Obtaining certificates

Hi Reader, 

I have been on the run of obtaining my international certificates. From hands on practice and from the field experiences I have acquired over the years. I always get advices from one of my senior professional IT colleagues I meet most often.

‘’Confidence can be difficult, that I know, particularly on your first Cisco exam. First off, given your question, I'd suggest that you consider taking the two-exam path to CCNA by passing the ICND1 exam and then the ICND2 exam. That lets you break the material in half, with less volume to study for Second, practice applying your knowledge. That means: lots of repetition doing labs, lots of practice questions, lots of paper exercises, and any other review exercises that you can find. And when you answer a practice question and don't confidently know the answer, stop, research, and figure out the details until you are confident in the answer. Finally, when working through that final preparation, engage at the Cisco Learning Network. Look around for posts of people asking how they gained confidence, what they did that worked to help them pass, and so on. There are lots of prior posts in which people state what they did that worked for them. On configuration, pick the top 10-12 topics that can be configured, and practice them on paper in your spare moments, until you can do those in your sleep. And of course, practice sub netting and the related math until it's automatic. That sounds like a lot, and it is. But if you can get the right answer on subnetting math every time, configure the major topics correctly and quickly every time, and you fill in lots of holes in your knowledge by using lots of practice questions, then your confidence should grow’’. 

These words from Engineer Raphael Ajalie inspired me a lot. I’m now engaged in the Cisco learning network by signing up for free. Even though this does not give you a clear picture of obtaining a certificate, but it allows you to have an exchange of conversations with other professionals. I recently ordered my ICND (Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices), Part 1&2 or CCNA R&S books and have started a massive study during my quite moment since it arrived. My next order are routers and switches anytime soon to setup a small home study lab. I love playing with devices, especially networking. I would like to encourage my friend out there struggling in his/her career path never give up on anything. I see a not too distance future of becoming an IT engineer soon.

Daniel Collins

Our office got flooded by heavy rains ☔

What caused a more rainy July this year? Climate change? Damaged civil works? Any case our office got badly flooded on 15 JULY.

These photographs were taken by our staff, Farman, who lives above the office in a small studio flat. 

The water entered through the front door and through our back wall, flooding all the office. Our wooden floors, furniture and even files on shelves got damaged. The walls are so damp that the backs of paintings started moulding. 

Even Abi Jaoudi Supermarket, opposite us, was flooded. See this picture below: 

Transportation Problems

Hello readers,

It is always amazing sharing my technical experience and other personal stuff with you all.

On my way back from a regular IT maintenance in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, I decided to drop off few IT equipment back to the office from the client site. While approaching the Tubman Boulevard, the taxi car got impounded by the police for plying the streets with unregistered vehicle. 

We pleaded with the officers to give the driver just a second chance to make his trip to town and do the needful at the Ministry of Transport, but they refused. So, we had to get off the vehicle and search for another available one going our directions. Standing along the roadside and watching the beautiful lines of cars from different manufacturers conveying Liberians to their various destinations, the cars in different colors with varying engine sounds have produced a beautiful rhythm that keeps one totally unaware of the loudness it all creates, regularly.

Then I saw a very strange looking vehicle coming with unfamiliar patterns painted on the outside. The sighting caught the attention of pedestrians and onlookers in communities close to the road. As the car made a momentary stop to drop off some passengers, there was an outburst of a contagious laughter amongst us. Separated discussions immediately followed the laughing and amazement.

I quickly remembered a movie I watched a couple of years ago that I don’t remember the name; in the movie, the hero beat an entire army of protagonists on the bus-like car and flew through the back as it was heading for a crash. However, this was not a movie. I think this is a traditional Chinese or Korean transport vehicle. 

Our economy has gone bad to the extent that the fare from Broad Street to Redlight ( a popular market site in the Paynesville area) has doubled.

