Is Visual Basic important to you?

I work in VB all the time, but typically network admins (people who get MCSEs) don't do a lot of application programming. Of course, as background knowledge, you certainly might find it useful but I would say it's off your primary path.

Heh, actually VB and working with networking is awsome stuff. However you got to get pretty advanced to get to that point. I started in Networking and I am an MCSE + I but I find more and more everything is going web based. So I started messing around with VB and well you would be suprised at what you can do with it.

I am sure you have seen web sites with the .asp extension. Well if you were not aware ASP or Active Server Pages are all VB programming and well let me tell you. I have built in complete security systems all web based. Dynamic generated things and well hell Using an X10 switch I am able to hit my personal site at home and call the dll files for the X10 and turn my hot tub on or off and set the temperature from a web page. Hows that for a little power of VB.

I can go on and on about VB, I love that language. I am a little more advanced than the average user in it but with the MCSE and VB behind me it makes an awsome combination. I recomend for your MCSE courses youdo the Internet Information Server, and SQL too. Microsoft has geared Win2K and Active Directory to work with thier flag ship of ASP. To do ask you need an understanding of HTML and VB. The HTML is easy.

Now why do you need VB why not just learnASP? Cause there are a million ASP developer out there, but ones that truly know VB, and How IIS work and How SQL works, are rare and in high demand. An asp page is fast however it must compile on the server every time a page is visited. well you take your ASP code stick it into a DLL which is reusable on any and every page and you get 100 x the performance because it is already compiled. Take a look at Ebay. The begining page you see the extension .html on the end of the URL. but do a search and look at the URL, it changed into a DLL. Think about that, E-bay gets hammered by millions of users a day. and the VB on thier end handles it all.

Anyway thats my 2 cents worth

Greetings,
Yes I agree, you should definately study VB, an MCSE with VB and SQL Server7 qualifies for the MCDBA and can double your entry level salary expectations!
I'm a VB programmer with SQL Server7 and need only the NT2000 to round out my certifications... go for it!
Regards
hbp

I work extensivly in Vb as a developer, and do some network stuff. There is little overlap, though an understanding of dispributed objects and their needs is probably useful. Rather if you are a vb programmer you might like a little network knowledge. So my vote is, unless you want 2 strings to your bow, a way out of admin into dev, or just a broader view, don't bother.
Even if your perwaided by the three above arguments that a little dev knowledge is what you need, consider java.

That and some form of scripting language (PERL, PYTHON etc..). Also any form of SQL.