CTP Skill Center

This was a cool day. We went on a ‘field trip’ although just within the Ed Roberts Campus. Alex toured us to the Minimum Point of Entry (MPOE), Main Distribution Frame (MDF) and the Intermediate Distribution Frame (IDF) that serves the networks of the different organizations located in the campus. It was really quite an impressive site to see the work and effort put in making all these connections work. I was in awe at the complexity of the wiring/cabling and the different devices which are working in the background. Everybody had a grand time listening to Alex explaining how work and just taking pictures.

This day was also really informative when Alex gave as a brief glimpse of networking and IP protocol concepts. Identifying how many IPs belong to a network is confusing for anybody who tries it for the first time. However, it gets clearer with time. The key is looking at the network identifier.

Lastly, we looked at the BIOS settings of a computer and learned to change the boot order.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/8-months-after-its-discovery-unkillable-lojax-rootkit-campaign-remains-active/

Today we were again teamed with the PRO class and took turns in making and answering calls. We learned how to take messages and taking notes , putting a call on HOLD, transferring a call directly and transferring a call with confirmation. It looks simple but it is easy to make mistakes. Practice makes perfect.

We also replied to customer feedback which can be either positive or negative. In replying to a negative feedback I always think of what the customer experienced and ask myself what will I feel given the same situation.

Watching the video about handling irate customers offers a glimpse of different ways and methods to help de-escalate stressful customer interactions.

Today we learned to apply customer service skills. The first exercise simulated answering customer calls and to learn to use the telephone hold buttons. We took turns in being either the customer or call center agent. We also watched the Customer Service Counts video showing different scenarios that one might encounter in dealing with customers. Addressing a customer’s needs and concerns must be a priority.

I have a new way of looking at a router thanks to Alex. I understand the concept of public and private ips but I always looked at it as network facing and internet facing.

Viewing them as separate halves I think is more fitting like 2 sides of a coin. It tends to remind you of the wall that divides the LAN from another LAN in a different Domain, WAN and/or Internet. The router acts as a gateway through that wall.

The basic building blocks of LAN also helps in visualizing how they are connected and networked. Practicing with the cmd command lines serves as further reinforcement of what one knows.

Although I created bootable pen drives before this was the first time I knew about Easy2Boot. I was quite impressed with what it can do. One can run a lot of diagnosing tools, OS, utilities, etc. off a single USB (with a working menu nonetheless.)

I downloaded the Easy2Boot tool and Ultimate Boot CD iso. I have an iso for Kali Linux. The documentation for Easy2Boot was quite impressive and extensive. After a couple of tries I was able to create the bootable USB with the Kali Linux and UBCD iso. To get rid of the “Change File Extension” suggestions I added _q to the filenames of the iso files (Eg. UBCD.iso to UBCD_q.iso).

I was able to run the emulator for all except Kali Linux because of the 32-bit limitation . I ran Kali Linux off the bootable USB. A thing to note is the different procedure for BIOS and UEFI firmware. The bootable USB I created can run memtest86 on a BIOS machine but is not recognized in a UEFI one. This can be resolved by implementing a dual partition in the USB where the 2nd partition will hold the iso files as well as some configuration changes.

The images below show the results.

This was an extensive project and a great one to work on. I can’t wait for the next one 🙂

The first hardware assignment is setting up a wireless router. I picked a Linksys WRT54G to work on.

First, I had to reset the router. I found the reset procedure in the manufacturers site. An ethernet cable connected the router and the computer.

Using the default user and password settings, I logged in the router interface via a web browser on 192.168.1.1. I changed the SSID of the router and also changed the user and password. Applied the new settings and the router rebooted. I disconnected the cable from the computer and the router.

Using a laptop on Wifi, I searched for the SSID and connected to it. Open browser on 192.168.1.1 to connect to the interface wirelessly.

Overall a nice hands on hardware experience 🙂

I taught the CTT class. 2 students listened to the class overview. The rest of the students worked on the hardware rest lab. It was interesting to see what sorts of problems ran into and how the overcome the problems. Seemed like people had fun. All-in-all a successful and fun day.

Today we reviewed how to use password vaults. I installed the Chome extension for LastPass. Since I also worked on the hardware reset labs and needed to create a new administrative password I stored these account credentials in LastPass so I did not need to remember the complex passwords I used. It was hard to find the documentation for the Cisco switch reset procedure. It was fun to see the different router configuration panels. Tomorrow I would like to look into how to connect to the Cisco command line.

I read up on the parts inside the computer case and heard a lecture describing the differences between processors over the past few years.