"What answers must I know to pass this test?" and "Is boot camp
sufficient to achieve my certification?" are recurring questions
on CompTia- and Microsoft-related Internet newsgroups.
Individuals changing careers and wanting to enter the
Information Technology (IT) field view the CompTia and MCSE
certifications as tickets to success. IMO the CompTia and
MCSE certifications are tickets that get IT travelers' feet
in the IT employer's door -- they are *not* tickets guaranteeing
that IT travelers successfully reach their goals. IMO achieving
IT success requires professional competence based upon initial
study, accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
and continueing professional education.

Why Customer Relations skills? I have worked as a programmer,
a systems engineer, a software engineer, a service technician,
a network administrator, an engineering manager and as a
consultant. I worked with different "people types" in each of
these employments -- the rules were different in each of these
environments. Yet all of these environments shared one common
factor: in each case I served a Customer and satisfying that
Customer was my job. In cases where I did not interact (directly
or telephonicly) with paying Customers, my supervisor and his
sales representatives were my Customers and I was visible daily.
The same skills required for good Customer Relations also assist
when working with your supervisor and colleagues.

My Customer Relations philosophy reflects my experience --
on-site at the Customer facility. A service technician or MCSE
on-site at the Customer facility is a guest in the Customer's
"house" and has been invited in good faith to assist the Customer.
In this case I believe the service technician's and MCSE's job
combines technical skills with *marketing* -- marketing
her/himself (and her/his organization) as a cost-effective
problem-solver. Technical skills solve the problems, but
marketing skills maintain the attendent Customer *anguish* below
the threshold of pain -- a level that reflects back at the
service technician or MCSE. For these reasons I believe that
competent service technicians and MCSEs must (and should) develop
*both* technical skills and Customer Relations (marketing) skills.

I believe that appropriate clothing is part of effectively
representing your organization. 'Appropriate' is a vague word --
clothing that is appropriate for climbing under desks and squeezing
between server racks might not be appropriate when repairing the
workstation that your Customer's CEO uses. Clean, neat and
properly-fitting are mandatory -- style depends upon environment.
I believe that service technician and MCSE clothing should reflect
comfortable professionalism, and should reflect the resources of
the service organization.

I believe that the rules are changing in IT hardware and software
maintenance. IMO falling hardware prices will encourage
workstation replacement rather than repair -- less repair work
despite a *larger* number of less expensive workstations. I also
believe that increased OEM usage of "field replaceable modules"
in quality workstations [and 'server slices' -- compact server
hardware modules exclusive of hard disk storage for use in a NAS
(network-attached storage) environments] will encourage
"troubleshooting by module/slice replacement" at the Customer
facility rather than carry-in backroom bench repair -- hardware
troubleshooting at the Customer facility will replace carry-in
backroom bench repair. Similarly, standardized software
configurations, automated software installation and upgrade, and
remote access technology will reduce the amount of backroom
software maintenance -- a smaller number of highly-skilled
technicians and MCSEs will maintain and upgrade workstation and
server software configurations.

All of these trends reflect decreased Total Cost of Ownership
(decreased TCO) for IT systems. Yet if I am correct the number
of required IT service technicians and MCSEs will *not* increase
indefinitely, and IT service technicians and MCSEs will spend
more of their time interacting with Customers.

Employers want to hire IT service technicians and MCSEs with
good Customer Relations skills -- an inducement for IT service
technicians and MCSEs to perfect those skills. Smart employers
will help their IT service technicans and MCSEs enhance *all*
of their skills, increasing technicians' and MCSEs' technical
expertise while making them better representatives for their
organizations. And good peoples' skills get sharper (not rusty)
as they age.

If an individual has no IT experience and wants to become an
MCSE I recommend that they first complete their A-PLUS
certification and use their A-PLUS certification to qualify
for an entry-level position. Most employers will fund
continueing education courses for productive employees,
and the employee can learn new skills building upon the
experience base they acquire in the workplace. This is
analogous to building your house on rock, as opposed to
building your house on paper.

Why is experience important? Experience teaches valuable
lessons. Experience teaches prospective MCSEs to acquire
needed documentation from OEM and vendor websites and faxback
services *before* visiting the Customer site, and to record
the changes made to the Customer's hardware and software.
Experience teaches the necessity of carrying extra consumable
items (tested FD drives and cables; tested HD, power and
network drop cables, floppy disks and CD-Rs) as part of your
"trunk stock" when you go on-site for a Customer service call
-- minimize absences required to retrieve low-cost consumable
items. Experience teaches small lessons like carrying band-aids
in your service kit so that when you slice your fingers on a
sharp chassis edge you will not bleed on Customer carpeting.
Experience teaches small lessons like checking your handtools
and software tools *before* leaving for the Customer site to
ensure nothing was "borrowed". Experience teaches the value of
educating Customers about using high-quality, non-fouling print
cartridges and media in precision color laser printers.

Once again, I believe a prospective MCSE's goal should
be professional competence based upon initial study,
accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
and continueing professional education. What is the
alternative? Occasionally you read reference to the
'paper MCSE'. What's a paper MCSE?

1) A paper MCSE is a person with a lot of wallpaper (test
passed certificates) but no practical experience.

2) A paper MCSE is someone who (when faced with a network
outage) locks the server room door, unplugs the telephone,
turns off their cellular telephone/pager, and (assuming that they
did not sell their texts after passing the tests) frantically
pages through the texts trying to locate *any* reference to the
problem. They also might ask vaguely-defined questions on
IT-related Internet newsgroups and then WAIT ..... The Help Desk
and IT Managers receive no idea of the outage's cause. The Help
Desk and IT Managers receive no Expected-Time-To-Restore/Repair
estimate. People are muttering and milling about outside the
server room door. Suddenly the value of prior networking
experience is evident.

