How i got through H&M's nightmare!

Hi there!

Have you ever woken up lighter than usual? Yes! How was the experience? Beautiful, I guess.

That was my experience. With regards to assignments this week, I woke up lighter today for the very first time since I had the H&M (Harry and Mae) assignment. I woke up like a lion ready to devour because I was armed with the hope of getting my assignment done swiftly.

Beautiful - Microsoft pic

If you remember quite vividly, I told you about how the H&M assignment gave me a hard-knock-life, but it was made easier eventually. I actually told you about that last two weeks, but I did not provide details of how it was made easy.

This time, I was told by my Professor to capture my home network instead of Harry and Mae’s network, which was complicated. I breathed a sigh of relief.

When I got home, I sat down, tried to take note of the steps to getting my diagram drawn. First step was, I made a list of the entire computer gadget connected to my home network, which was about six (6); two laptops, a mobile phone, a wireless printer, a wired scanner, and a wired home phone (Magic Jack) - I know! “Magic Jack is a cheap telephone that works with internet connection” - save that for another day. J Next, I made a list of the components that are assembled which brings to life wireless internet connection, which was about three (3); a router, a hub/switch and Ethernet. Finally, this led me to the diagram phase.

Now, I have to stop here because it’s getting late, and I just closed from my third job, if you would please pardon me, I will need to eat and rest, so I will have enough energy to write you on my experience with capturing my home wireless network on Microsoft Visio.

Shee-e-e...secret, I work three menial jobs. Till I see you next, week. It was beautiful updating you on my experience this session. Stay healthy folks!

Clueless!

Hey guys, here I am again but with a disturbing question.  Have you ever found yourself in a state where you have a problem or an issue, but have no clue on how to solve it or the minutest of idea on how to go about digging for a possible solution? That was exactly my experience this past week.

Clueless! - Microsoft pic

It was an assignment, or do I call it puzzle, to be unraveled by students of which I am inclusive. To me, this assignment looked like a deliberate attempt by my instructor to frustrate me, because, first of all, I am not a network infrastructure geek,  second of all,  I don’t get excited about topics that are extremely challenging to the extent of it affecting my health.

Have you heard about Harry & Mae’s case study? If you haven’t, find it here: http://idcontent.bellevue.edu/content/CIT/cyber/generic/harryAndMaes/Harry_and_Maes_Case_Study.pdf

My duty is to come up with a network diagram that depicts Harry & Mae’s network computing architecture. Question I asked myself was; is this mistake? Am I a network administrator? Why this?

I finally made up my mind that, I could be here whining endlessly, in the end I have to deliver results or submit my solution to this assignment still. So, I decided to read the assignment. After reading the assignment, I was clueless. So, I decided to Google on the topic, and surprisingly found nothing, but a description of the company.  

I took out four networking text viz - Security+ In-depth by Paul Campbell; Networking by Jeffrey S. Beasley; CompTia Network by Mike Harwood; and Guide to networking essentials; to get me started, but the more I tried to gain understanding, the more I was lost and confused on what to do. 

Finally, one of my classmate and Professor gave me insight, and I was able to figure out what to do, though it took me sleepless nights to accomplish. I would not want this experience repeated in the scheme of things I may be involved with in the future.

All you network geeks out there, hats off and heads bowed to you for your strength and knowledge in this field.

Folks, if you are looking to enter into computer networking field and you do not have a drive, talent or passion for it, you should consider quitting, otherwise you would be frustrated as I was, but you may make an attempt thought to nullify my claim.

I will see you next two weeks, until then, stay well and do what you enjoy! 

BIG Secret...or is it?

Hey folks,

How are we doing? I am not sure you have met my baby. I was pregnant, and discovered this baby was the easiest (of all the babies I have had) to push out…it’s a boy, and his name is MS Visio!

What a name! Ha ha…I hope you are still there?

Seriously, I have never used Ms. Visio, but I found out of late that, it is a superb tool for flowcharts or for drawing business processes. The ease of use is second to none.

I know very many like me have been using MS PowerPoint and MS Word for drawing; this is not to say those don’t have a place. In fact, the other day I wanted to design a magazine cover, but discovered Photoshop would be far from my reach, and I improvised by using MS Word, and I was very impressed, and happy with the final outcome.

The only difference between MS Word and Microsoft Visio is that while both give you the same end result, MS Visio allows you to retouch or refine pictures. Although, MS Word has the retouch feature which is very limiting, Visio’s feature is unlimited. You know what I mean: a situation where a ladies face in a photo that has contours and acne can be quickly transformed to a spotless velvety skin. No! MS Word cannot do this. 

Besides the fact that MS Visio is a cool tool for flowcharts because of its wide range of objects at one’s disposal, there are other things Visio can help anyone achieve, like the ones outline below;

Project Scheduler. Business Processes. Charts and Graphs. Flowcharts. Organizational Charts.

Block Diagramming. Software. Networks. Web Diagramming. Brainstorming.

Of course, if you have not used drawing tools in MS Word or MS PowerPoint or any drawing tool at all, you may find MS Visio not user friendly.

I adjure you to take your time and get familiar with other drawing tools before you become friends with my baby (MS Visio), so you won’t get frustration, because to me, having and using MS Visio is the best experience I have ever had in all my experience in child birth. J

Do have fun playing with my baby, especially after familiarizing yourself with other drawing tools.

Until next time, be good!