This is my first post in a while, and for that I apologize. I've been a bit behind academically as of late. Today was my first day off after 9 straight days of working, and I missed class last week due to lack of transportation.

I have class tomorrow night, and hopefully I can get all caught up before then. I have managed to get the .iso for XP Pro and set up a virtual machine using that, but I'm still having issues with client/server communication using Virtual PC. Hopefully I can clear those up tomorrow as well, because I need that functionality both for class labs and my project. I think I have made more progress toward gaining an internship, but it's really getting late in the game, that I realize. However, there is a potentially golden opportunity staring me in the face, and I feel it's worth the wait if I can take advantage of it. No spoilers yet, but I do have my fingers crossed.

I have off from work on Friday as well, so before the weekend I WILL take a practice test for my Net+ cert on CertBlaster. I want to get ahead in the Labsims as well, I'm pretty sure the next module deals with DNS. This is another important topic to grasp, clearly. Wish me luck, I'm trying to stay organized with my hectic schedule....

Onward

Well, today I have reviewed chapter 5 in the text, dealing with network hardware. I got a healthy review of IRQ assignments among other things. That was something I've always had a little anxiety about, especially because of it's importance in CompTIA's A+. If I'm financially able, I want to obtain that cert this semester also.

I kind of skimmed some of the information that I've heard so many times before, about the differences between routers, bridges, switches, repeaters, hubs, etc. Needless to say this makes for good review, but it's material that I'm quite familiar with by now. I ended up taking the full 60 question practice exam in one of the appendixes, only to realize after that I don't have the answers to it. That will probably lead me to take a more thorough CertBlaster practice exam later on this week when I have more time.

I think I have DHCP down cold from all the practice I've gotten in and out of Server class. It feels good to be so confident in my abilities with a technology. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but the class I'm in maps to Microsoft's 70-291 exam, which I do hope to take. If you're following along, I'm hoping to get my MCSA to start with by the following route: 70-290, 70-291, Vista (I forget the exam #), A+, and Net+. If I can pull this all off before semester's end, then I will feel quite accomplished.

By the way, I just want to say hi to any potential visitors from Blackboard.

Until next time.

More DHCP

Well, yesterday was a class day, and so I got my hands even dirtier in the DHCP bucket. It was the chapter for the week, so I got a lot of practice. I worked with authorizing servers and activating scopes. With scopes, I created and deleted multicast, basic, and superscopes. I also played around with some configuration options, but more will probably be done with that later. I have some Labsims to finish too, but overall I'm feeling pretty comfortable.

I'd like to speed up my progress, but I think I'm getting a more comprehensive review/study than I originally anticipated, just because of the amount of material I'm being exposed to for class. I've been going through the Net+ text, and read up the summaries on chapters 3 and 4 to make sure I'm good on that stuff. These cover transmission basics, media, and protocols. These are all important topics so I'll probably delve in a bit deeper to make sure I have everything down. Hmm.. what's the color ordering for wires when making a cat5 utp cable again?

In other news, I nabbed two books from the library to help me in my Linux adventures. I got The Idiot's Guide to Linux and Linux Programming for Dummies. I think these will be great resources for me to play with, because I have very little previous experience with the OS. I will most likely be utilizing Ubuntu on VirtualBox. Maybe one day I can even go for my Linux+ cert! You've got to dream big.