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It’s time for me to get back into student mode once again.  After completing my bachelor’s degree in August of 2009, I thought I would spend some time to knock out some certifications and relax a bit before attempting to further my education.  Recent events in my life have left me in a situation being unable to afford repayment on my student loans that would be coming due this month, and a temporary deferment would not likely offer enough time to sort out the financial strain I am in now.

As a result of these circumstances, I have been researching options to pursue a master’s degree.  I found the Master of Science Information Security and Assurance program over at Western Governors University (WGU) and after doing some research and speaking to past and present students I felt it would be a good option.  I’ve went through all the requisite paperwork and entrance requirements and officially started as a student this month.

I hope to share some of my experiences along the way here as I progress through the program.  This point in my life I find myself excited to continue on with my education as well as a bit of fear about my ability to keep myself focused on getting things accomplished given the stress my present situation creates.

It has been an incredibly lengthy amount of time since the last time I have published any article here.  Much has changed during this time, things that have left me wondering.  I’ve spent many weeks questioning where I am, where I am headed, where I want to be headed, and most importantly how I am going to bring myself to get there.  I find myself at a point in my life where everything I had grown accustomed to is being replaced with a new setting.  This new setting is unfamiliar to me and because of that I feel a mixture of emotions as I begin to acclimate myself to my new environment.  Nearly two months ago I learned that my wife and I were going to be getting a divorce.

I pondered for several days about writing this post as it doesn’t specifically fall into the subject matter I desire my blog to revolve around, but I decided to write a brief post about it anyways.  I suppose I hope this brief post serves as a reminder to my fellow IT professionals out there that may stumble across my blog and read this.  I like to think that the vast majority of us have selected the career path we drive upon because we genuinely enjoy our work.  I know there are days many of us seem to have no shortage of things to complain about, but for the most part we enjoy being IT professionals.  We enjoy the constant change that the industry brings upon us and we embrace it as an opportunity to continuously advance and invest upon ourselves to learn new skills.  It is a rewarding feeling to learn new things and it also helps maintain ourselves as a marketable individual within the industry as well.  It is for this reason that I enjoy being an IT professional the most, the constant change is both challenging and provides a dynamic environment leaving one with little to become bored with as our careers press on.

The path that many of us IT professionals embark upon is one that is not without risks though.  I can speak from my own personal experiences that it can be easy for one to become too deeply vested in their journey.  I have been participant on several discussion forums and mailing lists long enough to read about stories of colleagues in situations very similar to where I find myself.  It seems for some of us that it is easy to devote too much of oneself to his or her career and inadvertently neglect those we love around us.  I’ve read other warnings very much like the one I am writing now, but for some reason I did not acknowledge them.  This is not to say that my devotion to my career and studies vested towards advancing my career are the only fault to blame for a failing relationship.  I know these factors certainly contributed to the dissolution of my relationship with my wife, perhaps had I heeded the warnings from others and carefully analyzed our relationship then I may have realized before it was too late that some changes needed to be made.  Unfortunately I did not heed the warnings, instead I look back and I see my almost tunnel vision view on study on advancing my career were a tool to cope with some of the other stresses that were contributing to the failing relationship.

So to those of you who are reading this, do yourself a favor now and then and pause for a moment.  Take that moment and think about  those around you whom you love and ask yourself if you are giving them and your relationship with them enough attention.  Sadly I did not take that moment to really consider those around me, but I am able to look back and know that the painful days I work through today will have hopefully allowed me to walk away from this someday with a valuable lesson.

Going forward, I hope to begin to write here more often than I have been.  While I do not have a regular base of readers aside from the casual drifter who stumbles onto this site from a search engine, I find it helpful to write.  I hope to soon share some changes with my career focus as I begin to specialize my professional and academic studies.

Till next time.

The 70-620: TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client exam is the first of the exams I have on the roadmap towards the MCITP: EA certification, and one that I am thankful to have out of the way.  This exam by no means is very difficult, but there are some areas on the list of objectives that a lot of people simply don’t really use.  Having used Vista for a long time now at home and work, I was comfortable with a bulk of the core content while some of the extra features built into Vista such as Meeting Space, Calendar, Fax and Scan, Tablet PC features, and Mobile device features were not very familiar to me since I’ve never had a reason to use them.  Furthermore, aside from perhaps the Tablet PC and Mobile Devices features, I don’t see the other areas really being of much benefit since I have yet to see an organization that uses the other features.

This is what led to the problems with preparing for this exam, it took a lot of perseverance to actually study for this exam.  When it comes to studying, I encounter a hard time staying on track unless the material is either something I find interesting, or something that there is much use out of understanding the material.  This is not to say that if something isn’t interesting that I won’t study it at all, because I have studied many dis-interesting topics through my classes extensively - but many of those proved to have value in some aspects of my life or career.  The portions of the 70-620 exam that I found problems to motivate myself to devote time to and study were both dis-interesting and content that I firmly believe will never really benefit me, and should I encounter those items in the real world at some point (unlikely) - it will be incredibly easy to work through regardless.

