[BBLISA] seeking recommendations for Windows admin training

[Rich Braun]

Kathryn Smith asked:
> I... really need to update my windows network training.  Does
> anyone have training solutions  they'd like to recommend?
>
> I'm open to either something on-line, or something in person in the
> southern NH/greater Boston area. The budget is unfortunately likely to be
> very small

Microsoft TechNet.  Google for discounts on it.  What you get for a couple
hundred dollars is 12 months of free downloads on most all Microsoft apps.  No
other company that I know of does that.  The best part is that the
non-commercial licenses remain valid after the subscription, so long as you
adhere to the license terms (and don't need to do a reinstall or update).  In
addition to the download library, the service has a lot of online training.

What I suggest is set up an inexpensive Core i5 or i7 desktop box with 16-32GB
or so of RAM (choose a motherboard with at least 6 DIMM slots) so you can
install a bunch of virtual machines.  The price of RAM fell through the floor
this year so it's no longer an expensive proposition to build your learning
lab.  Assign yourself projects like building a fault-tolerant Exchange 2010
server or a replicating database or a SharePoint-based wiki.  Share the
results with your friends.

-rich