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First Networking Job..Help!


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Hi,

I landed myself a networking job, who knows how but i'm either going to make a fool of myself or i'll be getting a

"hey at least his trying, and although slowly we do see some progression" look.

Job description I need to maintain a network of 30 pc's, and do backups. Fix pesky problems.

Problem is i do not know how!, Does anyone have any tips for me.... please? What would be the most likely problems encountered and how can i fix them?

I did mcse 8 years ago the old windows nt version, since then i have moved into insurance, failed my mcse upgrade and never did get any networking practical experience, so in short, i forgot everything! Help...!

Is there an online "chat" support somewhere if someone get's stuck, or is that a "network Guru's dream scenario" Any help will be appreciated.. :)

What happened to you on your first network job? Or were you one of those network pro's in school? already?

Edited by Johny542
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The most common problem, at least related to desktop support and networking, is loss of connection. What we tell the users is, log off, then log back in. Just because you logged in without any issues doesn't mean you are on the network.

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Thanks CptnMurphy, i'll remember that one,

What is mostly done on-site, if you're at a client's company, you need to solve problems, do backups, what are some of the most comon issues?

Is there help somewhere, how often do network administrators call on help themselves to someone in an even higher networking position?

I know i'll need to call upon someone very much when starting out...??

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some tips for you...

1) lock down workstations through group policy

2) lock down access to files through ntfs permissions

3) ensure some sort of redunandcy (with multiple DC's, DNS and DHCP servers)

4) immunize and protect all the pcs from spyware and viruses

5) filter the internet connection using a firewall with content filtering

6) ensure backups are good, either through verification or manual testing once a week <- i cannot stress how important this is, either a user will loose a file and you will have to get it back or worse a server will die and you will have to restore the whole thing from scratch

thats all i can think of from the top of my head, having just this minute got up. But seriously your one lucky guy to be landing a job like that with little experience, just use books, technet, google and this forum to learn as much as possible.

good luck

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Asking an end user a direct question will usually reveal nothing ... however engaging them in a relaxed and casual chat about "stuff" (albeit loosely related to the computer) in general will usually give you a fairly good idea exactly what they screwed up. e.g. Users never directly admit their mistakes ... but it's easy to get them to slip and tell you what really happened...

Check the logs

Check the logs

Check the logs

Then check EventID.net to find out what to do about what's in the logs.

Microsoft has some great white papers on how to properly configure one of their servers/networks, find them, read them, use them ... Your life as an Admin will be much simpler that way (Remember Excitement is bad...)

Redundancy is good. Outages that go unnoticed mean you're doing you job right!

Single points of failure are bad. If you have to play "Hero" (for the crowd) to resolve an outage ... you failed.

Document EVERYTHING Backups are great, but if you don't know where, how, and why they go where they go during a restore ... You're still screwed.

If all the documentation for your network is stored on the server that just went "P00F" ... You have no documentation. While I hate "Hard-Copy" I regularly print two copies, one for my files, and one for the owner of the company's files, that way everybody is covered (Even if I get hit by a bus...).

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some tips for you...

1) lock down workstations through group policy

2) lock down access to files through ntfs permissions

3) ensure some sort of redunandcy (with multiple DC's, DNS and DHCP servers)

4) immunize and protect all the pcs from spyware and viruses

5) filter the internet connection using a firewall with content filtering

6) ensure backups are good, either through verification or manual testing once a week <- i cannot stress how important this is, either a user will loose a file and you will have to get it back or worse a server will die and you will have to restore the whole thing from scratch

thats all i can think of from the top of my head, having just this minute got up. But seriously your one lucky guy to be landing a job like that with little experience, just use books, technet, google and this forum to learn as much as possible.

good luck

I have to say something about locking down systems. As long as you make the end users regular users, there's no need to lock anything down. I can't say how many times we've had issues with locked down systems. If we can't unlock it, we just reimage to XP.

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Whats up with locking it down?, at least dont allow access to control panel, installation of drivers, just little things like. And i second what stoic joker said, document everything! :)

The only issue I see with locking things down, is that the original poster is new to doing this sort of thing. If he or she goes too far, he or she will likely not have a good idea of which security lock-down caused the issue, and reversing things with group policy is not something that is necessarily easy to do.

Default security on both system files and the registry in XP and Vista is quite good for most scenarios, and locking down driver installations can result in some 3rd party printers not being able to be installed, it can break smart-card software, disable the use of USB and Flash memory devices, etc. Locking things down further from the defaults takes quite a bit of careful testing and planning with every internal application and device the OP may use internally on their network, and that's not something I expect (or want) a novice to tackle.

Otherwise, steps 3 - 6 are great, and I second those :).

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good point Cluberti, your right test the image before you deploy it, a while back i worked on an SDP (standard desktop program) that was locked down like mad, its just crashed and burned in the tests until we got it dead right so yeah test it first lol :)

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  • 1 month later...

Google is your friend, and remember most users just want it fixed. If they feel you're working on their problem they're happy (as long as you fix it before too long). The more they like you, the longer you get, up to a point. Of course some users are like this:

"I deleted a bunch of files on my PC because it needed more room. Now my PC doesn't work. I have a meeting in 15 minutes so you have to fix it now."

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"I deleted a bunch of files on my PC because it needed more room. Now my PC doesn't work. I have a meeting in 15 minutes so you have to fix it now."

"OK, here's a new laptop/PC. You'll have to reconfigure it, and next time, ask me to delete the files please. Thank you."

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"I deleted a bunch of files on my PC because it needed more room. Now my PC doesn't work. I have a meeting in 15 minutes so you have to fix it now."

"OK, here's a new laptop/PC. You'll have to reconfigure it, and next time, ask me to delete the files please. Thank you."

If only life was that simple. :}

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"I deleted a bunch of files on my PC because it needed more room. Now my PC doesn't work. I have a meeting in 15 minutes so you have to fix it now."

"OK, here's a new laptop/PC. You'll have to reconfigure it, and next time, ask me to delete the files please. Thank you."

If only life was that simple. :}

+1. Many users don't believe in "Sorry, there's nothing I can do."

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So...? It's a true answer, and those users are the reason spare machines are even needed. I guess the real question is why did that user have access to delete critical system files... :)

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So...? It's a true answer, and those users are the reason spare machines are even needed. I guess the real question is why did that user have access to delete critical system files... :)

Good point. Here's an example -

Sales Manager has to be able to install customer/vendor software on his laptop. This is critical as sales is dependent on it. User may not be in for weeks at a time so it is impractical for IT to do the installs. Redirecting the installs won't work as (you guessed it) many of these apps don't allow the install to be redirected to another location. It has to be in Program Files. Therefore the user is put into the local power user's group. The risks and responsibilities are explained in full.

On the day of the "disaster" the Sales manager has an extremely important demonstration that is critical to keeping the company's biggest customer, the proverbial 800 pound gorilla. Nervous about this presentation, he does his cleanup.

Failure to save this situation by IT will result in IT being blamed for the lost business. Who's fault was it? Doesn't matter. IT will get the blame.

If you have a spare PC you can save the day (and probably get little if any recognition). :wacko:

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