Hi There, New To the Forum

[BKTech]

Hello all,

This is my first time here in this forum, well, any forum ever to be honest. So if I'm doing anything wrong or breach etiquette in some way please let me know ! Anyways, I am in the process of switching into a career in IT after 10 years as a chef (a bit different!) and wanted to get involved in a place where I might learn some things and possibly get some guidance on what to do/where to go.

I'm very green, not much experience at all, and am taking the Google IT modules via Coursera. The classes are really informative and they dive pretty deep into a variety of fields including Networking, OS, Cybersecurity, Coding, etc. It is basically a course designed to get you enough education to start as a basic IT support specialist. I am also planning on studying for the TIA+ certification. Can anyone tell me if this seems like the proper avenue to follow in order to get into support? I don't have time or money for a full university degree, so this seemed like a good option. I plan on finding my more specific path as I progress in the field, and thought it would be good to start in support to really grasp the concepts.

Additionally, as good as the courses are, I really want to get my hands dirty and practice solving problems, setting up networks, breaking and fixing things internally, etc. My thought was to set up a VM on VirtualBox and then use that as a place to do all that kind of stuff. Are there any other good ways on my current laptop PC to do the mentioned things? Or should I buy parts and build out a basic desktop PC (just to get the hands on experience of building a computer from the ground up) and use that to mess around? I'm not really sure what most others use for this, but any info on this would really help me out.

I'm looking forward to just checking around different threads to see what kinds of topics are being discussed and learn some things from them. Any general info or interesting forums anyone might think would be good please just let me know. BTW I'm in my late 30s, live in Brooklyn NY with my fiance and love dining out and cooking as my side hobby. Not sure why I felt I needed to share that lol but there it is! Thanks, have a great day.

Matt

 

[Trotter]

Welcome aboard, Matt.

I may have to check out those modules as they sound interesting. I may not learn anything but I never know. The vast majority of what I have learned about IT has come from self study, online forums (mainly this one), and personal experience/experimentation. Lots of things have changed radically since I started dabbling in all this but I try to keep current.

Building a PC is a great experience but to be honest it is not very complicated. A couple of Youtube videos to familiarize yourself with the process and you are good to go as everything has one place for it to connect. Wire management is a whole 'nother thing, though.

Dig around in the various forums. This site has been around a very long time so you will find loads to investigate. If you have questions please start a new topic/thread instead of dredging up something from years ago (necrposting).

A little personal info helps make everyone more personable. I'm in my early 50's, live about 30 miles NE of Chattanooga, TN with my wife of almost 34 years, a dog, and my mother-in-law. I game online, tinker with computers, cook non-professionally, and work for a company that maintains and services POS systems.

 

[strollin]

Welcome to the forum Matt!

How much memory does your laptop have? If you really want to run VMs properly, you'll want to have at least 8GB of RAM. When you run a VM you are actually running 2 machines so you basically need to have twice as much RAM. Depending on what OS and software you run on your VM, you may be able to get away with allotting 2GB of RAM to the VM.

In order to be more personable, I'm in my late 60's, live just NE of Sacramento, CA with my wife of 46 years, 2 dogs and our disabled daughter. I have various hobbies such as dabbling with Raspberry Pi computer projects, maintaining my media server which currently hosts over 11,000 movies, and doing various projects on my 3D printer. I am retired after working 40+ years in the tech field, started out as a technician back in the 1970s and retired as a Sr Robotic Process Automation consultant in 2019.

 

[Wallaby Dan]

Welcome Matt!!
I am another one of us old folk here. Live in north central Texas. No pets other than my Wife. My hobbies are Model Rocketry amd Model Railroads. Started tech in 1989. Been disabled since 1993.

 

[BKTech]

Welcome aboard, Matt.

I may have to check out those modules as they sound interesting. I may not learn anything but I never know. The vast majority of what I have learned about IT has come from self study, online forums (mainly this one), and personal experience/experimentation. Lots of things have changed radically since I started dabbling in all this but I try to keep current.

Building a PC is a great experience but to be honest it is not very complicated. A couple of Youtube videos to familiarize yourself with the process and you are good to go as everything has one place for it to connect. Wire management is a whole 'nother thing, though.

Dig around in the various forums. This site has been around a very long time so you will find loads to investigate. If you have questions please start a new topic/thread instead of dredging up something from years ago (necrposting).

A little personal info helps make everyone more personable. I'm in my early 50's, live about 30 miles NE of Chattanooga, TN with my wife of almost 34 years, a dog, and my mother-in-law. I game online, tinker with computers, cook non-professionally, and work for a company that maintains and services POS systems.

