Technical Experience

Projects and Hands-On Experience

Practical work organized around the technical areas employers evaluate for IT support, networking, and systems-administration roles.

Networking & Infrastructure

Managed Multi-Gigabit Network

Built and administer a centrally managed network using a dedicated gateway, managed multi-gigabit switching, Power over Ethernet, Wi-Fi 7 access points, and wired backhaul.

  • Configured DHCP reservations, managed switch ports, and wireless networks.
  • Worked with tagged uplinks, access ports, PoE, IPv4, and IPv6.
  • Verified physical and logical traffic paths across multiple switches.

Wireless Deployment & Ethernet Cabling

Improved wireless coverage and performance through Wi-Fi analysis, access-point placement, Ethernet cabling, and wired backhaul.

  • Analyzed Wi-Fi signal strength, coverage, channels, and access-point placement.
  • Installed, terminated, and tested Ethernet cabling.
  • Configured wired backhaul for Wi-Fi 7 access points.
  • Connected access points using Power over Ethernet.
  • Troubleshot managed-switch ports, uplinks, VLANs, and client connectivity.

VLANs & Inter-VLAN Routing

Segmented trusted and IoT devices while allowing only the cross-network services they require.

  • Configured separate VLANs, gateways, switch ports, and wireless SSIDs.
  • Compared router-based routing with Layer 3 switch routing.
  • Allowed controlled DNS access without opening unrestricted LAN access.
  • Troubleshot addressing, gateway, tagging, and ACL behavior.

Pi-hole & Dual-Stack DNS

Deployed Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi 5 as a centralized DNS filtering service for IPv4 and IPv6 clients.

  • Configured IPv6 prefix delegation, Router Advertisements, SLAAC, and RDNSS.
  • Worked with ICMPv6, Neighbor Discovery, and stable server addressing.
  • Verified client DNS assignments and query logging.
  • Configured TCP and UDP port 53 firewall access.

DNS & Packet-Capture Troubleshooting

Diagnosed DNS failures by testing connectivity, ports, services, firewalls, and packet flow independently.

  • Used ping, dig, nslookup, and Test-NetConnection.
  • Captured DNS traffic with tcpdump to verify requests reached the server.
  • Inspected Pi-hole logs, UFW, and nftables.
  • Corrected missing IPv6 DNS rules and verified successful resolution.

MTU & Packet-Size Testing

Tested maximum packet size across multiple switches to verify end-to-end Ethernet behavior.

  • Used ping -f -l 1472 to test a 1500-byte IPv4 packet without fragmentation.
  • Verified successful transmission across the switching path.
  • Compared jumbo-frame support with the actual end-to-end MTU.

VPN & Remote Connectivity

Configured and tested secure remote connectivity to lab systems and services from outside the local network.

  • Used VPN connectivity, SSH, RDP, and PowerShell Remoting.
  • Verified reachability, listening ports, firewall rules, services, and authorization.
  • Tested remote access to BatPi and shared resources.

Windows & Systems Administration

Active Directory, DNS & DHCP

Installed Active Directory Domain Services and DNS, created a lab domain, joined Windows clients, and practiced Windows Server administration.

  • Created organizational units, groups, administrative users, and standard users.
  • Worked with domain authentication, DNS zones, DHCP, and permissions.
  • Practiced account lockout and domain-connectivity troubleshooting.

Group Policy & Access Administration

Practiced domain policy, security context, and access-control administration in the Windows Server lab.

  • Worked with password policies and account restrictions.
  • Used gpupdate /force during policy testing.
  • Compared local and domain accounts when troubleshooting access.

Hyper-V Lab

Built a virtual lab using Windows 11, Windows Server, and Ubuntu for isolated administration and troubleshooting practice.

  • Configured virtual machines, storage, networking, and resource allocation.
  • Used checkpoints before changes to support testing and recovery.
  • Troubleshot virtual-switch and guest-connectivity problems.

Windows Administration

Administered Windows 11 and Windows Server through graphical tools, command-line utilities, and PowerShell.

  • Worked with accounts, permissions, services, logs, storage, and scheduled tasks.
  • Used Event Viewer, Device Manager, Disk Management, Defender, and Windows Firewall.
  • Practiced recovery, remote administration, and configuration verification.