This is a reactive scenario. What is the PROactive scenario?
If your employer does not provide a non-production test network
for you to "break and fix" (one basis of practical experience),
you must provide your own home network upon which to experiment.
You also get the benefit of applying operating system upgrades,
application upgrades, and security upgrades to your home network,
a task that another individual might perform on your employer's
or Customer's production network. And you should apply these
upgrades to the test/home system *before* you apply them to a
production network where (due to unanticipated difficulties)
they might cause production network failure.

What 'unanticipated difficulties'? Modern networking operating
systems and applications are complex multifunctioned software
packages -- the wealth of functions can result in unanticipated
difficulties. For example, one night I participated in a server
OS upgrade that stalled in mid-script. Through manual
troubleshooting our team was able to determine that a large number
of files had been DELETEd but not PURGEd [i.e., the files were
recoverable on the server hard disk (a standard network OS feature),
but the DELETEd files occupied hard disk space not acknowledged by
the OS directory functions and not checked by the script.] The
DELETEd unPURGEd files consumed so much hard disk space that
there was insufficient hard disk capacity to complete the OS upgrade.
Our team relaxed, then PURGEd the DELETEd files and completed the
OS upgrade manually -- we got home before dawn.

I also advocate home technical libraries to supplement the
technical library provided by employers -- technical texts are
"IT tools of the trade". My Amazon.com "Friends and Favorites"
webpage (referenced in my sig) contains links to a number of
MCSE-related "Listmania" reading lists, including "A Windows
Desktop OS Reading List", "A Windows NT4 Server Reading
List", "A BackOffice / SBS 4.5 Reading List" (reflects two
distinct Microsoft Corporation products), "A Computer Security
Reading List", "An MCSE Consultant's Business Reading List",
and (preliminary) "A Small Business Server 2000 Reading List"
(reflects one distinct Microsoft Corporation product).

I also recommend that prospective MCSEs become familiar
and skilled using the Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base.
Microsoft Corporation provides an *extensive* collection of
detailed technical information in its Knowledge Base, and
the Knowledge Base is *keyword-searchable*. To answer a
specific question I would search the Microsoft Corporation
Knowledge Base *before* I posted questions to IT-related
Internet newsgroups -- no wait.

Knowledge Base article ###### currently can be accessed on
a no-cost basis at URL
"http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q######"
(no quotes).

The Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base is valuable, but IMO it
does *not* replace paper texts and searchable e-books on CD-ROM.
Occasionally an MCSE might require information while at a
Customer site where Internet access is *not* available, and
marginal notes in paper texts and e-books add true value.

This message was not solicited by Amazon.com, any author,
or their agent(s). I receive no remuneration of any kind from
Amazon.com .

This message was not solicited by CompTia. I receive no
remuneration of any kind from CompTia.

This message was not solicited by Microsoft Corporation. I
receive no remuneration of any kind from Microsoft Corporation.

This message was not solicited by Xerox Corporation. I
receive no remuneration of any kind from Xerox Corporation.

My opinions.

Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
--
Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"

Report this post to a moderator

Richard,

Thanks for laying this out for people. I'm amazed at how many people I
speak with are pursuing their "network certifications" and are being told by
training camps, schools, etc.. that they can be making 50K+/year after an
intensive boot camp. Don't believe the hype!! The day this was true was
3-4 years ago. It's not this way today

If you want to get a job in the IT industry and have no experience, take a
job doing technical support while you go to school to get your
certifications. That way you'll get a flavor of what kinds of problems
users face and read the resolutions that the technicians put in there. Ask
lots of questions of people who know more than you do. You'll usually find
they are much more apt to spend some time to share their knowledge, knowing
that you'll pick something up that will help you either diagnose problems or
resolve problems later, therby making thier jobs easier.

If you have a minimal understanding of a concept, don't try to talk about it
to impress other people. You may get it right, and you may just put your
foot in your mouth. Just a couple of weeks ago one of our Helpdesk techs on
a conference call was talking about a problem being a "network replication
issue". It had absolutely nothing to do with replication, or even with the
network, and many of the other techs had a good laugh and eye rolling about
it.

Lastly, learn to do things from a command line. Not just because from time
to time the GUI isn't avaiable, but because you can actually learn what the
gui is doing!! If you want to know about an app from the command line type
the command with a /? after it in Windows and --help in Linux/Unix. Not to
bring up another helpdesk story but another HD tech a week ago told me after
I showed some users how to run telnet.exe that "I never knew you could do
that from a command line. In my Cisco class we always use terraterm pro."

Hang in there, find people who know what they are doing and ask to help
them, even if its just sitting there watching them load a server/install an
app/troubleshoot, etc... Ask lots of questions.. Dont think that a cert is
a one time shot either. They require constant maintanence and learning.
You're entering an industry where they average life of a technology (OS) is
only a few years and applications come and go faster than that. If you like
tackling challenging problems and love technology, your in the right field.
If you just looking to make fast cash, join a MLM or something.