That being said, I did study for the exam in it’s entirety anyways since the topics could be brought up and I wasn’t about to fail an exam because I was ill prepared.  I just had to buckle down and work through it, regardless of how boring the content was.  Study materials used for this exam included the MS Press MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit, Configuring Windows Vista Client as well as the TestOut LabSim 70-620 - Configuring Windows Vista Certification Suite computer based training (CBT).  The book was difficult to work through because of the issues discussed previously, and as a result I only read the first 3 chapters of the book.  The bulk of the study time was spent watching the TestOut CBT through in it’s entirety once and then completing the full practice exam at the end of the training 4 or 5 times.  In the end it turned out to be adequate and a pass was made.

Next up in the MCITP: EA track… 70-640, but only after the Windows 7 Beta (71-680) and the CompTIA Server+ 2009 Beta which are coming up in the next several days.

Till next time…

Today it appears selected candidates that signed up for the CompTIA Server+ Beta exam began to receive e-mails asking for confirmation that they will be able to sit the exam prior to June 15th 2009, and to also confirm which testing center they prefer.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the candidates selected it seems, just awaiting the voucher code that is sent after you confirm your testing center.  In the mean time, I thought I would post a link to CompTIA’s Server+ 2009 exam objectives:

CompTIA Server+ 2009 Beta Exam Objectives

Best of luck to everybody who plans to sit the exam!

CompTIA is introducing an updated version of the Server+ exam.  A limited number of a people will be able to sit the new Server+ exam in it’s beta format completely free.  This is a time and seat limited event, with the deadline being May 29th or the first 400 people to take the exam.  As it is a beta exam, do not expect to have your results and leave the testing center knowing if you have passed or failed.  Instead, the results will be calculated as they analyze the data collected to determine what a passing score will be.  The exam and your results are supposed to be released in the fall of 2009.

Those intrested in signing up for a chance to be considered for the exam should fill out the form located on CompTIA’s website here:

Free CompTIA Server+ Beta 2009 Exam Voucher Application

Good luck!

Long time since the past update, been exceptionally busy.  The good news is my car is running and my prior round of classes is finished up.  The month ahead looks to be another busy month.  Up and coming for this month are several MS exams; 70-620 (MCTS: Windows Vista Configuration), 71-680 (MCTS: Windows 7, Configuring), and 70-640 (MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory).  Yep, I was fortunate enough to land a spot in the 71-680 beta exam that filled up extremely quick.  I also begin classes this week for my final semester to finish off the requirements for my Bachelors of Science in Technology Management, I cannot begin to express how excited I will be to have this finished off.  I’m not sure what I’m going to be the most happy about, the fact that I’ll have finally earned the degree, or the fact that I’ll have all of this extra free time to devote towards other studies and family time… but that is a whole other post in itself.

The real reason for this post is to share some resources that some of us might overlook when trying to determine what to study for the 71-680 exam with.  First and foremost, one should take a good look through the official Microsoft 70-680 exam overview (while the exam is in the beta period, it is labeled the 71-680 - the official exam designation will be 70-680 upon release).  In the exam overview you will find a comprehensive list of all of the skills being measured within the exam, a good overview of everything you’ll want to know well for the exam.  There are also several resources within Microsoft’s website which will be helpful study aids.

Windows 7 Technet Library:
Windows 7 Technical Library Roadmap (Beta)

Windows 7 Springboard Site:
Windows 7 Beta | Support, Deployment, Resources

Windows 7 Learning Portal:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/wi…7/default.mspx

What’s New in Windows 7 Beta Guide*:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=143723

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Networking Enhancements Executive Overview*:
Download details: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Networking Enhancements Executive Overview

Windows 7 Manageability Overview*:
Download details: Windows 7 Manageability Overview

* - These documents are just links to Word documents of their prospective areas within the TechNet Library that MS made available.

I plan to go through as much of the materials listed here as possible, as well as continued exposure to the latest Windows 7 beta release.  I must say that I’m refreshed to see the skills being measured on this exam.  I haven’t sat the 70-620 exam yet, but from the overall feedback from the community, it sounds as though the Vista client exam is far too easy for a requirement for a certification such as the MCITP: SA or EA.  I’m glad to see that the Windows 7 client exam seems to be more tuned to an enterprise environment rather than a traditional end user.  Should be an interesting exam, definately looking forward to it!  Best of luck to all of you who got a spot in the beta!

I feel like the ultimate slacker, I’ve started and finished some projects in the past several weeks and I have a list of numerous posts I would like to make here… but the problems continue.

