Any networking specialists around?

[cj.surrusco]

I will be graduating high school next year and I plan on going to college for a networking degree. Is there anyone that has gone this path that has some advice to share about pursuing a networking degree, such as what to look for in a school, or what to expect while at school?

Thanks, I will appreciate any input

[zenwalker]

I dont poses any of those qualities whom your looking for. But being in IT field as a developer so far, i can say Telecom or Networking today is a big huge market and its keep getting bigger and challenging. So excel in this area and you gonna rock on.

[lisati]

Back in the 1980s, I worked as a programmer for a telecommunications company for a few months. Back then, the typical home user used a phone mainly for making phone calls. In the time since then, things have changed a lot, with more homes having computers, internet access, mobile phones, network-ready entertainment devices, .... No doubt someone will be able to provide a link to a fridge or washing machine that's capable of being hooked up to a home networking.

Networking and interconnectivity is a rich field that's likely to continue to grow for some time.

[mips]

Go study at a fully accredited university. Do a bachelor of engineering (electronic) or computer science with communications subjects. Afterwards do some Cisco or Juniper certifications.

The telecoms industry is moving away from TDM based technologies to a fully packet based (TCP/IP) environment. SDH/SONET equipment these days already cater for native ethernet and the next big thing is packet over optical transport and switching in the optical domain.

Certifications are useful but more so if you have a solid underlying degree and it also improves your chances of being hired as well. Your degree is for life, certs last 2-3 years.

[cj.surrusco]

Go study at a fully accredited university. Do a bachelor of engineering (electronic) or computer science with communications subjects. Afterwards do some Cisco or Juniper certifications.

The telecoms industry is moving away from TDM based technologies to a fully packet based (TCP/IP) environment. SDH/SONET equipment these days already cater for native ethernet and the next big thing is packet over optical transport and switching in the optical domain.

Certifications are useful but more so if you have a solid underlying degree and it also improves your chances of being hired as well. Your degree is for life, certs last 2-3 years.

Thanks for the advice.

So you're saying that it would be more beneficial to get a degree outside of networking, and only get certifications for networking? Do you think that a networking degree will be less useful than a computer science/engineering degree in the future?

[Sef]

So you're saying that it would be more beneficial to get a degree outside of networking, and only get certifications for networking? Do you think that a networking degree will be less useful than a computer science/engineering degree in the future?

Go after networking degree if that is what you are interested in, then once in the field go after the certs. Networking is its own specialty, and you do not have to know a lot about computers (servers and desktops) to do networking.

[nec207]

No idea what is better Cisco or MCSE (Microsoft Certified Professional )

But network+ is mostly networking and security+ is mostly security and well A+ is mostly hardware and little on the OS.

The computer engineering will mosly be A+ ,network+ and security+ and more in-depth on hardware .

Where has computer science degree will mosty be programming ,working with OS and software ,math and binary.

There is also Linux+ now and Apple Certified Macintosh Technician ( certification is for the repair and diagnostics of all Macintosh desktops, portables, and servers )

There is other apple certifications you can get.

Has for Cisco I think that is mostly working with routers and switches.And MCSE mostly more in-depth on networking than the network+

There are other diplomas like computer programming ,internet specialist ,PC repair ,PC specialist and more.

It is all if you have the money .If you rich you could take every thing talk about in this thread most people do not have the money to take more 3 at the most.

[Sef]

No idea what is better Cisco or MCSE (Microsoft Certified Professional )

Cisco is the best to have if one does networking.

[mips]

Thanks for the advice.

So you're saying that it would be more beneficial to get a degree outside of networking, and only get certifications for networking? Do you think that a networking degree will be less useful than a computer science/engineering degree in the future?

Over here we don't have networking degrees as such. I think a few degrees are now incorporating CCNA.

When I studied electrical eng. (light current) there were a few specialisation tracks. The one dealt with communications which included things like DSPs, microwave, satellite, communication networks etc. (Back then there was no Cisco certs or any others for that matter, Cisco just started up)

Do you have any examples of network degrees offered where you are? Links?

If you want to get into the telecoms/ISP/Service provider area where all the money is don't worry about things like MCSE, A+, N+ etc concentrate on Cisco/Juniper and a few things like SONET, ATM, DWDM etc. You can always do a MCSE later if you want.

[cj.surrusco]

Over here we don't have networking degrees as such. I think a few degrees are now incorporating CCNA.

When I studied electrical eng. (light current) there were a few specialisation tracks. The one dealt with communications which included things like DSPs, microwave, satellite, communication networks etc. (Back then there was no Cisco certs or any others for that matter, Cisco just started up)

Do you have any examples of network degrees offered where you are? Links?

If you want to get into the telecoms/ISP/Service provider area where all the money is don't worry about things like MCSE, A+, N+ etc concentrate on Cisco/Juniper and a few things like SONET, ATM, DWDM etc. You can always do a MCSE later if you want.

I'm not familiar with some of those terms, like MCSE, A+, N+. There are a few colleges around here that offer general "networking" type degrees that I have found on collegeboard.com. This is one example of a major at Rochester IT.

http://www.rit.edu/programs/applied-...inistration-bs

It outlines what I would basically want to be doing, setting up and maintaining computer networks, which is also kind of geared towards system administration, as well.