Jeff Schuler
MCSE

"Richard Ballard" <rball84213@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20021209010132.20556.00000396@mb-cr.aol.com...
> "What answers must I know to pass this test?" and "Is boot camp
> sufficient to achieve my certification?" are recurring questions
> on CompTia- and Microsoft-related Internet newsgroups.
> Individuals changing careers and wanting to enter the
> Information Technology (IT) field view the CompTia and MCSE
> certifications as tickets to success. IMO the CompTia and
> MCSE certifications are tickets that get IT travelers' feet
> in the IT employer's door -- they are *not* tickets guaranteeing
> that IT travelers successfully reach their goals. IMO achieving
> IT success requires professional competence based upon initial
> study, accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
> and continueing professional education.
>
> Why Customer Relations skills? I have worked as a programmer,
> a systems engineer, a software engineer, a service technician,
> a network administrator, an engineering manager and as a
> consultant. I worked with different "people types" in each of
> these employments -- the rules were different in each of these
> environments. Yet all of these environments shared one common
> factor: in each case I served a Customer and satisfying that
> Customer was my job. In cases where I did not interact (directly
> or telephonicly) with paying Customers, my supervisor and his
> sales representatives were my Customers and I was visible daily.
> The same skills required for good Customer Relations also assist
> when working with your supervisor and colleagues.
>
> My Customer Relations philosophy reflects my experience --
> on-site at the Customer facility. A service technician or MCSE
> on-site at the Customer facility is a guest in the Customer's
> "house" and has been invited in good faith to assist the Customer.
> In this case I believe the service technician's and MCSE's job
> combines technical skills with *marketing* -- marketing
> her/himself (and her/his organization) as a cost-effective
> problem-solver. Technical skills solve the problems, but
> marketing skills maintain the attendent Customer *anguish* below
> the threshold of pain -- a level that reflects back at the
> service technician or MCSE. For these reasons I believe that
> competent service technicians and MCSEs must (and should) develop
> *both* technical skills and Customer Relations (marketing) skills.
>
> I believe that appropriate clothing is part of effectively
> representing your organization. 'Appropriate' is a vague word --
> clothing that is appropriate for climbing under desks and squeezing
> between server racks might not be appropriate when repairing the
> workstation that your Customer's CEO uses. Clean, neat and
> properly-fitting are mandatory -- style depends upon environment.
> I believe that service technician and MCSE clothing should reflect
> comfortable professionalism, and should reflect the resources of
> the service organization.
>
> I believe that the rules are changing in IT hardware and software
> maintenance. IMO falling hardware prices will encourage
> workstation replacement rather than repair -- less repair work
> despite a *larger* number of less expensive workstations. I also
> believe that increased OEM usage of "field replaceable modules"
> in quality workstations [and 'server slices' -- compact server
> hardware modules exclusive of hard disk storage for use in a NAS
> (network-attached storage) environments] will encourage
> "troubleshooting by module/slice replacement" at the Customer
> facility rather than carry-in backroom bench repair -- hardware
> troubleshooting at the Customer facility will replace carry-in
> backroom bench repair. Similarly, standardized software
> configurations, automated software installation and upgrade, and
> remote access technology will reduce the amount of backroom
> software maintenance -- a smaller number of highly-skilled
> technicians and MCSEs will maintain and upgrade workstation and
> server software configurations.
>
> All of these trends reflect decreased Total Cost of Ownership
> (decreased TCO) for IT systems. Yet if I am correct the number
> of required IT service technicians and MCSEs will *not* increase
> indefinitely, and IT service technicians and MCSEs will spend
> more of their time interacting with Customers.
>
> Employers want to hire IT service technicians and MCSEs with
> good Customer Relations skills -- an inducement for IT service
> technicians and MCSEs to perfect those skills. Smart employers
> will help their IT service technicans and MCSEs enhance *all*
> of their skills, increasing technicians' and MCSEs' technical
> expertise while making them better representatives for their
> organizations. And good peoples' skills get sharper (not rusty)
> as they age.
>
> If an individual has no IT experience and wants to become an
> MCSE I recommend that they first complete their A-PLUS
> certification and use their A-PLUS certification to qualify
> for an entry-level position. Most employers will fund
> continueing education courses for productive employees,
> and the employee can learn new skills building upon the
> experience base they acquire in the workplace. This is
> analogous to building your house on rock, as opposed to
> building your house on paper.
>
> Why is experience important? Experience teaches valuable
> lessons. Experience teaches prospective MCSEs to acquire
> needed documentation from OEM and vendor websites and faxback
> services *before* visiting the Customer site, and to record
> the changes made to the Customer's hardware and software.
> Experience teaches the necessity of carrying extra consumable
> items (tested FD drives and cables; tested HD, power and
> network drop cables, floppy disks and CD-Rs) as part of your
> "trunk stock" when you go on-site for a Customer service call
> -- minimize absences required to retrieve low-cost consumable
> items. Experience teaches small lessons like carrying band-aids
> in your service kit so that when you slice your fingers on a
> sharp chassis edge you will not bleed on Customer carpeting.
> Experience teaches small lessons like checking your handtools
> and software tools *before* leaving for the Customer site to
> ensure nothing was "borrowed". Experience teaches the value of
> educating Customers about using high-quality, non-fouling print
> cartridges and media in precision color laser printers.
>
> Once again, I believe a prospective MCSE's goal should
> be professional competence based upon initial study,
> accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
> and continueing professional education. What is the
> alternative? Occasionally you read reference to the
> 'paper MCSE'. What's a paper MCSE?
>
> 1) A paper MCSE is a person with a lot of wallpaper (test
> passed certificates) but no practical experience.
>
> 2) A paper MCSE is someone who (when faced with a network
> outage) locks the server room door, unplugs the telephone,
> turns off their cellular telephone/pager, and (assuming that they
> did not sell their texts after passing the tests) frantically
> pages through the texts trying to locate *any* reference to the
> problem. They also might ask vaguely-defined questions on
> IT-related Internet newsgroups and then WAIT ..... The Help Desk
> and IT Managers receive no idea of the outage's cause. The Help
> Desk and IT Managers receive no Expected-Time-To-Restore/Repair
> estimate. People are muttering and milling about outside the
> server room door. Suddenly the value of prior networking
> experience is evident.
>
> This is a reactive scenario. What is the PROactive scenario?
> If your employer does not provide a non-production test network
> for you to "break and fix" (one basis of practical experience),
> you must provide your own home network upon which to experiment.
> You also get the benefit of applying operating system upgrades,
> application upgrades, and security upgrades to your home network,
> a task that another individual might perform on your employer's
> or Customer's production network. And you should apply these
> upgrades to the test/home system *before* you apply them to a
> production network where (due to unanticipated difficulties)
> they might cause production network failure.
>
> What 'unanticipated difficulties'? Modern networking operating
> systems and applications are complex multifunctioned software
> packages -- the wealth of functions can result in unanticipated
> difficulties. For example, one night I participated in a server
> OS upgrade that stalled in mid-script. Through manual
> troubleshooting our team was able to determine that a large number
> of files had been DELETEd but not PURGEd [i.e., the files were
> recoverable on the server hard disk (a standard network OS feature),
> but the DELETEd files occupied hard disk space not acknowledged by
> the OS directory functions and not checked by the script.] The
> DELETEd unPURGEd files consumed so much hard disk space that
> there was insufficient hard disk capacity to complete the OS upgrade.
> Our team relaxed, then PURGEd the DELETEd files and completed the
> OS upgrade manually -- we got home before dawn.
>
> I also advocate home technical libraries to supplement the
> technical library provided by employers -- technical texts are
> "IT tools of the trade". My Amazon.com "Friends and Favorites"
> webpage (referenced in my sig) contains links to a number of
> MCSE-related "Listmania" reading lists, including "A Windows
> Desktop OS Reading List", "A Windows NT4 Server Reading
> List", "A BackOffice / SBS 4.5 Reading List" (reflects two
> distinct Microsoft Corporation products), "A Computer Security
> Reading List", "An MCSE Consultant's Business Reading List",
> and (preliminary) "A Small Business Server 2000 Reading List"
> (reflects one distinct Microsoft Corporation product).
>
> I also recommend that prospective MCSEs become familiar
> and skilled using the Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base.
> Microsoft Corporation provides an *extensive* collection of
> detailed technical information in its Knowledge Base, and
> the Knowledge Base is *keyword-searchable*. To answer a
> specific question I would search the Microsoft Corporation
> Knowledge Base *before* I posted questions to IT-related
> Internet newsgroups -- no wait.
>
> Knowledge Base article ###### currently can be accessed on
> a no-cost basis at URL
> "http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q######"
> (no quotes).
>
> The Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base is valuable, but IMO it
> does *not* replace paper texts and searchable e-books on CD-ROM.
> Occasionally an MCSE might require information while at a
> Customer site where Internet access is *not* available, and
> marginal notes in paper texts and e-books add true value.
>
> This message was not solicited by Amazon.com, any author,
> or their agent(s). I receive no remuneration of any kind from
> Amazon.com .
>
> This message was not solicited by CompTia. I receive no
> remuneration of any kind from CompTia.
>
> This message was not solicited by Microsoft Corporation. I
> receive no remuneration of any kind from Microsoft Corporation.
>
> This message was not solicited by Xerox Corporation. I
> receive no remuneration of any kind from Xerox Corporation.
>
> My opinions.
>
> Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
> --
> Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
> Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
> Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"
>