Custom PC Build & Hardware Validation

Planned, assembled, configured, and validated a custom Windows 11 Pro workstation built around an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X processor.

  • Installed the processor, DDR5 memory, NVMe storage, graphics card, and other components.
  • Updated system firmware and installed operating-system and hardware drivers.
  • Configured multiple NVMe drives for Windows, storage, and lab workloads.
  • Enabled and configured Hyper-V for virtualization.
  • Verified temperatures, memory, storage, networking, drivers, and system stability.

Linux Administration

Used Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS for command-line administration, networking, services, storage, and troubleshooting.

  • Managed packages, permissions, processes, services, and logs.
  • Used systemctl, ip, dig, curl, top, and tcpdump.
  • Worked with Bash scripting and SSH public-key authentication.

SMB File Server & Permissions

Configured Raspberry Pi-based SMB file sharing for Windows and Android clients.

  • Created and configured shared folders on the Linux server.
  • Managed Linux file-system and SMB user permissions.
  • Troubleshot authentication and access-denied errors.
  • Tested access from Windows and Android devices.
  • Verified local-network and VPN-based access to shared resources.

CUPS Network Print Server

Configured a Raspberry Pi as a centralized network print server for Windows and Linux clients.

  • Installed and configured the Common UNIX Printing System.
  • Added and managed a Brother network printer.
  • Worked with Internet Printing Protocol and SNMP printer communication.
  • Configured printer access from network clients.
  • Troubleshot printer discovery, connectivity, permissions, queues, and print jobs.
  • Verified successful printing from client devices.

Raspberry Pi Server Administration & Maintenance

Deployed and maintained a Raspberry Pi 5 as a headless ARM Linux server providing network services and remote administration.

  • Configured SSH public-key authentication from Windows.
  • Created an SSH host shortcut for simplified remote administration.
  • Verified storage mounts, system services, network connectivity, and server logs.
  • Monitored power, temperature, and thermal-throttling status.
  • Investigated a firmware warning and confirmed that the server was not experiencing undervoltage or thermal throttling.
  • Updated the EEPROM bootloader, rebooted the server, and verified the completed update.

Microsoft 365 & Cloud Administration

Microsoft 365 & Entra ID

Configured a standalone Microsoft 365 tenant and practiced identity and user administration without permanently connecting it to the local Active Directory lab.

  • Created and managed cloud users and groups.
  • Worked with administrative roles, account access, and MFA.
  • Practiced help-desk-style identity and access troubleshooting.

Exchange Online & Shared Mailboxes

Created and administered mailboxes in Exchange Online, including a shared Help Desk mailbox.

  • Configured Send As and Send on Behalf permissions.
  • Enabled shared-mailbox sent-item copies.
  • Used Exchange Online PowerShell to configure and verify settings.
  • Used message tracing to investigate mail flow and delivery.

Microsoft 365 Collaboration Services

Worked with the Microsoft 365 admin environment and the relationships among users, groups, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

  • Reviewed service administration and group-based access.
  • Practiced identifying which Microsoft 365 service owns a setting or resource.
  • Documented Intune and endpoint management as a future lab expansion.

Azure Virtual Machine

Deployed and administered a Windows Server virtual machine in Microsoft Azure.

  • Worked with VM sizing, remote access, networking, and network security groups.
  • Used RDP and verified access controls before exposing required services.
  • Reviewed cost and resource-management considerations.

IT Support & Troubleshooting

Help Desk Support Practice

Practiced structured support workflows using realistic account, access, mailbox, printer, and connectivity issues.

  • Identified symptoms, tested likely causes, applied fixes, and verified results.
  • Practiced deciding whether to resolve an issue or escalate it.
  • Documented symptoms, troubleshooting steps, changes, and outcomes.

Printer & Peripheral Troubleshooting

Configured and troubleshot local and network printing across Windows and Linux systems.

  • Worked with drivers, printer discovery, IPP, SNMP, and CUPS.
  • Added and tested a Brother printer from multiple network clients.
  • Checked network reachability, services, permissions, queues, and jobs.

