high school network admin tips

lol, sometimes in the real world 2+2=5...

As a former ITT graduate (CNS), I have learned a few things.
1. Google is your best friend.
2. Remember what you learned in college? Most of it will not apply.
3. TR probably is one of the best forums I have ever come across! If you get stuck, odds are, someone here has an answer or can point you in the right direction.
4. Do not under estimate kids! They will find a way around everything, try to stay ahaid of the curve.
5. Google is your best friend.

I cant really give you any pointers or links yet because I have no idea what admin means. Everyone has their own def. are you the network admin, PC admin, server admin, account admin... or all of the above? What services are running on the network? How many co-workers do you have? what policies are already in place? what server OS are you running? What OS's are on the desktops?

I am not trying to be mean, but those are some of the questions you should be asking once you are in the position. I would also suggest, always remember you will never know all the answers, the trick to being a good IT person is knowing where to get the answer. Also, everything is your fault (even though you never touched it), you will be a god one day, and the next day you will be the most evil person in the world... LOL, hopefully this helps you out... any more questions/comments?

usually means not a lot of money which usually means the network will be in terrible shape.

If you don't have them already, push for managed switches capable of handling VLANs and ACLs. I've seen situations where the computer labs were on the same network as the faculty/staff computers and it got ugly fast. You'll need VLANs and ACLs so you can separate those networks and control the traffic between them.

I'd also develop a system by which you can re-image computer labs fairly quickly. You'll probably want to get a fresh image on them quite regularly.

There's more useful tips in my brain somewhere but those come to the forefront.

EDIT:

What sort of environment is it? I generally assume Windows based as they have most of the market share, but I know Mac shops can be common in the educational environment.

Other thoughts:
If you don't take a proactive approach to make sure that everything is working the way it should you'll be spending everyday running around putting out fires. It will likely look like a helpdesk position than a net admin position. The more you can make sure that the workstations are functioning the way they should, the happier people will be with your service and the more time you'll have to have to spend on learning and engaging in more interesting projects.

Also, you might want to keep tabs on some Technology in education journals from an educators standpoint. It will probably give you some insight in working with people... especially when it comes to convincing them to buy something.

You'll probably encounters lots of old hardware that the support contract has long expired. Many smaller schools receive old computers as donations from corporations so expect to be dealing with a lot of old hardware that could break down on you any minute.

Second Edit:

What would be a good skill to practice is to be able to translate a "business need" to network requirements. For example, you may hear in some meeting some non-technical person going on about an idea they had for something they could do... probably based on of some article they read or some product they saw.

A good skill to practice to to hear what they are saying and be able to silently translate that into technical requirements. This is helpful because often what they want to do requires certain infrastructure to be in place and this may not be in place. If you don't bring this to their attention (and the cost associated with getting the infrastructure where it needs to be) they will go ahead with it and expect you to make it work... and when you can't or it doesn't work as advertised. They will be upset with you.

I haven't used this but it has been strongly recommended here for school use before.

http://www.faronics.com/

Machine resets to original state everytime it is repowered.

Users/ students can't make changes stick.
Site shows $1,589.64 for 130 machines including 1 year maintenance.

im not exactly sure all of the details because im not allowed back into the building untill my background check clears. but i will certainly update this thread. when i find out. and by network admin i mean I AM the whole it department
what i do know however is that theres 1 computer lab for students and its on a different service provider than all the teacher computers. timewarner for kids (because its free) and mccloud for teachers machine.

oh yea, i agree Tech Republic is one of the best information sites ive ever come across.