Report this post to a moderator

MAKE QUICK MONEY EASY (IT REALLY WORKS)

*MAKE EASY AND QUICK CASH MONEY by doing almost nothing (NO JOKE, NO SCAM,
AND VERY LEGAL) Please read on! You will be very thankful you did! PLEASE
READ LIFE CHANGING INFORMATION!! *$6.00 to 42,000!! THIS IS AN EASY, HONEST,
AND LEGAL WAY TO MAKE SOME QUICK CASH! WOW THIS REALLY WORKED! I CAN'T
BELIEVE IT!! YOU WON'T EITHER! A while back, I was browsing these
newsgroups, just like you are now, and came across an article similar to
this that said you could make thousands of dollars within weeks with only an
initial investment of $6.00 plus stamps! So I thought, "Yeah, right, this
must be a scam!" But like most of us I was curious and kept reading. It said
that if you send $1.00 to each of the 6 names and addresses listed in the
article, you could make thousands in a very short period of time! You then
place your own name and address at the bottom of the list at #6, and post
the article to at least 200 newsgroups. (There are about 32,000 of them out
there
and that's quite a large market pool). No catch, that was it. Even though
the investment was a measly $6, I had three questions that needed to be
answered before I could get involved in this sort of thing:
1. IS THIS REALLY LEGAL?? I called a lawyer first. The lawyer was a little
skeptical that I would actually make any money but he said it WAS LEGAL if I
wanted to try it. I told him it sounded a lot like a chain letter but the
details of the system (SEE BELOW) actually made it a legitimate legal
business.
2. IS IT OK WITH THE POST OFFICE OR IS IT MAIL FRAUD?.... I called them:
1-800-725-2161 and they confirmed THIS IS ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! (See Title18, h
sections1302 NS 1341 of Postal Lottery Laws). This clarifies the program of
collecting names and addresses for a mailing list.
3. IS IT MORAL? Well, everyone who sends me a buck has a good chance of
getting A LOT of money ... a much better chance than buying a lottery
ticket!!!
So, having these questions answered, I invested EXACTLY $8.04 ... six
$1.00 bills and six 34 cent postage stamps ... and boy am I glad I did!!!
Within 7 days, I started getting money in the mail! Iwas shocked! I figured
it would end soon and didn't give it another thought. But the money
continued coming in. In my first week I made between $20 to $30. By the end
of the second week I had a made a total of $1,000.00. In the third week I
had over $10,000.00 and it was still growing. This is now my fourth week and
I have made a total of just over $42,000 and it's still coming in ..... It's
certainly worth $6.00 and 6 stamps!!! Also, make sure you print a copy of
this article NOW, so you can get the information off of it as you need it. I
promise you that if you follow the directions exactly, that you will start
making more money than you thought possible by doing something so easy!
Suggestion: Read this entire message carefully! (Print it out or download
it.) Follow the simple directions and watch the money come in! It's easy.
It's legal. And, your investment is only $6.00 (Plus postage) IMPORTANT:
This is not a rip-off; it is not indecent; it is not illegal; and it is
virtually no risk - it really works!!!! If all of the following instructions
are adhered to, you will receive extraordinary dividends. PLEASE NOTE:
Please follow these directions EXACTLY, and $50,000 or more can be yours in
20 to 60 days. This program remains successful because of the honesty and
integrity of the participants. Please continue its success by carefully
adhering to the instructions. You will now become part of the Mail Order
business. In this business your product is not solid and
tangible, it's a service. You are in the business of developing Mailing
Lists. Many
large corporations are happy to pay big bucks for quality lists. However,
the money
made from the mailing lists is secondary to the income which is made from
people like you and me asking to be included in that list.
------------------ HERE ARE 4 EASY STEPS TO
SUCCESS: -------------------------
STEP 1: Get 6 separate pieces of paper and write the following on each piece
of paper
"PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR MAILING LIST." Also Include your mailing and email
address.
Now get 6 US $1.00 bills and place ONE inside EACH of the 6 pieces of paper
so the bill will not be seen through the envelope (to prevent thievery).
Next, place one paper in each of the 6 envelopes and seal them. You should
now have 6 sealed envelopes, each with a piece of paper stating the above
phrase, your name and address, and a $1.00 bill. What you are doing is
creating a service. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! You are requesting a
legitimate service and you are paying for it! Like most of us I was a little
skeptical and a little worried about the legal aspects of it all. So I
checked it out with the U.S. Post Office (1-800-725-2161) and they confirmed
that it is indeed legal! Mail the 6 envelopes to the following addresses:

