5/9/2001 -- Tell me if this sounds familiar to you: I've got a good friend, Chip Davies, who works for an IT department at a mid-sized corporation. Chip is the primary network admin for this company, which, over the past three years, has dramatically increased its Web presence. As they've cycled up this Web strategy, guess who has found themselves slowly becoming the Web server administrator? You guessed it -- Chip.

Recently, Chip has found himself in a position where he's looking for another job. He's an MCSE, but he's really got nothing under his belt that illustrates his Web server and Internet administration knowledge. What to do? Chip decided to get i-Net+ certified.

You've probably heard of i-Net+ certification, the a vendor-neutral Internet title offered by CompTIA, the organization that also puts out A+ and Network+. What you may not know is how closely the objectives for this exam match the skills held by someone in Chip's position: e.g., a Webmaster. Webmaster is a term we hear all the time, one that many people add at the end of their name like it's a certification. But what really constitutes a Webmaster? Web development? Not really. Webopedia.com defines Web master as "an individual who manages a Web site." Not a particularly lengthy definition, but it does say "manage," not "develop" or "create." The fact is that Webmasters have more in common with network administrators than they do content developers. With this in mind, a more specific definition for a Webmaster might be "an individual who makes sure the Web server hardware and software is running and maintained properly."

These are exactly the skills i-Net+ was designed to certify. Unlike some other Internet certifications that focus more on the creative, i-Net+ drills-down on your networking and internetworking skills. Can you get, and keep, an Internet infrastructure up and running? If so, then i-Net+ is probably a good match for you.

Now that you've got a better idea of what i-Net+ is all about, let's take a closer look at exactly what's tested on this exam.

Objectives and Skills Tested
On the i-Net+ exam, you'll find questions on everything from search engine technologies to DNS. Here's how the objectives break down:

1. Basics (10 percent) - URLs, caching, search engines, etc.
2. Clients (20 percent) - Client infrastructure support, desktop configuration, MIME, etc.
3. Development (20 percent) - Term definitions, database technologies, HTML, etc.
4. Networking and Infrastructure (25 percent) - Domains and DNS, troubleshooting, TCP/IP, hardware, server technologies, etc.
5. Security (15 percent) - VPNs, encryption, virus software, etc.
6. Business Essentials (10 percent) - Copyright, push technology, terms, etc.

As you can see, the networking objective makes up a quarter of the total exam, figuring heavily into the scoring. As a networking admin, you should feel at home with this material. Those of you who have been connecting LANs together for years will find that your knowledge of TCP/IP will go along way towards passing this exam (dust off those TCP/IP reference volumes just in case). Objective five is solely devoted to Internet security. With the continual concern over security in regards to Web access, you'll need to be up to speed on all those skills you use to keep hackers off the network. In this arena, make sure you have an understanding of authentication and encryption, as well as network auditing and access control. Those who have a Microsoft background will find comfort in the Virtual Private Networking (VPN) questions that may pop up. And like any good administrator, you should be well aware of the various types of attacks possible, and how to recognize and stop these problems.

A breakdown on all the objectives above can be found here.

Practice Questions
Below I've listed a few sample questions that will introduce you to i-Net+'s question style, as well as give you a quick overview of some of the material.

1. A method of encryption that uses a public key and a private key is:

A. PGP
B. LDAP
C. NAP
D. RSA

Answer: A. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a method of public-key encryption. Two keys are employed -- one that is known by anyone wishing to send you a message, and another that only you know (and use to decrypt the message).

2. A server that sits between a Web server and the clients and acts on behalf of the clients (intercepting requests, etc.) would be a:

A. Firewall
B. Proxy
C. Gateway
D. Router

Answer: B. A proxy server intercepts client requests to see if it can first fill them. If it cannot, then the request is forwarded on. A proxy server can filter requests, improve performance (through caching and offering data locally rather than through the speed of the connection) and allow Internet access to clients that may not be running TCP/IP.

3. Choose the valid IP addresses available for assignment to hosts:

A. 200.127.127.1
B. 1.5.10.256
C. 127.0.0.2
D. 256.1.1.1

Answer: A. Explanation: For a valid address, the first octet must be between 1-223 (minus 127), and the remaining three octets can be between 0 - 255.

i-Net+ test questions have been exerpted with permission from the i-Net+ TestPro located at CertificationCorner.com.

OK? What Now?
So at this point, you've taken stock in your current value as an admin and overall technology master, brushed up on your TCP/IP tables and networking knowledge, and have passed the test. So you trot home with your little printout saying you're i-Net+ certified, and then the larger question comes about: What do I do with it now?

With i-Net+ certification to complement your network admin certification(s), you now possess the ability to illustrate your Internet network admin talents instead of just your network administrator talents. It shows HR departments that you can conquer such task as managing corporate Internet and intranet infrastructures. If your previous occupation had you concerned with security, then you can now possibly market yourself as an Internet security specialist, Basically, if you can take your knowledge and apply it in an Internet context, then you've got a really compelling story expanding yourself as a technology professional.

But don't just take my word for it. Truth be told, while i-Net+ may not be A+ in terms of its popularity with the general public, it is an exam that is readily being accepted by a variety of industry leaders as their framework for making sure that someone is certified to take care of any Internet-, intranet-, or extranet-related infrastructure. For example, Prosoft accepts i-Net+ as credit for their CIW Foundations exam, and IBM also accepts it as an entry-level requirement. Should you decide to pursue further Internet certification, having the i-Net+ under your belt is only going to help you.

Riding the Internet Wave
My father once told me, never get on a ship unless you know where it's going. If that ship is your career, then you need to know where it's going in terms of where the market is going. What the LAN did for businesses was expand an organization's functionality in terms of how its employees worked, processed business, and interacted with one another. As a result, the job of network administration was born. Now, what the LAN did for small to mid-sized companies 10 years ago, the Internet is doing for them now: Offering the ability to largely expand their business presence, client base, and again, change the core of how they do business. With the i-Net+ certification in hand, you will be able to expand your range of possibilities from the traditional networking administrator model to one that possesses the tools for handling internet-related networking and communication. Not a bad trip to take.