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Sep. 22nd, 2004 07:38 amGeek stuff
I could call class last night a revelation if I were so inclined. We played with Cisco hardware for the first time. Our instructor went over the basics (very quickly I might add since there's theoretically supposed to be an introductory course that we haven't had the benefit of going through) of how Cisco devices talk to each other. Then we started up terminal sessions on the switches and got MAC addresses. Then, given a connection configuration by the instructor, we diagrammed out exactly what Spanning Tree Protocol would do with them. Jennifer was having trouble keeping up with the info (I was too though I managed to scrape through; there was a lot of information to absorb) and helping herduring the break to figure out exactly how things would work made it much more solid in my mind than it would have been otherwise.
So then the instructor, Jeff, patched all the switches together, just like in the diagram, and we watched them configure themselves. I saw the port link lights flash from green to amber as the switches decided where exactly to close the redundant loops and how to direct their traffic. Watching that happen and really knowing and understanding what was going on was somehow a very intense experience. The best comparison I have is that I felt like I was watching someone produce a fine oil painting. I'll do help desk for a while, but I am quite nearly certain that network design and implementation is where I truly want to be.
I'm at work now. More later.
I could call class last night a revelation if I were so inclined. We played with Cisco hardware for the first time. Our instructor went over the basics (very quickly I might add since there's theoretically supposed to be an introductory course that we haven't had the benefit of going through) of how Cisco devices talk to each other. Then we started up terminal sessions on the switches and got MAC addresses. Then, given a connection configuration by the instructor, we diagrammed out exactly what Spanning Tree Protocol would do with them. Jennifer was having trouble keeping up with the info (I was too though I managed to scrape through; there was a lot of information to absorb) and helping herduring the break to figure out exactly how things would work made it much more solid in my mind than it would have been otherwise.
So then the instructor, Jeff, patched all the switches together, just like in the diagram, and we watched them configure themselves. I saw the port link lights flash from green to amber as the switches decided where exactly to close the redundant loops and how to direct their traffic. Watching that happen and really knowing and understanding what was going on was somehow a very intense experience. The best comparison I have is that I felt like I was watching someone produce a fine oil painting. I'll do help desk for a while, but I am quite nearly certain that network design and implementation is where I truly want to be.
I'm at work now. More later.
