The Official IT Thread

[konceptjones]

Yeah, I've been working by remote for almost 3 years through Upwork and a few other remote gigs. Only problem with Upwork is you can't work for multiple clients simultaneously. You can start the clock for one, stop it, start the clock for another, stop it... shit like that. This new joint is also remote, but I have to travel to the HQ once every quarter or so for a day.

 

[traestar]

Yeah, I've been working by remote for almost 3 years through Upwork and a few other remote gigs. Only problem with Upwork is you can't work for multiple clients simultaneously. You can start the clock for one, stop it, start the clock for another, stop it... shit like that. This new joint is also remote, but I have to travel to the HQ once every quarter or so for a day.

If both jobs were on UpWork, that would be a problem. But otherwise, many employers use other programs for timesheets. And there are remote jobs out there who require to meet at the HQ at a certain rate for meetings and whatnot.

 

[King Erauno]

those firewall migrations will really help you understand the technology. of course youll fuck up in the beginning but its all a learning process. I'm currently on a remote gig doing other vendors migrations over to Palo Alto. Palo has a migration tool which helps a ton. Ive done SRX, Checkpoint (a big pain in the ass) and cisco ASAs.

does anyone know of these other vendors that has their own migration tool?

at my last employer, i did a migration to a cisco, but did that shit by hand

 

[valdez21]

those firewall migrations will really help you understand the technology. of course youll fuck up in the beginning but its all a learning process. I'm currently on a remote gig doing other vendors migrations over to Palo Alto. Palo has a migration tool which helps a ton. Ive done SRX, Checkpoint (a big pain in the ass) and cisco ASAs.

does anyone know of these other vendors that has their own migration tool?

at my last employer, i did a migration to a cisco, but did that shit by hand

Oh definitely. I used the algosec firewall analyzer. It did a decent job.

For those doing contract work, where are yall finding the gigs? Are yall incorporated as a C or S corp? LLC? Or 1099?

 

[konceptjones]

those firewall migrations will really help you understand the technology. of course youll fuck up in the beginning but its all a learning process. I'm currently on a remote gig doing other vendors migrations over to Palo Alto. Palo has a migration tool which helps a ton. Ive done SRX, Checkpoint (a big pain in the ass) and cisco ASAs.

does anyone know of these other vendors that has their own migration tool?

at my last employer, i did a migration to a cisco, but did that shit by hand

Fortinet has one but the cats that ran the MSP didn't want to shell out for it. Shit would have made my life much easier.

 

[konceptjones]

those firewall migrations will really help you understand the technology. of course youll fuck up in the beginning but its all a learning process. I'm currently on a remote gig doing other vendors migrations over to Palo Alto. Palo has a migration tool which helps a ton. Ive done SRX, Checkpoint (a big pain in the ass) and cisco ASAs.

does anyone know of these other vendors that has their own migration tool?

at my last employer, i did a migration to a cisco, but did that shit by hand

Oh definitely. I used the algosec firewall analyzer. It did a decent job.

For those doing contract work, where are yall finding the gigs? Are yall incorporated as a C or S corp? LLC? Or 1099?

Primarily through Upwork and it's paid through my business' EIN.

 

[Bcotton5]

Halfway thru CCNP switch official book

 

[traestar]

Not confirmed yet, but I'm currently doing Salesforce training and Cloud Computing training for a consulting company with commitments to be hired within. I'm hoping that works out.

 

[King Erauno]

those firewall migrations will really help you understand the technology. of course youll fuck up in the beginning but its all a learning process. I'm currently on a remote gig doing other vendors migrations over to Palo Alto. Palo has a migration tool which helps a ton. Ive done SRX, Checkpoint (a big pain in the ass) and cisco ASAs.

does anyone know of these other vendors that has their own migration tool?

at my last employer, i did a migration to a cisco, but did that shit by hand

Oh definitely. I used the algosec firewall analyzer. It did a decent job.

For those doing contract work, where are yall finding the gigs? Are yall incorporated as a C or S corp? LLC? Or 1099?

im W-2 and my company sells me to clients for certain periods of time

 

[renagade410.]

Starting this networking journey. Currently studying for the CCNA(gonna do the 2 test method) Any recommendations on home lab setups? Im looking to get 3 routers and 3 switches

 

[themadlionsfan]

i just got my palo alto certification - PCNSE6 - Palo Alto certified network security engineer. it was easy and its the equivalent of a CCNP in security (which i already have)

Palo alto is the future in security.

whats makes it superior?

I wouldn't call PA superior overall, but their management platform is better than Cisco. And well so are centralized management platforms for Juniper SRX and Checkpoint (better than Cisco). Performance wise, Cisco is better. Damn near all of them are Linux boxes on the backend with different chipsets and asics (other than Checkooint variations e.g. Nokia).