#1) Jason Ehrhardt
8412 Beech Avenue
Cincinnati, OH, 45236

#2) P. Zaond
675 Alvarado Ave. apt# 1
Davis, CA 95616

#3) Colin Roaty
23351 Fern Crescent
Maple Ridge, B.C
V4R 2S6, CANADA

#4) Jodi Gil
3150 SW Redmond Hill Rd
McMinnville, OR 97128

#5) Winston Rothert
807 Hightower Way
Webster N.Y 14580

#6) Jim Mann
7726 Kleingreen Ln
Spring, TX 77379

NOTE: MAILING THE MONEY IS A VERY CRITICAL STEP IN THIS WHOLE PROCESS. IF
PEOPLE DID NOT MAIL THE MONEY, THIS WHOLE THING WOULD NOT WORK. $6 IS NOT
WORTH MESSING THIS SYSTEM UP, AND IT ONLY TAKES ABOUT 10 MINUTES OF YOUR
TIME. DO THIS AND YOU WILL
BE REWARDED. I AM LIVING PROOF!!

STEP 2: Now take the #1 name off the list that you see above, move the other
names up
(6 becomes 5, 5 becomes 4, etc...) and add YOUR Name as number 6 on the
list.
STEP 3: Change anything you need to, but try to keep this article as close
to original as possible.
STEP 4: Now, post your amended article to at least 200 newsgroups. (I think
there are close to 32,000 groups) All you need is 200, but remember, the
more you post, the more
money you make! This is perfectly legal! Keep a copy of these steps for
yourself and, whenever you need money, you can use it again, and again.
PLEASE REMEMBER that this program remains successful because of the honesty
and integrity of the participants
and by their carefully adhering to every step in the directions. Look at it
this way. If you are a person of integrity, the program will continue and
the money that so many others have received will come your way. NOTE: You
may want to retain every name and address sent to you, either on a computer
or hard copy and keep the notes people send you. This VERIFIES that you are
truly providing a service. (Also, it might be a good idea to wrap the $1
bill in dark paper to reduce the risk of mail theft.) So, as each post is
downloaded and the directions carefully followed, six members will be
reimbursed for their participation as a List Developer with one dollar each.
Your name will move up the list geometrically so that when your name reaches
the #1 position you will be receiving thousands of dollars in CASH!!! What
an opportunity for only $6.00 ($1.00 for each of the first six people listed
above) Send it now, add your own name to the list and you're in business!

==============================
==============================
===HOW TO POST
TO NEWSGROUPS --- DIRECTIONS ---
==============================
==============================
===

