Hey, complete newbie

[mehmin]

Hi,
Completely new to IT. Just landed a entry level IT support job. So I'm pretty excited. It's starting off kinda slowly though, but I'm told I'll have lots of projects to do. Not sure where I want to go with IT but the networking side of it is interesting.

 

[1etherer]

Hi,
Completely new to IT. Just landed a entry level IT support job. So I'm pretty excited. It's starting off kinda slowly though, but I'm told I'll have lots of projects to do. Not sure where I want to go with IT but the networking side of it is interesting.

Welcome to the world of IT and TF Im sure after 1-2 years youll naturally head in the direct you like without even knowing it lol

 

[mehmin]

Thanks for the welcome,
I've got a question also. What should I start thinking about with my job? In my mind, I'm thinking I should get a list of all MAC addresses for everything, a network topology map, hardware inventory for accountability, and labeling in our server room.

My boss also wants to be less reliant on outside support so we can fix things in-house instead of waiting for help to show up. There's kind of a cabling mess in the server room and he wants to know where everything goes and how everything woks and how exactly the fail-over systems kick in. I also want to make and SOP book so anyone can pick it up and look up what the networking problem is and go step-by-step on how to fix it.

These are just my thoughts going through my head.

 

[PopoChubbs]

Thanks for the welcome,
I've got a question also. What should I start thinking about with my job? In my mind, I'm thinking I should get a list of all MAC addresses for everything, a network topology map, hardware inventory for accountability, and labeling in our server room.

My boss also wants to be less reliant on outside support so we can fix things in-house instead of waiting for help to show up. There's kind of a cabling mess in the server room and he wants to know where everything goes and how everything woks and how exactly the fail-over systems kick in. I also want to make and SOP book so anyone can pick it up and look up what the networking problem is and go step-by-step on how to fix it.

These are just my thoughts going through my head.

Welcome to the Forums!

If you want some potential ideas for your server room, Google Reddit Cable Porn. I'm not trying to trick you.

 

[1etherer]

Thanks for the welcome,
I've got a question also. What should I start thinking about with my job? In my mind, I'm thinking I should get a list of all MAC addresses for everything, a network topology map, hardware inventory for accountability, and labeling in our server room.

My boss also wants to be less reliant on outside support so we can fix things in-house instead of waiting for help to show up. There's kind of a cabling mess in the server room and he wants to know where everything goes and how everything woks and how exactly the fail-over systems kick in. I also want to make and SOP book so anyone can pick it up and look up what the networking problem is and go step-by-step on how to fix it.

These are just my thoughts going through my head.

For inventory look at spiceworks, just google spice works inventory, don't install the additional services as they caused me issues with the sql database for some reason.

Do you have a WSUS server setup? It's centralised windows updates you can roll out to company computers.

Tidying and labelling the cables is a good idea.. Easier to troubleshoot

Also set up a knowledge base, this is where you store all solutions to issues and work arounds, so your team can build it and refer to it without having to get help from outside straight away!

If you have your own exchange server in house, you could ask to learn about general administration and maintaince, this way your team could start taking away tasks you may give to external support...

Any other questions please feel free to ask me or anyone else of course

 

[mehmin]

For inventory look at spiceworks, just google spice works inventory, don't install the additional services as they caused me issues with the sql database for some reason.

Do you have a WSUS server setup? It's centralised windows updates you can roll out to company computers.

Tidying and labelling the cables is a good idea.. Easier to troubleshoot

Also set up a knowledge base, this is where you store all solutions to issues and work arounds, so your team can build it and refer to it without having to get help from outside straight away!

If you have your own exchange server in house, you could ask to learn about general administration and maintaince, this way your team could start taking away tasks you may give to external support...

Any other questions please feel free to ask me or anyone else of course

I'll check those products out. thanks for the direction. I don't know if we have WSUS (or know exactly what it is)... I will get back to you on this, however. He said we have small business server or something like that or maybe exchange... I'll have to ask again.

yes, I'm planning on building a troubleshooting book in a 3-ring binder with pictures.

Do you have any examples of a floor-plan type map of cubicles that specify which ports are where? Or how I should build one? I think it'd be a good idea so anyone could reference where exactly the ports are located and list ones which aren't active.

thanks again for the advice. I'll keep everyone updated as more stuff comes along.