Anyone with a sniffer application can see your information. What can you do? How about sending all of your traffic over an encrypted tunnel?

 

This makes your traffic undecipherable to anyone trying to sniff it. There are a couple of things you need to have: two computers running linux, the openssh client installed on the computer you are proxying from and openssh server installed on your remote Linux computer, and also a browser that supports SOCKS proxying. Here is how you do it.
Using OpenSSH you can set up a local SOCKS proxy on your computer opening up whatever port you designate to tunnel your traffic over.
This method will work in Linux, I will post a windows alternative later.
at the bash prompt type the following
#ssh -D 12345 (or whatever proxying port you would like to use) username@remote_ssh_server

This will open up the port you designate (in this example port 12345) on your local machine as a SOCKS proxy so that you can tunnel all of your HTTP traffic over the SOCKS proxy tunnel and out the remote ssh server on the other end.

Once that is set up you can set up your browser to use the proxy server.
In firefox you can go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Settings , there you want to specify that you want to use a Manual Proxy, localhost, port 12345 and SOCKS v5.

You are now set up and ready to browse the internet securely.

Written By Greg Greenlee

 

 

1.Hang with the geeks.

By this I mean seek out others who are also interested and passionate about I.T. Don’t be afraid to engage with others just because they may seem “geeky”. The term “geek” is overstated nowadays anyhow. We are not the pocket protector wearing, high water pants, never interact with members of the opposite sex, people that we are portrayed as being in movies. There are “geeks” everywhere. You’d be shocked as to who is a fellow “geek”.

 

2. Get a computer, break it, then fix it.

Nothing beats hands on experience. Reading a book is good for theory but some of the real world problems you will encounter are not in any books. Do something wacky to the computer then learn how to fix it. Google the error if you have to. Google is a great tool.

 

3. Learn the basics then move on to bigger things.

You can’t understand some of the more complex verbage, theories, etc if you don’t understand the basics. I suggest starting off with learning hardware and operating system fundamentals (installation, file system structure, how hardware interacts with the OS, etc.) before you move into more complex areas. The A+ certification exam is a good start for most. It teaches you about hardware and operating system basics. Network+ is a good certification for those wanting to move into the network/sysadmin/network security side of I.T.

 

4. Learn TCP/IP.

Since the fundamentals of networking rely and use TCP/IP, I suggest learning as much as you can about it. I am learning new stuff about it every day. TCP/IP is the building block behind the internet and networking as a whole. Learning it is key in understanding networking and how networks communicate.

 

5. Find out what part of I.T. you want to focus on and bust your butt to learn it.

I started out with a plan to get into networking. I started out getting my A+ certification, my Network+ certification and moved from there. The people I hang with are Linux enthusiast and because of that I became one. I eventually received my Linux+ certification and wanted a more well rounded skill set. I studied for and received my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification to enhance my knowledge of networking. I am constantly reading books in order to strengthen what I know and to fill in any gaps about stuff I don’t know. If you think you might like systems administration then I suggest experimenting with some server Operating Systems such as Windows Server 2003, or any number of Linux distributions. If you like networking try and get your hands on some Cisco switches and a good CCNA book to start. Use as many online resources as possible (there are plenty out there).

 

6. Get a job working as a technical support analyst (in some form or fashion).

This really helps in learning how an I.T. enterprise infrastructure works as well as honing your basic troubleshooting skills. If you can't land a job as a tech support person, consider volunteering your skills. There is always a community organization that could utilize free technical support and you get free experience in the process.

 

7. College education

Although a college education is not a prerequisite for getting into I.T. it does help you get your foot in the door because a lot of colleges have interim programs. College is also a plus if you are looking into going into an I.T. management position. The business classes that colleges offer are really beneficial to a management career.

 

8. Last but not least, PASSION AND DEDICATION.

You have to want it in order to gain it. Dedication played a big part in my climb up the I.T. ladder. I am not the smartest but I work hard to know what I know. I am passionate about what I am doing and I think it shows in my work. There are some that I have worked with who are still at the same level simply because they weren’t dedicated and determined enough to expand their abilities beyond what they had already knew. If you are not dedicated in this field you will be left behind.
Be passionate in what you do, dedicate yourself to what you would like to learn and you will be well on your way to making it in the I.T. sector.

