Who works in IT?

albertross_2

Sorry to hear it didn't go well. Don't give up, the next one might be much easier. If you can remember the questions, post them and we might be able to give some pointers for next time.

The problem is that IT is a vast subject, and you are always going to get questions you don't know the answer to, so it is difficult to prepare.

If you have broadband, and don't have a router, maybe the £50 or so would be a good investment, as a lot of people are using broadband and vpn to get into work networks nowadays, knowing how to configure one may help in interviews.

Greensprout

Pault123..

Where in the Country are you?

pault123

Manchester mate!

Know of any good companies or opportunities around the area?
.................................

So I can buy a router and just run my one PC off it? Then practice with different router configs etc?

One of the questions that they kept repeating was "tell me as many DOS commands as possible" So I went through every command but ping and ip type commands which I don't know. They seemed very interested in DOS commands, and apart from that everything possible to do with servers and routers.

It was a waste of a paid day in work really I wish the jobs would advertise a lot more accurately!

albertross_2

ping and ipconfig are bread and butter commands in diagnosing network connectivity problems. There is nothing special about them, but if you didn't know them it would probably ring alarm bells at an interview. Try these on your PC.

ping https://www.google.com
ping 127.0.0.1
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Also lookup netstat, nbtstat, tracert, arp, nslookup, ftp, tftp

http://www.computerhope.com/nslookup.htm

If you have broadband, then a router would familiarise you with tcp/ip, and also protect your own PC with it's built in firewall. Netgear (and other brands) consumer routers also support end to end VPN connection, so if you had a friend with one, you could setup a permanent VPN tunnel between the two networks, and experiment and learn about the techniques involved. If you get one, I'd go for a wireless model, even if you have no need for it, because the whole of the uk seems to be going wireless, so experience of the security issues involved will give you an edge at an interview.

pault123

Thanks Albertross that is really useful. Just been trying out some of the pings command and such now. Makes it a bit clearer as to what they were referring to at the interview. I mentioned Ipconfig to them, but ive only ever used it to find out an IP, never used the /command with it.

I'm going to put a router on my next list of things to buy My dad uses one at the moment and has 3 pcs in the house running off it, it was simply a case of plug in and go though no real setting up was needed. But I may be able to setup this VPN tunnel with him? Would I need the same router as him or would any do?

wolfman

Depends how much you have to spend. I've got a Draytek Vigor 2600+, which costs more than your average router (ie around £130-150), but comes with plenty of functionality with you to play around with.

VPN's are worth looking into. SSH too. These are becoming more and more common with companies setting up global networks, and also people working from home.

Learn how to setup database servers (maybe use MySql which is free as a way of playing around). Also web servers via Apache and IIS (still the most used amongst the Fortune 1,000).

Backing up is a good one to learn about. I was trying for a similar job a few years back and got caught on that one. It's always worth having an overall plan, and also knowledge of how to back up an Exchange (or other email server), files, databases etc... And also the methods of backing them up (ie tapes, off-site via ftp, on-site between servers etc...)

Version control. We're currently switching from Visual Source Safe, to Subversion (aka SVN, which is free). Always sounds good if you can mention it'd be something you'd implement.

And finally setting up domains. It's probably worth (if you have a little bit of extra cash) getting a cheap (£100-200), old Pentium machine. Run Linux on it. Try out things like Subversion, BugZilla, Web Hosting, Database Hosting, setting up a domain etc... And if possible try the same within a Windows environment, via Windows 2003 Server if you can get hold of it.

ineztamara

HBC Academy

HBC Academy are a Cisco Regional Networking Academy, a non-profit organisation who are dedicated to educating people of all ages and from all walks of life in various IT areas. They are also partnered with OCR and several other training organisations and IT companies throughout the UK. And are currently operating in the UK and parts of Africa.
They also have a prometric test centre, so you won't have to go elsewhere to take any exams after having done some training.

They'll be starting a popular Microsoft course in Feb, MCDST.
They also do webhosting, webbuilding (+ courses for it), security cameras & remote control, etc. etc.

They also have several projects where they get government funding, to train single parents, to empower SME (up to 249 staff), etc.

Just give them a call to get some info.
They're worth checking out!