I've been in IT for over 30 years now. I spent my formative years learning the ropes as an IT Generalist--fixing things like printers, monitors and doing desktop support for MSP's. I branched into Network Administration and Engineering--I actually started with LanTastic and working my way into Netware and ultimately Windows NT/ActiveDirectory and Cisco. I also have a varied firewall background, including Watchguard, Cisco ASA, and Sonicwall.
After a number of years in that industry, I shifted over to a role doing Software Integration--specifically for the Online/Mobile Banking software in the Credit Union industry. I have been working in that field now for the last 15 years, but lately have felt the need to revisit, as it were, my roots. In the past, I've used a number of open-source tools, such as Ethereal (now called Wireshark) and still have a pretty good grasp on TCP/IP networking (with a bit of refresher) and Windows.
Since the majority of the network