Mcse

[RevAlSharpton]

I have a question. I have two more weeks left until I finish my Server 2003 course (damn, will it ever end). I plan on testing for A+, Net+, and a MS cert. I'm thinking about MSCE. Has anyone here taken it? How bad is it? I've completed the 70-270 course and I'm about to finish the 70-290 course. Are there any tips anyone can give? Thanx in advance.

[SilverSquirrl]

If you do well on all the previous certs, you should do ok on the rest of the msce tests.

[RevAlSharpton]

Do you have to take all of the MCSE tests at one time, or can you take them on different days?

[SilverSquirrl]

you take em on different days. You have a fairly large amount of time to take all the tests. I'm thinking its like a year or more. (not sure on exact time)

[RevAlSharpton]

cool, thanx.

[RevAlSharpton]

Okay, one more. This weekend is the end of my MS Server 2003 course. So I have a week before I start again. I just got another PC. So now I have two that I want to set up as practice servers. Both are PIII, one 700Mhz and one 600Mhz. Both have 256Mb memory. The first is running Enterprise with File and Print sharing. I plan on installing an old 10G h/d and moving my print spool to it. I want to set the other for an intranet website with FTP access to the first. Later I may add one VPN tunnel to the second server. Now the question.

On the second, what would be better for the "network admin" work scenerio? Should I install Web Edition, install IIS and DNS? Or should I use Ubuntu Server in a LAMP config w/SUSE? Or should I trash these two and get a $300 P4 from www.tigerdirect.com and do all on one server? I kinda want to play with cross platform, but I have no experience with a Linux server. I've just been playing with my dual-boot Win XP/Ubuntu laptop. I want to have something that will work and give me experience when I get my certs.

Background, I work as a construction equipment mechanic and I hate it. I want out as soon as possible. So any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanx guys.

[SilverSquirrl]

well, i'm hoping your using these boxes purely for lab/practice. 256mb on w2k3 enterprise is like walking through waste high mud....

given that, I would stick with the 2 different boxes and learn how to use both to work together to do what you want. most scenarios use multiple different servers to do specific things instead of putting everything on one. the bigger the co, the more servers to allow redundancy as well.

[RevAlSharpton]

I'm using it mostly for practice. I bought a 200G USB drive and I enabled sharing on my PC. I don't RAID but I backup once a week. I have everyone in the family put what they want backed up in my shared and I backup from there. I have a network laser printer, so I can easily add the printer on everyone's PC's.

I'm worried about using Virtual PC 2007 with the server having access to the internet. Mainly because I'm using the same MAC and have to upload by mounting. I'm having problems setting up remote with my PC to a virtual server in my PC.

As far as the 700 w/Enterprise, if I up the mem to 512 or 1G, I found 256 sticks for $20 and 512 for $40, so it's not too bad. And I can take the old and put into the 600. I'm wanting to practice Active Directory, but not in a virtual.

I am mostly using it for practice, but I want to have to check on a daily basis, so I can get used to what to expect. And I know it's about 50/50 MS/Linux, so I was debating cross. But if it works in a way that I like, I may clean up after I understand it and keep the setup.