 

 

 

A little bit about myself. I am currently a Systems Engineer – Unix/Linux. My department is called Web Hosting. I have the privilege of working with several technologies. My team is small and because of that, we all stay very busy. I try to create agendas for the day and week but my plans usually get put on hold due to some other high priority issue that needs my attention.  I can easily spend 16 hours a day at work if I didn't have a life outside of IT.  Sometimes it can feel overwhelming but I don't think I would have it any other way.  From  my experience, when everybody is busy, there is less time for politics about who is doing what and who gets credit for what, everybody has an opportunity to shine.  When everyone is challenged and has the opportunity to show what they can do, nobody really cares about what others are doing, matter of fact, you see more people willing to share information.

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Here is a list of things I can be doing at any time for my full-time job:

Working with Oracle or MySQL databases
Troubleshooting applications written in Java, HTML, and PHP
Building, managing, or troubleshooting  Redhat, Solaris, or SuSE servers. Physical and Virtual
Building, managing, or troubleshooting iPlanet and Apache servers.
Building, managing, or troubleshooting Tomcat and Weblogic servers. 
Setting up connection pools and nats in BigIP F5 loadbalancer. 
Creating and improving system checks in Nagios monitoring solution
Creating shell or perl scripts for automation and simple tasks. 
Parsing through web logs, application logs, and system logs. 
Spend sometime reviewing project plans and application documentation to get a good understanding
how they work and how they utilize the network. 
The thing I hate the most...meetings.
Most importantly, documenting everything I do and reviewing my notes.

Commands and applications I use a lot when troubleshooting issues:

Tcpdump to capture network data and Wireshark to look at the output.
Sed and awk when parsing log files
Ping, traceroute, telnet, tnsping (oracle), when testing communication. 

How do I manage all these responsibilities without going crazy? Well first off, if you ever met me, you would see that I am a very laid back type of person. I never get overly excited about things. That said, I just try to prioritize my work by how things affect the customer experience and company revenue. It is important to keep communication going between management and customers, however, be selective in what you communicate. Stick with information that is need to know.  You don't want to spend time explaining too much technical stuff that they don't need to know and take away from cycles that can be spent working on more serious issues.

Applications I use when managing my work:

For quick agendas and plans for the week I simply jot them down on a notepad (real paper). 
When documenting things I usually use Sticky Notes in OpenSuse or Evernote (Evernote is nice because it is web based and can be used and viewed from your blackberries and iPhones/itouches). If you can't use Evernote or stickies, then notes in outlook works. When I get time I transfer my notes to dokuwiki to make it more organized and readable for others. I actually have Apache and Dokuwiki running from a usb drive so I can carry it everywhere. Reviewing and refining notes is very beneficial. It allows you to go over stuff you might not have done in a while or see if there was a better way of doing something. Reviewing your notes also helps you to keep your memory refreshed. You will be able to recall things easier and quicker.

 

As I said before, I enjoy staying busy and having the opportunity to work with many different technologies. It allows you to stay challenged and keeps your skills sharp.  With so much responsibility,  comes the feeling of being stressed to get things done.  Keeping communication open with management and customers will help with this because they will be more understanding of your  workload.  You then have to do your part by putting in an honest day's work and trying your best. When you do your best and know that you have put in a full day's work, it makes you feel better about the work that you do. 

The trend is good if you are up for the challenge and willing work hard. You can be highly successful if you take good notes, are able to adapt to a changing environment, and keep open communication going between management and customers about what is going on. 

This was a high overview of my experience and what I think of accepting the challenge from companies that want and need super admins. Please write to us about your experiences and challenges that you are up against. Sharing techniques can help us all meet the challenges of today's demands. The IT industry's biggest threat are people willing to work cheaper. We can beat that challenge by accepting more responsibilities and offering a higher quality of work which benefit's companies all round.

 

 

Written by Ronnie Hash