Computer Networking Woes

I'm a computer networking major at Wentworth Institute of Technology
leaving out the bs classes everyone has to take, let me show you my first year of computer classes

Computer Science 1 (C++)
Programing Logic and Design
Computer Science 2 (C++)
Intro to Networks, Services, and the WWW

next semester will be

Object Oriented Programming (Java)
Computer Architecture
Operating Systems Concepts

do you see the disconnect there?

When you ask someone what exactly computer networking is, it can be tough to get a straight answer. Ask the computer science majors and they'll say it's the "easy" computer major. Ask average Jane on the street and she'll have no idea. There are misconceptions about this major

From other networking students I've talked to, this isn't just a local issue. I'm not here to whine about my college, it's just an issue I'd like to talk about

First, lets look at what a Network Administrator does. It's someone who's responsible for maintaining the equipment that lets networks operate. They make sure everyone is connected to the network and can talk to each other, share resources, etc. They deal with Network Operating Systems to do this. Also under their purview is designing and implementing networks, as well as looking to their security

These are all pretty important things...it's a job that warrants a full time position, not something that should be taken care of alongside of other duties

In offering the Computer Networking major, schools are doing students a disservice by shoving so much computer science down peoples throats. Network professionals are a vital part of the IT team, and it seems like they don't get the respect that they deserve

However, since I've been forced to deal with so much computer science, I've found out more about a very interesting career path that requires high skill in both networking and programming, that path being a Malware Analyst. In my earlier posts I've made it pretty clear that I'm quite interested in malware. A Malware analysts has to be able to look at infectious code and see what it's doing (programing knowledge component) and they have to also understand how it's propagating (networking component). Once these facts are understood, they can go about coming up with a fix

In creating malware, people are showing extensive programming skills, and then in figuring out clever ways to propagate the malware they show good networking skills

ok so maybe that's a bad example, but people! Networking is important! I hope people won't be so quick to dismiss it out of hand in the future