Building a Library | Networking For Dummies

Scotty delivered one of his best lines in the original Star Trek series when he refused to take shore leave so that he could get caught up on his technical journals. "Don't you ever relax?" asked Kirk. "I am relaxing!" Scotty replied.

To be a good network administrator, you need to read computer books-lots of them. And you need to enjoy doing it. If you're the type who takes computer books with you to the beach, you'll make a great network administrator.

Read books on a variety of topics. I don't recommend specific titles, but I do recommend that you get a good, comprehensive book on each of these topics:

Network cabling and hardware
Ethernet
Windows 2000 Server
Windows Server 2003
Windows XP Professional
Windows Vista
Exchange
Linux
TCP/IP
DNS and BIND
SendMail
Exchange Server
Security and hacking
Wireless networking

In addition to reading books, you may also want to subscribe to some magazines to keep up with what's happening in the networking industry. Here are a few you probably should consider, along with their Web addresses:

InformationWeek: http://www.informationweek.com
InfoWorld: http://www.infoworld.com
Network Computing: http://www.networkcomputing.com
Network: http://www.networkmagazine.com
Windows & .NET: http://www.winntmag.com
2600: http://www.2600.com (a great magazine on computer hacking and security)

Tip

The Internet is one of the best sources of technical information for network administrators. Stock your browser's Favorites menu with plenty of Web sites that contain useful networking information. Many Web sites have online newsletters you can subscribe to so that you regularly get fresh information by e-mail.