Gaining network experience

[Dirty Harry101]

Gents

I need a bit of assistance please, or guidance rather. I seriously need to get my A into G for networking.
I have come to realise I know f-all when I go for interviews, and I get so embarrassed and frustrated when I think I could get by yet sit there with a mouth full of teeth umming and aahing sweating bullets when I get asked technical questions. I suppose I shouldn't feel like that, they just trying to get a feel for what I know(or don't)but I guess its human nature right?

Anywho, I can say I have been using Mikrotik for about 3 years, but in actual fact, I probably only have 6months, maybe a year max, worth of experience. Well that's how I feel now anyway. I worked at a WISP where 90% of our equipment is Mikrotik, I however never got the chance to work on the radius server or the core routers to see whats cooking. I know nothing when it comes to BGP, OSPF, MPLS but to name a few. I have quite a good understanding on the wireless side though(I hope anyway).

So, I need to, have to, want to get my hands dirty with this stuff. I now sit in a situation where I have a mikrotik as my main router, 22 netgear switches and about 500 devices ranging from IP cameras to access control systems to pcs. I have to internet lines, 8meg and 5meg. I can hardly play with any of it as the second it goes down, we have bitching and moaning from all angles, so I have set it up as best as possible, but I know there's quite a bit of improvement that can be done.

I have done my MTCNA, I am doing my MTCRE the next 3 days( dear lord please help me) and from what I can gather I need to do some sort of networking course, not so much propriety training as such as I think that will only get me so far.

The only way I know that will work for me is to work with the stuff, I can study the **** until I am blue in the face, will mean nothing.

Might sound like I am doubting myself, at this point, yeah, that's how I feel.

Where do I go from here?

Thanks

 

[daffy]

Join JAWUG.
Get on the admin team, get to know how the network works and how it fits together. Loads of Mikrotik
Experimentation is encouraged!

 

[Dirty Harry101]

Looking at it now. How would I get on the admin team?
Sounds good, cant wait to get started.

 

[Genisys]

Looking at it now. How would I get on the admin team?
Sounds good, cant wait to get started.

Get onto IRC and have a chat with the folks on there, they will give you some more info.

 

[Randy_The_Squirrel]

For RADIUS authentication systems and schemes, TheR0dent is an expert, and a founding member of JAWUG.
So there is merit in asking those people.

MPLS is a relatively new thing, and I know the idea behind it, just never had the chance to play with it.

 

[DWPTA]

If you have your MTCNA you have a level4 license download the Mikrotik software and build a virtual network with GNS3. With GNS3 you can play around, stuff up, anything you want to, it's all virtual.

Create your work network in GNS3 and make changes there first to see what effect it will have.

 

[syntax]

MPLS is a relatively new thing, and I know the idea behind it, just never had the chance to play with it.

Its not that new and at the moment we see a definite trend in the industry for enterprises to try move away from costly MPLS links in favour or SD-WAN type scenario's

If you have your MTCNA you have a level4 license download the Mikrotik software and build a virtual network with GNS3. With GNS3 you can play around, stuff up, anything you want to, it's all virtual.

Create your work network in GNS3 and make changes there first to see what effect it will have.

This!
You dont even need to build a particularly big network, you can experiment with almost all protocols and technologies using 3 or 4 devices at most. There are so mayn online tutorials and configurations that all you really need to do is make a decision and start working on it.
Use the CCNA blue print as a guide and work through each topic yourself, it takes time, but you will be better off for it

 

[Genisys]

If you have your MTCNA you have a level4 license download the Mikrotik software and build a virtual network with GNS3. With GNS3 you can play around, stuff up, anything you want to, it's all virtual.

Create your work network in GNS3 and make changes there first to see what effect it will have.

You can also just get the Mikrotik CRS. Free of charge and does anything a Level 6 License can, but limited to 1Mbps. Should be better for a test lab setup.

 

[Dirty Harry101]

Thanks for the replies and feedback guys, really appreciate it.