Thanks so much for the info! I'm also self studying quite a bit and feel (hopefully) I've got the brains to tackle the stuff. It's very interesting so keeps me involved easily. I love that it's continuous learning. I definitely need that in my career, no need to get bored! Thanks for the heads up on how to start new topics as opposed to commenting on old posts. I'll certainly do that. Looking forward to learning some cool stuff here! I'll try not to be too annoying with questions lol.

Also, I love that you work with POS systems specifically, I certainly dealt with my share of them as a chef. Had I known how to deal with them in depth I could've saved my restaurants tons (and made a lot more too!)

 

[BKTech]

Welcome to the forum Matt!

How much memory does your laptop have? If you really want to run VMs properly, you'll want to have at least 8GB of RAM. When you run a VM you are actually running 2 machines so you basically need to have twice as much RAM. Depending on what OS and software you run on your VM, you may be able to get away with allotting 2GB of RAM to the VM.

In order to be more personable, I'm in my late 60's, live just NE of Sacramento, CA with my wife of 46 years, 2 dogs and our disabled daughter. I have various hobbies such as dabbling with Raspberry Pi computer projects, maintaining my media server which currently hosts over 11,000 movies, and doing various projects on my 3D printer. I am retired after working 40+ years in the tech field, started out as a technician back in the 1970s and retired as a Sr Robotic Process Automation consultant in 2019.

So yeah, I've got 8GB RAM on my laptop, I allocated about 2 of it for the VM (on VirtualBox) that now runs Ubuntu. It seems to have no problem while running other programs on my Windows 10 OS concurrently so that's great, thanks for the advice. The Google modules are teaching file systems from CLI in both Linux and Windows so it really helps to run both simultaneously.

That's super cool you've been in tech for so long! Must've been amazing watching these computers and all the tech grow so much over the years. I'm very interested in 3D printing as it's becoming so much more affordable and easy to operate for the average person. Looking forward to purchasing one in the near future. I'll be sure to consult when I'm doing the buying. Hope you are safe there in California with all the wildfires friend!

 

[BKTech]

Welcome Matt!!
I am another one of us old folk here. Live in north central Texas. No pets other than my Wife. My hobbies are Model Rocketry amd Model Railroads. Started tech in 1989. Been disabled since 1993.

Lol, please don't say old. Say wise. Much more appropriate, especially in the tech industry sir! I've no pets other than, well, she's still my fiance so I need to shutup till the wedding hahaha. Say, do you have great BBQ up there in NC Texas?? I've been to Hill Country a few times (Black's is my favorite so far), but never up to your area. I'm sure it's awesome. Thanks for the response, any tips moving forward are welcome!

 

[Smart_Guy]

Welcome aboard!

You could start by knowing the parts of the computer. I'm guessing you already know? Then build one from scratch. It's a good idea to find an old computer, dismantle it then build it back. That's what I did. This will save you the risk of shorting new parts you buy just to learn building one. Don't have one? Look around with people you know. If no dice, well, figure something out

I'm 38 years wise (what? You said to say wise ), not married and have no plans of getting married for now. Because economy and weak personality. I don't wanna ruin someone's life. It's not common to pass 25 without getting married here in Saudi Arabia so I'm a special case. And no, I'm not looked at in a bad way. It's normal. Well except for losing social benefits for being single.

Cheers!

 

[TechnoChicken]

Welcome Matt!!
I am another one of us old folk here. Live in north central Texas. No pets other than my Wife. My hobbies are Model Rocketry amd Model Railroads. Started tech in 1989. Been disabled since 1993.

Got no wives other then my pet

They way i would do the PC is like SG said to get a old one and tear it apart...

 

[BKTech]

Welcome aboard!

You could start by knowing the parts of the computer. I'm guessing you already know? Then build one from scratch. It's a good idea to find an old computer, dismantle it then build it back. That's what I did. This will save you the risk of shorting new parts you buy just to learn building one. Don't have one? Look around with people you know. If no dice, well, figure something out

I'm 38 years wise (what? You said to say wise ), not married and have no plans of getting married for now. Because economy and weak personality. I don't wanna ruin someone's life. It's not common to pass 25 without getting married here in Saudi Arabia so I'm a special case. And no, I'm not looked at in a bad way. It's normal. Well except for losing social benefits for being single.

Cheers!

That's a great idea SG, thanks. I'll be asking friends and family if they have any old towers and keeping my eyes peeled here in the city. I'm sure there's something I can find for cheap or free. Appreciate the info! Cheers!