Other than that, Palo Alto networks is a player staying in their lane. It's a relatively small company with a couple of buildings. They moved into Yahoos old buildings 2 years back. Their major selling point is that they are focused on firewalls. So it's a laser focus for the entire company vs. companies with business units that do firewall products. This focus puts them ahead in their lane like Riverbed cut into and took over the WAN Optimization market so Cisco is (feature depth-wise) playing catch up in both of those lanes. PA along with Checkpoint lead the way for next gen firewall products mainly because their mgmt platforms are so scalable vs Cisco who's major advantage has been performance and but weak point is enterprise management. But Cisco did buy Source Fire which is going to add to their depth to make their firewalls "next gen firewalls" like Checkpoint and PA. The drawback and irony of it all is that "next gen" features (ips, scanning, automated response to VMs, etc) take so much fine tuning, impede performance, and throw so many false positives (sec threat alerts) that people end up turning most of that shit off. As long as they have a cluster of firewalls performing well, a bank of web caches, load balancers, and some inline sec scanning tools most businesses are happy.

PA is partnering with other players like A10 to bring integrated solutions so there are some emerging things coming down the pipe. Depending on what's needed I guess it could be superior......for a particular customer.

Also, deployment wise (depth of integrated sec features aside) PA isn't doing anything any of the other companies aren't. The way their firewalls work are pretty much the same as everyone else's...clusters, failover pairs, blah blah. Cisco clustering is currently more scalable than PAs though (but they function damn near identical as far as how they handle network traffic).

To wrap it all up......know them all and how what fits where....and you can sell any of them to get that bread.

Damn bruh...where do you get all of this information? What websites or magazines do you read?

@leftcoastkev

 

[leftcoastkev]

i just got my palo alto certification - PCNSE6 - Palo Alto certified network security engineer. it was easy and its the equivalent of a CCNP in security (which i already have)

Palo alto is the future in security.

whats makes it superior?

I wouldn't call PA superior overall, but their management platform is better than Cisco. And well so are centralized management platforms for Juniper SRX and Checkpoint (better than Cisco). Performance wise, Cisco is better. Damn near all of them are Linux boxes on the backend with different chipsets and asics (other than Checkooint variations e.g. Nokia).

Other than that, Palo Alto networks is a player staying in their lane. It's a relatively small company with a couple of buildings. They moved into Yahoos old buildings 2 years back. Their major selling point is that they are focused on firewalls. So it's a laser focus for the entire company vs. companies with business units that do firewall products. This focus puts them ahead in their lane like Riverbed cut into and took over the WAN Optimization market so Cisco is (feature depth-wise) playing catch up in both of those lanes. PA along with Checkpoint lead the way for next gen firewall products mainly because their mgmt platforms are so scalable vs Cisco who's major advantage has been performance and but weak point is enterprise management. But Cisco did buy Source Fire which is going to add to their depth to make their firewalls "next gen firewalls" like Checkpoint and PA. The drawback and irony of it all is that "next gen" features (ips, scanning, automated response to VMs, etc) take so much fine tuning, impede performance, and throw so many false positives (sec threat alerts) that people end up turning most of that shit off. As long as they have a cluster of firewalls performing well, a bank of web caches, load balancers, and some inline sec scanning tools most businesses are happy.

PA is partnering with other players like A10 to bring integrated solutions so there are some emerging things coming down the pipe. Depending on what's needed I guess it could be superior......for a particular customer.

Also, deployment wise (depth of integrated sec features aside) PA isn't doing anything any of the other companies aren't. The way their firewalls work are pretty much the same as everyone else's...clusters, failover pairs, blah blah. Cisco clustering is currently more scalable than PAs though (but they function damn near identical as far as how they handle network traffic).

To wrap it all up......know them all and how what fits where....and you can sell any of them to get that bread.

Damn bruh...where do you get all of this information? What websites or magazines do you read?

@leftcoastkev

I live in Silicon Valley and have been doing this stuff for a long time.

 

[Bcotton5]

Starting this networking journey. Currently studying for the CCNA(gonna do the 2 test method) Any recommendations on home lab setups? Im looking to get 3 routers and 3 switches

For ccna you can really get by on packet tracer

I think they made it available for everyone now you don't need to be a Cisco student

 

[Bcotton5]

Might take CCNP switch week just finished reading the book and watching the Nuggets

Any good practice exams out there?

 

[Thereal_ba]

Might take CCNP switch week just finished reading the book and watching the Nuggets

Any good practice exams out there?

Let me know how that goes, I need to start studying for my ccnp as well. I have an interview with intel this week, and toyota is supposed to be hiring down here soon too.

 

[King Erauno]

@leftcoastkev hit it on the head

 

[Bcotton5]

Anyone got a list or a breakdown of all the bugs and glitches in the CCNP switch exam?

I'm trying to take it soon since I read the book and watched all the Nuggets but I ain't trying to take a $300 L on a Sim question freezing up or glitching out on me

 

[King Erauno]

if it glitches, tell the proctor and they'll let you retake it or move to a new machine

 

[Ghostdenithegawd]

Been through mad family tragedy this in 16 going into 17 and I had a cushy job doing asset management at a hospital, I'm not super pressed to find a job I have been getting offers to jobs without even applying but I need to step my IT game back up I've been slacking heavily due to stress I got my A+N+

I need to go retake my CCNA I failed that because I didn't save my sim almost a year since it happens or a year I need to start studying again other than the main certs where do I get info about stuff like like

solar winds

Hardware software licensing

I got a call from a recruiter in SC asking me about doing it asset management but I didn't know much about hardware software licensing

These little things are holding me back from making real money

 

[Hevalisk]

Does anyone have any advice about staying focused, and maintaining your studies?

I guess I just have the flaw of lacking self discipline.