I have downloaded GNS3 on a win8 VM on my server, just have not started yet as I don't know where to?

When you say experiment with all sorts of protocols and scenarios, my issues, or limits lie with my knowledge of networking.
I don't know what is out there so I don't know what to choose to try and use if that makes sense. I don't know what scenarios there are that are used for me to replicate.

When you say use the CCNA blueprint, follow the course basically but use Mikrotik as the router and not a Cisco?

I honestly do not find networking particularly difficult, however, I cannot study it, I need to work with it and see it to understand it.

Once I am done with the MTCRE training, I am going to go break my network at the office ha ha. Need to seriously sort that **** out.

 

[Randy_The_Squirrel]

I honestly do not find networking particularly difficult, however, I cannot study it, I need to work with it and see it to understand it.

I am in the same boat. Most of these American certifications are too difficult for me to pass, because of the way they set up the exams. Its always about trying to trick you instead of testing your knowledge in a fairer way. I recently had that experience..

 

[Dirty Harry101]

Yeah, and chances are that whatever scenarios they provide are never seen or used ha ha

 

[paul5186]

As others have said.

Get 3 Mikrotik routers, or use GNS3.

First understand subnetting and static routing, tunnels such as EOIP, L2TP, GRE etc, then move onto OSPF, loopbacks, firewall rules, natting, mangle etc. Also play around with PPP protocols.

There are plenty resources available, youtube, forums, wiki's etc.

 

[Dirty Harry101]

As others have said.

Get 3 Mikrotik routers, or use GNS3.

First understand subnetting and static routing, tunnels such as EOIP, L2TP, GRE etc, then move onto OSPF, loopbacks, firewall rules, natting, mangle etc. Also play around with PPP protocols.

There are plenty resources available, youtube, forums, wiki's etc.

Ok cool I get what you saying, but, I don't know what I will be using each protocol for. So, if I don't have a situation, I cannot set up.

natting, subnetting and static routing I am ok with. The rest, I pretty much dont know. PPPoE I have only used when working at the ISP. I only understand it as the internet account. The rest, well ya.

EoIP I just learnt is a Mikrotik proprietary tunneling protocol.

If I can just understand the why for each thing I'll be fine.

 

[paul5186]

Have a read up on routing protocols, there are basically two sides, one interior to your network such as ospf, is-is etc and external such as ebgp. These would dynamically send and receive routes within your network or across networks so you would not have to use static routing.

Tunnels you use to create a layer2 or 3 connection from one point to another, I.e easy configuration on two routers compared to having to configure the entire path of routers.

There is tons of info out there. Suggest just watching some vids, ask questions in forums, Google etc

 

[Dirty Harry101]

Thanks Paul

I will need to dig around.

Talking of watching vids, I was quite surprised at how easy vlans were after I had watched it.

The Mikrotik forums and wikis are helpful but the support for them is not that great. I get more confused after going through those damn wikis though and theres hardly any decent replies on the forum.

 

[DWPTA]

For Mikrotik you can read up here, Greg Sowell

 

[paul5186]

Yup Greg is good, also have a look here:
http://www.stubarea51.net/

Watch the brotherswisp youtube videos as well - not network centric but there are some interesting talks about vendors, new products etc. Try rather learn what a protocol or feature does and why you would use it than rather learning a specific vendor. Each vendor is "fairly" similar - but different commands or different methods to get to the same result.

Vlans are not "easy" - well normal tagged/untagged is - but there is a lot more. There is QinQ etc. Understanding MTU is very important, especially when one transverses tunnels, VPLS etc.

Anyway good luck, read read, and practice.

 

[Dirty Harry101]

Yeah already have Greg Sowell as a saved tabe on my browser. The guy is impressive with his qualifications. He explained the basics quite well, now need to go through the rest of his content.

I agree 100% Paul, and I am rather worried that I am going to only know one product. I am going to try my best to avoid that.

Thanks once again.