Step 1) You do not need to re-type this entire letter to do your own
posting. Simply
put your cursor at the beginning of this letter and drag your cursor to the
bottom of this document, and select 'copy' from the edit menu. This will
copy the entire letter into the computer's memory.
Step 2) Open a blank 'notepad' file and place your cursor at the top of the
blank page. From the 'edit' menu select 'paste'. This will paste a copy of
the letter into notepad so that you can add your name to the list.
Step 3) Save your new notepad file as a .txt file.
If you want to do your postings in different settings, you'll always have
this file to go back to.
Step 4) Use Netscape or Internet explorer and try searching for various
newsgroups (online forums, message boards, chat sites, discussions.)
Step 5) Visit these message boards and post this article as a new message by
highlighting the text of this letter and selecting paste from the edit menu.
Fill in the Subject, this will be the header that everyone sees as they
scroll through the list of postings in a particular
group, click the post message button. You're done with your first one.
Congratulations ...THAT'S IT! All you have to do is jump to different
newsgroups and post away, after you get the hang of it, it will take about
30 seconds for each newsgroup!
*REMEMBER, THE MORE NEWSGROUPS YOU POST IN, THE MORE MONEY YOU WILL MAKE!!
BUT YOU HAVE TO POST A MINIMUM OF 200**
That's it! You will begin receiving money from around the world within days!
You may eventually want to rent a P.O. Box due to the large amount of mail
you will receive. If you wish to stay anonymous, you can invent a name to
use, as long as the postman will deliver it. **JUST MAKE SURE ALL THE
ADDRESSES ARE CORRECT** Now the WHY part: Out of 200 postings, say I receive
only 5 replies (a very low example). So then I made $5.00 with my name at #6
on the letter. Now, each of the 5 persons who just sent me $1.00 make the
MINIMUM 200 postings, each with my name at #5 and only 5 persons respond to
each of the original 5, that is another $25.00 for me, now those 25 each
make 200 MINIMUM posts with my name at #4 and only 5 replies each, I will
bring in an additional $125.00! Now, those 125 persons turn around and post
the MINIMUM 200 with my name at #3 and only receive 5 replies each, I will
make an additional $626.00! OK, now here is the fun part, each of those 625
persons post a MINIMUM 200 letters with my name at #2 and they each only
receive 5 replies, that just made me $3,125.00!!! Those 3,125 persons will
all deliver this message to 200 newsgroups with my name at #1 and if still 5
persons per 200 newsgroups react I will receive $15,625,00! With an original
investment of only $6.00! AMAZING! When your name is no longer on the list,
you just take the latest posting in the newsgroups, and send out another
$6.00 to names on the list, putting your name at number 6 again. And start
posting again. The thing to remember is: do you realize that thousands of
people all over the world are joining the internet and reading these
articles everyday? JUST LIKE YOU are now!! So, can you afford $6.00 and see
if it really works?? I think so... People have said, "what if the plan is
played out and no one sends you the money? So what! What are the chances of
that happening when there are tons of new honest users and new honest people
who are joining the internet and newsgroups everyday and are willing to give
it a try? Estimates are at 20,000 to 50,000 new users, every day, with
thousands of those joining the actual
internet. Remember, play FAIRLY and HONESTLY and this will really work. ] **
By the way, if you try to deceive people by posting the messages with your
name in the list and not sending the money to the rest of the people already
on the list, you will NOT get as much. Someone I talked to knew someone who
did that and he only made about $150.00, and that's after seven or eight
weeks! Then he sent the 6 $1.00 bills, people added him to their lists, and
in 4-5 weeks he had over $10k. This is the fairest and most honest way I
have ever seen to share the wealth of the world without costing anything but
our time!!! You also may want to buy mailing and e-mail lists for future
dollars. Make sure you print this article out RIGHT NOW! Also, try to keep a
list of everyone that sends you money and always keep an eye on the
newsgroups to make sure everyone is playing fairly. Remember, HONESTY IS THE
BEST POLICY. You don't need to cheat the basic idea to make the money!! GOOD
LUCK to all and please play fairly and reap the huge rewards from this,
which is tons of extra CASH. Please remember to declare your extra income.
Thanks once again...
LEGAL? ? ? (Comments from Bob Novak who started this new version.) "People
have asked me if this is really legal. Well, it is! You are using the
Internet to advertise your
business. What is that business? You are assembling a mailing list of people
who are
interested in home-based computer and online business and methods of
generating income at home. Remember, people send you a small fee to be added
to your mailing list. It is legal. What will you do with your list of
thousands of names? That's up to you."
So, build your mailing list, keep good accounts, declare the income and pay
your taxes. By doing this you prove your business intentions. Keep an eye on
the newsgroups and when the cash has stopped coming (that means your name is
no longer on the list), you just take the latest posting at the newsgroups,
send another $6.00 to the names stated on the list, make your corrections
(put your name at #6) and start posting again.
NOTES:
1. In some countries, the export of the country's exchange is illegal. But
you can get the license to do this from the post office, explaining the
above statements (that you have an online business, etc. You may have to pay
an extra tax, but that's OK, the amount of the
incoming money is HUGE! And as I said, only a few countries have that
restriction.
2. You may want to buy mailing and e-mail lists for future dollars. (Or
Database or Spreadsheet software.)
3. If you're really not sure or still think this can't be for real, please
print a copy of this article and pass it along to someone who really needs
the money, and see what happens.
4. You will start getting responses within 1-2 weeks, it depends.

***ALSO REMEMBER*** SEND YOUR $1 OUT TO EVERYONE ON THE LIST, EVEN IF THEY
ARE NOT FROM THE U.S. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? GOOD LUCK!!!




