The Witty Tech Newbie

  What a ride it has been getting an introduction to Information Technology! The IT field is diverse and ever-changing, which makes it exciting to learn.  There are many different paths an IT student could be interested in pursuing as a future career.  IT careers span all the fundamentals of the field, past, present, and future.  With so many possibilities, how would one decide which way to go?  I decided to take a brief look at some of the IT careers available in each of the areas studied in this course, and what these professions entail. Hopefully this will shed some light on the question we all must ask ourselves: what do I want to be when I grow up?    A Computer Systems Analyst is a business’s IT partner in terms of the history of computers and the means by which they operate.  They review past, present, and future technology needs to make recommendations on how the business can run more efficiently (Vahid & Lysec...

  The internet has allowed for so many positive advancements in technology.  Unfortunately, the worldwide connection also brought about advancements in malicious attacks that make networks vulnerable to a host of security breaches.  Each kind of breach opens up a computer to a different threat.  These breaches can be caused by everyday occurrences – websites, emails, even pinging.  Awareness of security holes and vulnerabilities and attacks like phishing help organizations and individuals alike to keep their networks secure. The ping technique is an excellent example of how a purposeful network tool can also be used maliciously.  Pinging is done to test a network connection by sending a packet of information to a recipient and requesting a response.  In a Ping Flood, packets are sent as quickly as possible and the response packets are discarded, overwhelming the recipient’s network, and resulting in a Denial of Service (Do...

I had my first experience using ping and traceroute! Networking isn’t my favorite thing at the moment, I would prefer it if all devices could magically connect to each other effortlessly and without fail. I’d pay good money for a magic wand to make it so! That being said, this activity was interesting. Hopefully more experiences like this one will help make me less in the market for an expensive magic wand.    A ping sends a packet of information to an IP address and requests a response, to make sure the IP address can be reached. It can troubleshoot a connection issue with the receiving device. I sent a ping to google.com, australia.gov.au, and royal.uk, to test the reachability of IP addresses in several places in the world. I sent 4 packets successfully to all three addresses with no packets lost, so they were all reachable. My averages were 29.935, 30.228, and 32.616 milliseconds respectively. It was surprising to me that the ping to Australia took less time than the ...