are you talking about LAN's, network services, or application networks? You're going to need to understand the context of what you're expected to do and then seek out specific training/reading material. You'd likely waste your time following up on suggestions tossed out at random in the thread.

Good luck!
posted by iamabot at 10:43 AM on June 13 [1 favorite]

While I'll admit it sounds like you're a bit out of your depth, the Novell Community Support Forums are fantastic and generally very friendly to Novell noobs.
posted by JaredSeth at 10:58 AM on June 13

I asked a similar question a while ago: Books to learn computer networking. Plus, here's a couple of books on amazon that are concerned with Novell Network Certifications.
posted by philomathoholic at 11:04 AM on June 13

It sounds like you guys are running netware. You can study the books they use for the CNA certification. That probably wont prepare you to do a ground up network install, but it doesnt sound like youre the lead on this project anyway.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:40 AM on June 13

@damn dirty ape

That's the thing, I AM. It's one of those bizarre situations where I'm running around telling everyone with an ounce of authority that I am completely unprepared for the task, but everyone keeps smiling and patting me on the back, saying that I'll do just fine. I guess that's what I get for building my career on the promise that I can "do anything with enough prep time." :)

Anyway, thanks, I'm looking over a CNA certification test prep book from the library right now at the advice of the folks in this thread. It turns out I actually already some of this stuff and didn't have a name to put with it. The rest doesn't look ALL that difficult.
posted by Willie0248 at 11:58 AM on June 13

The factual references in previous posts are all great. You may also want to consider:

- What will be the consequence if you don't come through on this? Is the company relying on you b/c they are too cheap to hire a more experienced consultant? Or are they willing to spend the money, and want you more as the project manager rather than the actual NetAdmin?

- If you are held in such high regard you should be able to leverage this for more formal IT training, if that's your goal. The company should pay for whatever training you can justify.

So this could either be a great opportunity for professional development & career advancement, or a setup to take the fall for someone else's mismanagement.
posted by TDIpod at 12:21 PM on June 13

Yeah, what TDIpod said.

So, instead of telling anyone with an ounce of authority that you can't do this, maybe you should be running around telling said authority figures that in order to do the job they want as effectively as they want it done, you're going to need a bit of specialized training.

They pony up the cash, you pony up the ability, you learn on the fly with the proper resources behind you instead of flying blind, and everybody wins.
posted by bicyclefish at 3:27 PM on June 13

Beware of the possibility that the bosses are holding the "pfft, he's a geek, those guys all know everything" attitude.

I once was offered the "easy" side job of setting up a new Novell server for someone. (I am a CNA, for what it's worth. And that ain't much...) I gathered the requirements, set up the server as requested, and then was presented with a punch list of things they "thought was part of it." Like: what's the server for?, how to use the server, who do they call when they have questions, why isn't my data where I think it should be, how do I use Word, why can't the server read my mind, etc. It was maddening.

Just most basically, a network isn't defined by the server attached to it. No such thing as a Novell network. So just based on their phraseology, you might be in trouble.

All I can tell you is go crazy gathering the requirements of the project. Are you just there to make the wires work, and they will deliver a server that's set up and ready to go? Or do you have to build the server and configure it? If you do, get a CNA and CNE book and read up. CNA is for administrating the resources of the server, CNE goes over how to make the server work.

What about WAN stuff? What are their expectations for that?

It's not that hard if you know what you need to do and have the time to do it. The trick is not getting too many surprises...
posted by gjc at 6:34 PM on June 13