Networking career with certificates but without a bachelor's degree?

Hello,

I'm Victor (I live in Romania, willing to relocate and work in any EU country) and I need to find out if pursuing a career in networking with certificates but without a bachelor's degree is actually possible.

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Questions:

• Will people even consider hiring me as a Network Engineer without a bachelor's degree? (please let me know in which country you work so I can get a better idea about the job market)
• Will I be able to advance and obtain better paid job positions in this field without a bachelor's degree or will I be stuck in a mediocre position regardless of number of certifications?

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Long story short:

• Attempted Automatic Control & Computer Engineering university, flunked out because of the high level of math (I come from an Economics themed high school where they only teach basic level math).
• After flunking out I worked for 1 year as a networking assistant for a relative's company until I figured out what I want to do next.

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Currently I am getting close to obtaining my CCNA certification.

I enjoy what I'm learning here and I'm thinking of obtaining more certifications in order to advance up the certification ladder (CCNP, CCIE, etc).

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Thank you for reading my post.

Cisco Firepower IPS block known bad countries scanning from outside

I have seen plenty of videos blocking inside users from reaching known bad countries like russia/china in the networks section of an access rule and Ive seen how the IPS signatures can detect malicious behavior or known bad networks and block traffic from outside to inside/dmz but what if I just want to blacklist a certain country or public network range in general from even using my precious processing power, should I just blacklist specific IP's or create thresholds that can autoban IP's when trying to do something in a short amount of time?

Data allocation versus infrastructure question

I don't know if this is the correct sub for this question, but it's worth a shot. I live in northern Canada, and I am getting screwed big time. Currently, I am paying over $160 a month for 300 gigs of data. Anyone I talk to that is south of me can get unlimited data for $80-$120 a month. Our ISP says that they cannot deliver unlimited data for any less than $600 a month due to our "aging infrastructure". I only have a slight understanding of network infrastructure, but I still think that's a bogus statement. Is there any good material I can read regarding this subject? I would very much like to call them out on these shenanigans.

TCP/IP Illustrated book series

I'm thinking of buying at least the first volume of TCP/IP Illustrated but was wondering if volume two and three are considered essential or not? The reason I ask is that each book is £50 or so and buying all three would take quite a lot of my spare money. On the other hand, I need to learn this subject, so I'm willing to spend the money if required.

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Furthermore, I was wondering if it was worth getting the 5th edition of Computer Networks by Andrew S Tanenbaum when I already own the 4th edition? I got the 4th edition cheap second hand.

4K HDMI over Ethernet

I’m currently assessing options for my lounge, I can’t fit an HDMI cable through the wall space but I can get a CAT6 down it.

Looking to connect an HDMI switch and found these HDMI over Ethernet adapters which would help me at either end.

Anyone used them before and are they ok with 4K from an Xbox?

If yes, any product recommendations?

Advice: Is it illegal to monitor HTTP requests between computer and web app, say through Charles/HTTP monitor tool?

Can one be accused of hacking by simply looking through the requests being sent from server to computer in Charles/HTTP monitor tool?

I live in the EU.

Any answers would be highly anticipated, and thank you in advance.

If this post violates the subreddit rules, then I'm sorry, this is my first time here.

Advice: Looking to add some type of network storage to my home network

I’m looking to add a network storage device of some kind to my wireless home network. I would like to be able to get all of my wife’s pictures that she has on 3 different computers to one central location.

Coupe of questions,

1. Are these easy to setup/install on the network?
2. Is there one that is more user friendly than the next?
3. Am I able to access the photos/videos anywhere I have an internet connection via and app of some kind?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone is able to provide,

Juniper SRX340 vs Fortinet FortiGate 90E

I just recently started manage IT on the side for a friends company and am in the process of redoing the network and replacing ISP provided equipment. I am more experienced with Juniper, but wanted to get some input before making a decision. Their internet connections is 150Mbps, although this may change in the future. At first I was looking at just getting an SRX300, however it just doesn't have the hardware to run UTM at the needed speeds. For switches I plan on either going with Ubiquiti Edge Switches or Juniper EX2300s and maybe a EX3300 for a core switch.

What would you recommend for a firewall needed to support 20-60 users with UTM? I think the two best options I have seen so far are the SRX340 and the FortiGate 90E.

Nexus (5k) and ISSU and spanning tree - is this really what they want you to do?

I have a pair of 5548UP running 7.0.x NX-OS, which is now kind of old (2016 release). Need to get it updated.

Want to run a proper ISSU, because there are 8 dual-homed FEXen in play and I'd rather not have all of those down for the entire upgrade window if I can avoid it. (I also don't really want to lose both 5k's simultaneously because there are some 10Gb hosts directly cabled.)

When I test for the install impact, it complains about spanning-tree being a problem.

show spanning-tree issu-impact 

Gives me complaints about two port-channels (actually, 4-link vPCs with 2 links per Nexus).

One port channel is the uplink to the core (a pair of 3850s stacked). The other port channel is a downlink to a pair of Nexus 93180s.

I found and read through this informative blog post. I still don't fully understand what Cisco expects here.

Are they saying that on the uplink port-channel / vPC, I should have the port in

 spanning-tree port type edge trunk 

Rather than leaving it at the default type or setting it to "network"?

Oh actually, I see that a port designated as root shouldn't trigger this...

I'm getting complaints of Criteria 2 failing because I have the port between the 5ks and the 9ks set as "type network." That makes sense (I did it)... but would Cisco rather I set the port type to "edge" and effectively turn off spanning-tree on that vPC? Seems like madness to me?

The other error I'm getting seems to be due to the core not being the spanning tree root for one of the VLANs (I'm in rapid-pvst and not MST mode). I guess I could fix that by just preventing that VLAN from leaking back to the core, or instead by adding it to the core explicitly so it becomes root bridge there (causing the interface to go to "Root" instead of "Desg")....

It just seems like insanity to me to disable spanning-tree on a switch that's connected to another switch.

OTOH, Cisco often says that Nexus switches shouldn't be used "upstream" of other switches... so maybe it's my own fault? (The link between the two Nexus pairs is temporary, I need to get some additional fiber run and then the 9Ks can hang off the core themselves instead of hanging from the 5Ks.)

Po2 is the uplink to the core (2x 10Gb per 5K, vPC) Po4 is the downlink to the pair of Nex93180s (same as above)

n5k-1# show spanning-tree issu-impact For ISSU to Proceed, Check the Following Criteria : 1. No Topology change must be active in any STP instance 2. Bridge assurance(BA) should not be active on any port (except MCT) 3. There should not be any Non Edge Designated Forwarding port (except MCT) 4. ISSU criteria must be met on the VPC Peer Switch as well Following are the statistics on this switch List of all the Ports with BA Enabled Port ---------------- port-channel4 No Active Topology change Found! Criteria 1 PASSED !! Criteria 2 FAILED!! List of all the Non-Edge Ports Port VLAN Role Sts Tree Type Instance ---------------- ---- ---- --- --------- --------- port-channel4 1 Desg FWD PVRST 1 port-channel4 26 Desg FWD PVRST 26 port-channel2 26 Desg FWD PVRST 26 port-channel4 69 Desg FWD PVRST 69 port-channel2 69 Desg FWD PVRST 69 port-channel2 190 Desg FWD PVRST 190 port-channel2 300 Desg FWD PVRST 300 port-channel2 310 Desg FWD PVRST 310 Criteria 3 FAILED !! ISSU Cannot Proceed! Change the above Config 

Becoming a network engineer

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but would someone be able to point me in the direction of getting started on becoming a network engineer.