"Jeff Schuler" <schuler_jeff@cox.net> wrote in message
news:8YJK9.58899$jf7.3754711@news2.west.cox.net...
> Richard,
>
> Thanks for laying this out for people. I'm amazed at how many people
I
> speak with are pursuing their "network certifications" and are being told
by
> training camps, schools, etc.. that they can be making 50K+/year after an
> intensive boot camp. Don't believe the hype!! The day this was true was
> 3-4 years ago. It's not this way today
>
> If you want to get a job in the IT industry and have no experience, take a
> job doing technical support while you go to school to get your
> certifications. That way you'll get a flavor of what kinds of problems
> users face and read the resolutions that the technicians put in there.
Ask
> lots of questions of people who know more than you do. You'll usually
find
> they are much more apt to spend some time to share their knowledge,
knowing
> that you'll pick something up that will help you either diagnose problems
or
> resolve problems later, therby making thier jobs easier.
>
> If you have a minimal understanding of a concept, don't try to talk about
it
> to impress other people. You may get it right, and you may just put your
> foot in your mouth. Just a couple of weeks ago one of our Helpdesk techs
on
> a conference call was talking about a problem being a "network replication
> issue". It had absolutely nothing to do with replication, or even with
the
> network, and many of the other techs had a good laugh and eye rolling
about
> it.
>
> Lastly, learn to do things from a command line. Not just because from
time
> to time the GUI isn't avaiable, but because you can actually learn what
the
> gui is doing!! If you want to know about an app from the command line
type
> the command with a /? after it in Windows and --help in Linux/Unix. Not
to
> bring up another helpdesk story but another HD tech a week ago told me
after
> I showed some users how to run telnet.exe that "I never knew you could do
> that from a command line. In my Cisco class we always use terraterm pro."
>
> Hang in there, find people who know what they are doing and ask to help
> them, even if its just sitting there watching them load a server/install
an
> app/troubleshoot, etc... Ask lots of questions.. Dont think that a cert
is
> a one time shot either. They require constant maintanence and learning.
> You're entering an industry where they average life of a technology (OS)
is
> only a few years and applications come and go faster than that. If you
like
> tackling challenging problems and love technology, your in the right
field.
> If you just looking to make fast cash, join a MLM or something.
>
> Jeff Schuler
> MCSE
>
> "Richard Ballard" <rball84213@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20021209010132.20556.00000396@mb-cr.aol.com...
> > "What answers must I know to pass this test?" and "Is boot camp
> > sufficient to achieve my certification?" are recurring questions
> > on CompTia- and Microsoft-related Internet newsgroups.
> > Individuals changing careers and wanting to enter the
> > Information Technology (IT) field view the CompTia and MCSE
> > certifications as tickets to success. IMO the CompTia and
> > MCSE certifications are tickets that get IT travelers' feet
> > in the IT employer's door -- they are *not* tickets guaranteeing
> > that IT travelers successfully reach their goals. IMO achieving
> > IT success requires professional competence based upon initial
> > study, accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
> > and continueing professional education.
> >
> > Why Customer Relations skills? I have worked as a programmer,
> > a systems engineer, a software engineer, a service technician,
> > a network administrator, an engineering manager and as a
> > consultant. I worked with different "people types" in each of
> > these employments -- the rules were different in each of these
> > environments. Yet all of these environments shared one common
> > factor: in each case I served a Customer and satisfying that
> > Customer was my job. In cases where I did not interact (directly
> > or telephonicly) with paying Customers, my supervisor and his
> > sales representatives were my Customers and I was visible daily.
> > The same skills required for good Customer Relations also assist
> > when working with your supervisor and colleagues.
> >
> > My Customer Relations philosophy reflects my experience --
> > on-site at the Customer facility. A service technician or MCSE
> > on-site at the Customer facility is a guest in the Customer's
> > "house" and has been invited in good faith to assist the Customer.
> > In this case I believe the service technician's and MCSE's job
> > combines technical skills with *marketing* -- marketing
> > her/himself (and her/his organization) as a cost-effective
> > problem-solver. Technical skills solve the problems, but
> > marketing skills maintain the attendent Customer *anguish* below
> > the threshold of pain -- a level that reflects back at the
> > service technician or MCSE. For these reasons I believe that
> > competent service technicians and MCSEs must (and should) develop
> > *both* technical skills and Customer Relations (marketing) skills.
> >
> > I believe that appropriate clothing is part of effectively
> > representing your organization. 'Appropriate' is a vague word --
> > clothing that is appropriate for climbing under desks and squeezing
> > between server racks might not be appropriate when repairing the
> > workstation that your Customer's CEO uses. Clean, neat and
> > properly-fitting are mandatory -- style depends upon environment.
> > I believe that service technician and MCSE clothing should reflect
> > comfortable professionalism, and should reflect the resources of
> > the service organization.
> >
> > I believe that the rules are changing in IT hardware and software
> > maintenance. IMO falling hardware prices will encourage
> > workstation replacement rather than repair -- less repair work
> > despite a *larger* number of less expensive workstations. I also
> > believe that increased OEM usage of "field replaceable modules"
> > in quality workstations [and 'server slices' -- compact server
> > hardware modules exclusive of hard disk storage for use in a NAS
> > (network-attached storage) environments] will encourage
> > "troubleshooting by module/slice replacement" at the Customer
> > facility rather than carry-in backroom bench repair -- hardware
> > troubleshooting at the Customer facility will replace carry-in
> > backroom bench repair. Similarly, standardized software
> > configurations, automated software installation and upgrade, and
> > remote access technology will reduce the amount of backroom
> > software maintenance -- a smaller number of highly-skilled
> > technicians and MCSEs will maintain and upgrade workstation and
> > server software configurations.
> >
> > All of these trends reflect decreased Total Cost of Ownership
> > (decreased TCO) for IT systems. Yet if I am correct the number
> > of required IT service technicians and MCSEs will *not* increase
> > indefinitely, and IT service technicians and MCSEs will spend
> > more of their time interacting with Customers.
> >
> > Employers want to hire IT service technicians and MCSEs with
> > good Customer Relations skills -- an inducement for IT service
> > technicians and MCSEs to perfect those skills. Smart employers
> > will help their IT service technicans and MCSEs enhance *all*
> > of their skills, increasing technicians' and MCSEs' technical