Subaru 2.5L SOHC Engine

This is what has been taking up all of my free time (and a sizable chunk of my tax return) over the past several weeks.  To make a long story short, the engine in my car had a blown head gasket and was leaking coolant internally into the oil.  Sure, I smelled the coolant smell, but an inspection of the oil was both normal in appearance (not milky as would typically indicate coolant in the oil) and odor  as I checked a couple different times over several days.  There had also been a slow leak I was aware of when I would park (a drip here and there), so I just assumed all was fairly ok and it was just leaking a bit more while at speed.  End result was very well spun bearings, and a thoroughly toasted engine.

Rather than rebuild the existing engine since that is a bit beyond my comfort level, I opted for a low miles (51k) engine.  Also decided since the model year the engine came from was prone to head gasket issues that I would replace the head gaskets prior to installing the engine.  Also opted to change out the timing belt and related components that it rides on since it was easily done at that time as well.  The good news is, I’ve been fortunate to be able to arrange my work schedule accordingly to accommodate my wife and I sharing one vehicle while I fix mine up.  Between the lower miles engine and the replacement of the head gaskets and timing belt set as a precaution, I should hopefully have things up and operational mid to late this week and be back at things here once again.

Till next time…

Wow, things have been crazy the past couple of weeks to say the least.  I know there aren’t many (are there any of you out there??) regular readers since this blog is still new, but for anybody coming in from an outside link or web search, my apologies for the lack of content the past couple of weeks.

Work has been crazy, I am part of a team of three IT staff that support a mid sized organization with all of it’s users over approximately 40 offices throughout the state.  Needless to say, we are quite understaffed when compared to many other IT departments and to top things off one of us has been enjoying (hopefully!) a vacation through several countries around Asia.  To make matters worse I’ve been finishing up studying and assignments for college as well as final exams are this week.

I will be posting some new material next week after final exams are over with and I have less to deal with.  I’ve been working on re-designing the home network setup and have also been building several machines to use as lab servers to stick a bunch of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 virtual machines on as I begin to study for the MCITP: SA & MCITP: EA tracks as well as studying for the MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization Configuration exam.  Lots to knock out this year, but with the economy as it is now, times certainly justify trying to do all you can to become both more valuable in your current position and more marketable for other positions if needed.

Check back soon for more content next week!

One of the projects that I eventually intend to perform at a larger and more detailed scale is an info tech job analysis.  That is still a work for the future as there is more research and coding to accurately gather data and present it in a manner that makes sense.  In the mean time, I decided to do a quicker analysis using a fairly broad scope to gain a bit of insight as to where various Cisco related jobs are at a state by state basis.  What I did was perform a query on Monster.com for various Cisco certifications for each state as well as Washington D.C.  In the following table are the results of my search.

Nationwide Cisco Certification Job Analysis

Please keep in mind, this is a very simplistic analysis.  This is simply a process of searching Monster.com for various keywords (CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, etc) for each of the 50 states as well as Washington D.C.  for a total of 459 searches.  Do bear in mind that these results are not indicative of the total number of Cisco related jobs in each state, as some of the listings may have included two or more certifications.  In addition, this search does not take into account any of the CCNA specializations nor CCIE specializations.  This is just a general overview of what was listed on Monster.com on February 4, 2009.  If you prefer graphical results, click on the State name for the corresponding bar graph.  I did leave out the CCDE certification from the table below as it was causing troubles with the format of this page, however there was only one (1) result in Maryland for the CCDE certification.  I appreciate any comments or tips, as well as what you would like to see on future more details analysis of job listings.

The Problem

We’ve been using Trend Micro for protection against virus and spyware threats for some time now, and have been fairly happy with it’s performance.  Recently I had an instance where one of our offices was still using the older Client/Server for SMB  suite rather than the newer and more feature filled Worry-Free Business Security package.  After the upgrade, I attempted to login so I could manage the configuration but the web console password had apparently been set incorrectly or had been changed inadvertantly.  After searching for a write up unsuccessfully, Trend Micro finally came through with the password reset instructions.  These instructions should work fine for both the Client/Server for SMB suite as well as the newer Worry-Free Business Security suite.

The Solution

Resetting the Trend Micro Client/Server for SMB & Worry-Free Business Security password:

1. Browse to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Security Server\PCCSRV\Private (replacing C: with the drive the product is installed upon).
2. Open ofcserver.ini in a text editor such as Notepad.
3. Search through the file for the section marked with “[INI_SERVER_SECTION]“.
4. Under the “[INI_SERVER_SECTION]” locate the “Master_Pwd=” line.
5. Change the “Master_Pwd=” line to read “Master_Pwd=70” and save the file.
6. Launch the Services Snap-In (Start > Run > services.msc).
7. Right click on the “Trend Micro Security Server Master Service” and select “Restart”.
8. You should now be able to login to the web console using “1″ as the password.

That should allow you to login, once you are logged in don’t forget to change the password to something more secure!