With the designs and colours on this car, I am thinking if an ordinary man can afford riding on it.  "I feel for the common and less fortunate who cannot afford to catch a bus neither a taxi cab," I whispered to myself while standing for almost an hour in search of a taxi as the car pulled out. The approach taken by this vehicle owner is very welcoming… It will be great if all roads are connected in and around Monrovia including the coastal highways and rural area to encourage investors in the transport sectors in helping our people. 

My experience last year while heading to Nimba County, outside of Monrovia on a VSAT project was a terrible one. 

Before then, I reached out for my phone, in my pocket and made a few clicks on the camera to share my amazing sighting with my readers.

Prepared by Daniel Collins

SKD Tower comes falling down!

On 6th May 2018 Sunday our client Last Mile Heath complained that the Internet service was not working. My Boss Mr. Haresh called me and informed me about this incident.

We have Access Points at strategic locations all over the city that we normally get a clear line of sight and connect our numerous clients.

One of our AP’s is located on a tower at SKD complex. This client was connected to this AP. There was heavy rain the night before and the whole tower came crashing down around 05:00 p.m. when a big gust of wind came in. 

Internet service to all clients connected to this AP was affected.

The tower is still being rebuilt, as we write this blog, but we had to find an alternate solution to connect our client(s). 

I called our technicians and asked them to be available as early as possible on Monday morning so that we could go to LMH and reposition the AP’s direction to another AP located at Old Road.

Here are some pictures of the fallen giant tower at SKD:

We arrived at the LMH office much before 8 AM on Monday morning to begin our work. Below is a picture of the Internet dish antenna pointed to SKD tower side.

We shifted the direction to old road AP.

We changed IP and SSID. Using MikroTik Interface via Winbox software.

The signal strength from Old Road tower is very good and the internet connection to our client is stable.

Thanks,

Farman Elahi,  IT Technician

Something never seizes to amaze me when it comes to IT, especially networking........

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while now and nice getting back to you guys. Something never seizes to amaze me when it comes to IT, especially networking. One of our clients, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has relocated from its UN Drive, Mamba Point office to the Pan African Plaza building, formal United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Headquarters in Sinkor, Tubman Boulevard. Our task was to create a new Local Area Network (LAN) and terminate all ends in a mounted rack in the server room, transfer and setup all IT equipment including security cameras to function.

The client already had an initial internet service provider therefore, connecting all devices back to same network would have a plug and play setup. Instead, they decided to get connected to another UN agency. Out of 15 LAN ports the new provider offered to connect 6 users which include a network printer and a file sharing server. I entered the server room of their provider and saw a lots of huge Cisco devices; I mean latest Core routers, switches HP & DELL blade servers all mounted in a freezing environment. This was so amazing, getting a glance at them. I have always wished to work in an environment and on live devices as well and that’s going to be soon. The customer provided us with a 24 - port Net-Gear switch which was being used at their old office to connect to their provider, the UN agency, but they condemned the equipment that it was far way below the UN standards. They preferred a Cisco Meraki MS 225-24P HW (PoE Managed Switch) which cannot be found locally and would take up to a week to be delivered if ordered. We left with the option of connecting to the 6 available ports given.

All four users were connected to a real-time high speed internet connection via a Cisco Meraki MS 225-24P HW switch except for the network printer and the file sharing server. To connect the printer and server, I had to get a static IP from the IT officers. All the printers are on a different Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) therefore an IP must be given from the VLAN range. It took us nearly a week from one floor to another in getting the information from these guys until finally that morning they were able to generate two static IPs addresses for our client, JICA. I started by configuring the addresses into the printer. After several re boots, the printer could not be accessible on the network. Than I compared the subnet mask given to me by the IT officer with that of the one I gathered via windows command interface, I noticed the guy had made a mistake by giving me a slash /24 small network eg (255.255.255.0) network instead of slash /27 eg 255.255.254.0 medium and large networks. Rectifying this issue had the printer hooked up to the network as well as the mini server. As of now, our client has upgraded to a more big and high-speed internet. I am glad to have a hand on these equipment as I am also preparing for my Official CISCO Certifications Exams (CCNA) coming up soon!

Daniel Collins