> > expertise while making them better representatives for their
> > organizations. And good peoples' skills get sharper (not rusty)
> > as they age.
> >
> > If an individual has no IT experience and wants to become an
> > MCSE I recommend that they first complete their A-PLUS
> > certification and use their A-PLUS certification to qualify
> > for an entry-level position. Most employers will fund
> > continueing education courses for productive employees,
> > and the employee can learn new skills building upon the
> > experience base they acquire in the workplace. This is
> > analogous to building your house on rock, as opposed to
> > building your house on paper.
> >
> > Why is experience important? Experience teaches valuable
> > lessons. Experience teaches prospective MCSEs to acquire
> > needed documentation from OEM and vendor websites and faxback
> > services *before* visiting the Customer site, and to record
> > the changes made to the Customer's hardware and software.
> > Experience teaches the necessity of carrying extra consumable
> > items (tested FD drives and cables; tested HD, power and
> > network drop cables, floppy disks and CD-Rs) as part of your
> > "trunk stock" when you go on-site for a Customer service call
> > -- minimize absences required to retrieve low-cost consumable
> > items. Experience teaches small lessons like carrying band-aids
> > in your service kit so that when you slice your fingers on a
> > sharp chassis edge you will not bleed on Customer carpeting.
> > Experience teaches small lessons like checking your handtools
> > and software tools *before* leaving for the Customer site to
> > ensure nothing was "borrowed". Experience teaches the value of
> > educating Customers about using high-quality, non-fouling print
> > cartridges and media in precision color laser printers.
> >
> > Once again, I believe a prospective MCSE's goal should
> > be professional competence based upon initial study,
> > accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
> > and continueing professional education. What is the
> > alternative? Occasionally you read reference to the
> > 'paper MCSE'. What's a paper MCSE?
> >
> > 1) A paper MCSE is a person with a lot of wallpaper (test
> > passed certificates) but no practical experience.
> >
> > 2) A paper MCSE is someone who (when faced with a network
> > outage) locks the server room door, unplugs the telephone,
> > turns off their cellular telephone/pager, and (assuming that they
> > did not sell their texts after passing the tests) frantically
> > pages through the texts trying to locate *any* reference to the
> > problem. They also might ask vaguely-defined questions on
> > IT-related Internet newsgroups and then WAIT ..... The Help Desk
> > and IT Managers receive no idea of the outage's cause. The Help
> > Desk and IT Managers receive no Expected-Time-To-Restore/Repair
> > estimate. People are muttering and milling about outside the
> > server room door. Suddenly the value of prior networking
> > experience is evident.
> >
> > This is a reactive scenario. What is the PROactive scenario?
> > If your employer does not provide a non-production test network
> > for you to "break and fix" (one basis of practical experience),
> > you must provide your own home network upon which to experiment.
> > You also get the benefit of applying operating system upgrades,
> > application upgrades, and security upgrades to your home network,
> > a task that another individual might perform on your employer's
> > or Customer's production network. And you should apply these
> > upgrades to the test/home system *before* you apply them to a
> > production network where (due to unanticipated difficulties)
> > they might cause production network failure.
> >
> > What 'unanticipated difficulties'? Modern networking operating
> > systems and applications are complex multifunctioned software
> > packages -- the wealth of functions can result in unanticipated
> > difficulties. For example, one night I participated in a server
> > OS upgrade that stalled in mid-script. Through manual
> > troubleshooting our team was able to determine that a large number
> > of files had been DELETEd but not PURGEd [i.e., the files were
> > recoverable on the server hard disk (a standard network OS feature),
> > but the DELETEd files occupied hard disk space not acknowledged by
> > the OS directory functions and not checked by the script.] The
> > DELETEd unPURGEd files consumed so much hard disk space that
> > there was insufficient hard disk capacity to complete the OS upgrade.
> > Our team relaxed, then PURGEd the DELETEd files and completed the
> > OS upgrade manually -- we got home before dawn.
> >
> > I also advocate home technical libraries to supplement the
> > technical library provided by employers -- technical texts are
> > "IT tools of the trade". My Amazon.com "Friends and Favorites"
> > webpage (referenced in my sig) contains links to a number of
> > MCSE-related "Listmania" reading lists, including "A Windows
> > Desktop OS Reading List", "A Windows NT4 Server Reading
> > List", "A BackOffice / SBS 4.5 Reading List" (reflects two
> > distinct Microsoft Corporation products), "A Computer Security
> > Reading List", "An MCSE Consultant's Business Reading List",
> > and (preliminary) "A Small Business Server 2000 Reading List"
> > (reflects one distinct Microsoft Corporation product).
> >
> > I also recommend that prospective MCSEs become familiar
> > and skilled using the Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base.
> > Microsoft Corporation provides an *extensive* collection of
> > detailed technical information in its Knowledge Base, and
> > the Knowledge Base is *keyword-searchable*. To answer a
> > specific question I would search the Microsoft Corporation
> > Knowledge Base *before* I posted questions to IT-related
> > Internet newsgroups -- no wait.
> >
> > Knowledge Base article ###### currently can be accessed on
> > a no-cost basis at URL
> > "http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q######"
> > (no quotes).
> >
> > The Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base is valuable, but IMO it
> > does *not* replace paper texts and searchable e-books on CD-ROM.
> > Occasionally an MCSE might require information while at a
> > Customer site where Internet access is *not* available, and
> > marginal notes in paper texts and e-books add true value.
> >
> > This message was not solicited by Amazon.com, any author,
> > or their agent(s). I receive no remuneration of any kind from
> > Amazon.com .
> >
> > This message was not solicited by CompTia. I receive no
> > remuneration of any kind from CompTia.
> >
> > This message was not solicited by Microsoft Corporation. I
> > receive no remuneration of any kind from Microsoft Corporation.
> >
> > This message was not solicited by Xerox Corporation. I
> > receive no remuneration of any kind from Xerox Corporation.
> >
> > My opinions.
> >
> > Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
> > --
> > Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
> > Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
> > Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"
> >
>
>

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I completely agree with you. Certifications are nice garnishes but the
experience in the working field is what counts the most. With the
state of this economy and other issues, more and more companies are
reluctant to risk a chance on anyone with an unproven track record.

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