I’ve been looking around for jobs recently and made the decision I need to improve my appeal to employers.
I currently have the CompTIA A+ and N+ qualifications, which don’t seem to count for much around these parts. So, the next best step, seems to be to aim for the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA). For me, its only 3 exams to take, 2 server and 1 client, and I think it’d make sense for that to be Windows 7.

I’m hoping that after that, or perhaps even during, I might get the opportunity to study for the Apple exams, aiming to become a Certified Professional at some point.

Hopefully I can be less slack about studying this time around, since it took me over a year to do my A+ and about a year to do my Network+. Suggestions welcome!

I’ve recently finished working with one employer, and start a new job tomorrow. This job was my first step into IT and it was quite a eye opener, mainly in the way of how not to run your network.

My former employer was a public sector company, and foolishly I expected things to be a bit more secure than they were. And as a result, I’d like to share a few details of what they were going wrong.

1. At least 40% of employees using PC’s used a generic login, really designed for the IT department for debugging.
2. User profiles were locally cached and stored. This meant all your files remain on one PC, provided no means of backing up data, and made PC replacements very difficult.
3. All users had local admin rights. You would be surprised how many PC’s I saw running Firefox, BBC iPlayer, uTorrent. I can say right now that I would never transfer MP3 files or any films downloaded by these tools.
4. Desktops were not locked down. Change your wallpaper, delete or create any files.
5. USB drives, floppy drives and CD drives were all open. So much so that I caught a virus on my USB drive from one PC and spread it around to others before McAfee even detected it!
6. Desktop Support was provided using a tool called PushVNC which is a back-alley way of starting a VNC session with a remote client. Doesn’t provide the user any notification someone is watching or ask for permission. Serious Data Protection Act issues there.

Issues like these can be easily solved, and if someone would make the effort, things would be so much more secure. Group Policies could limit files being saved to My Documents only, stop USB drives, CDs, and floppies being used. No local admin rights would save issues with unauthorised software being used. Roaming profiles could be implemented, mapping a drive to a SAN for the My Documents and caching profiles locally. This would also provide a easier method of backing up, and certainly make my old job of replacing PC’s quicker. I can tell you that the data transfer was the most time consuming thing, especially when you have a Dell GX150 with USB 1.1 giving slow data transfer rates.

Anyway, my new job is private sector, and I’m fairly certain their network will be much more secure and easier to manage. But we shall see…

So I now work where they employ the use of certificates for wifi security, and I want to use the wifi on my iPhone since the data connection sucks. But how?

Well with iPhone 2.0 software, there is support for certificates. But how do you get it on your phone?

Well…

1. Go to http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoneconfigurationutility10formacosx.html and download the iPhone Configuration Tool. Install

2. Open up the Config tool from your Utilities folder.

3. Select Configuration Profiles and click New

4. Fill in the details on the General Tab.

5. Click Credentials. and click the plus sign, and navigate to the Certificate file (in my case a .cer file). Click OK.

6. Check the details look correct, and give it a name.

And thats it! Done.

Well not quite. You need to install it on your iphone. You have two/three options but the third involves Mac OS X Server which many personal users won’t have. So your two options are host a file on a website somewhere, or email it to yourself. If you want to host it, click the Export button, save the file to disk, and then upload it somewhere. Then navigate to that file online and it should ask you to install.

The second easier option is to email it to yourself. So click Share, and wait for Mail.app to open a new mail and punch in an email address you can access on your iPhone. Click send. Wait (or go and check your mail).

Then in the email, click the file, and you will be asked to install the file. Do so and bingo. Success. Now go test it and make sure it works!

Update: I have tested this at work, and it worked perfectly. You have to make sure you enter your username as Domain\username and your password as normal or it won’t authenticate. So now I can use the internet connection at work. Only thing is that IMAP and POP3 ports are blocked so can’t use the Mail.app to check them, but everything else works a treat!

Remember a while ago when I was losing my job? Well that happened, an I was unemployed. And that was fun. I saw a few films, relaxed and just wasted my time. Until one day later when I had a job interview. And then 2 days later, I started again.

My title is now PC Installations Engineer, although my security badge says ICT Technician, but same difference. So I spend my time installing new PC’s, replacing old ones, and transferring data. Oh and I have spent a lot of time fixing printers.

While it may not be the most exciting or detailed job, its a start in the industry, and its experience for me which is the main thing.

The hope is that while I do this, I can study for my Network+ and by the last quarter of the year, I should be qualified and that should help me get a better job.

What have I learnt so far? Well roaming profiles are VERY important to a network, all users should NOT be given admin priviledges, and internet ports should be closed (iPlayer, Torrents) – basically the network at my work is not great by any means. Data transfer involves, pulling out the old drive, copying user folders to a new folder on the new machine, and leaving a text file on the All Users desktop with instructions, involving logging on and off, using the generic IT logon, and copying files across. Its by no means nice. And of course you have HUGE internet cache’s to deal with too.

So in the mean time, I’ll be hauling Dells. And I must say its really tiring.

Today marks the final day of my working life in Financial Services. Today I had a trip to Manchester to demo a database, little knowing that I would probably not see most of my colleagues again. So Tuesday seems to be the last day for that. As of 15th May I’ll be unemployed (well 16th really). Its (hopefull) the end of an era.

I’ve been working in FS for about 5 years now, starting originally at Norwich Union in 2003 and working there until 2006, when I moved up to Birmingham, and then went into FS again just as a temporary job. As often happens I settled and put a new job on the back burner, and then over the past year, I have been slowly working toward my IT qualifications, hoping to move over.

Well that time came upon me quicker than I planned, and I also got a little pay out to go with it. Without mentioning the company name, we have been going through some changes, and found out a few months back our office was going to close. After hearing that it just became an issue of when.

Today on my train journey I was listening to Leo Laporte talk on TWiT about the Yahoo/Microsoft business and in particular, some of the comments about Yahoo sounded all to familiar. Jerry Yang and other Yahoo bods made comments about now that the Microsoft deal deadline passed, they can move on and focus on being  more efficient business. And that is literally what the bosses at my work were saying.

My worry is for the company that they are already too far down that path, and that for years they have been hiding failure behind small successes, and of course that means for the current employees, a tough time, uncertainty and risk of redundancy too.

But I’ve been through it now and have to look foward to a new job. I’m looking at starting off as some sort of technician, doing installation and repairs or hardware and network stuff, hopefully in a full time position, but I’m also looking at contract work so we’ll see how we get on.

Either way, I’ve got some time to myself which I will spend making music, tidying the house and seeing a variety of films, and probably blog a fair bit too!