Scan-to-Folder Permission Troubleshooting

Diagnosed and corrected a network printer problem that prevented scanned documents from being written to a shared Windows folder.

  • Verified network connectivity between the printer and Windows computer.
  • Reviewed the shared-folder path and printer scan destination.
  • Compared Windows share permissions with NTFS security permissions.
  • Identified insufficient folder access as the cause of the failure.
  • Corrected the permissions and verified that scan-to-folder worked successfully.

User Accounts & File Permissions

Troubleshot local, domain, Linux, SMB, and Microsoft 365 account and access problems.

  • Worked with password resets, account lockout, group membership, and least privilege.
  • Compared share permissions with file-system permissions.
  • Diagnosed access-denied errors from Windows and Android clients.

Windows Account Recovery

Restored access to Windows accounts while verifying permissions and maintaining appropriate account security.

  • Used account-recovery options to reset forgotten passwords.
  • Managed local accounts through Local Users and Groups.
  • Verified administrator and standard-user group membership.
  • Restored account access and confirmed that authentication worked correctly.
  • Reviewed account permissions and removed unnecessary administrative access.

Mail Flow & Mailbox Troubleshooting

Practiced mailbox support by checking identity, permissions, client behavior, configuration, and message flow separately.

  • Verified Send As and Send on Behalf permissions.
  • Checked shared-mailbox sent-item behavior.
  • Used Exchange Online PowerShell and message tracing as evidence.

Layered Network Troubleshooting

Used a repeatable process to isolate addressing, routing, DNS, port, service, firewall, permission, and application failures.

  • Tested one layer and changed one variable at a time.
  • Used commands, logs, packet captures, and service status to verify conclusions.
  • Recorded failed attempts when they provided useful diagnostic evidence.

Ticket-Style Documentation

Converted lab troubleshooting into concise support documentation that explains the problem, investigation, resolution, and result.

  • Recorded symptoms, scope, affected systems, and error messages.
  • Documented commands, configuration changes, and verification steps.
  • Separated confirmed evidence from assumptions and follow-up work.

Security

Identity & Authentication Security

Applied stronger authentication and credential-management practices to personal and lab accounts.

  • Used MFA, Bitwarden password management, and YubiKey hardware authentication.
  • Practiced least privilege and removal of unnecessary administrative access.
  • Worked with SSH public-key authentication for remote Linux administration.

Endpoint Protection & Hardening

Practiced Windows endpoint protection, encryption concepts, patching, recovery planning, and security verification.

  • Used Microsoft Defender and Windows Firewall.
  • Worked with BitLocker, account security, updates, and recovery options.
  • Practiced malware-response procedures and clean-rebuild decision making.

Malware Response & Windows Recovery

Practiced identifying, removing, and recovering from unwanted software on a Windows system.

  • Identified and removed potentially unwanted software.
  • Updated Microsoft Defender and performed security scans.
  • Configured recurring Defender scans and backup tasks.
  • Verified system behavior and security settings after remediation.
  • Evaluated when a reset, reimage, or clean installation would be safer than continuing to trust the existing installation.

Firewall, ACL & Segmentation Controls

Applied network and host controls to limit communication while preserving access to required services.

  • Worked with router firewall rules, switch ACL concepts, UFW, and nftables.
  • Restricted IoT access to the trusted LAN.
  • Allowed narrowly scoped DNS traffic over TCP and UDP port 53.
  • Verified policy behavior with port tests, logs, and packet captures.

Automation & Backup

PowerShell & Task Scheduler

Created PowerShell scripts and scheduled tasks for routine administration, maintenance, and evidence collection.

  • Collected system-health and configuration information.
  • Scheduled Defender, DISM, backup, and maintenance-related tasks.
  • Enabled PowerShell transcription and retained output for review.

Backup & Restore Testing

Practiced Windows and Linux backup planning, storage administration, and recovery procedures.

  • Worked with Windows system images, restore points, and Windows Recovery Environment.
  • Configured shared storage and automated backup functions on the Linux server.
  • Verified storage mounts, backup destinations, and service availability.

Monitoring & Verification

Used scripts, logs, and repeat testing to confirm system state instead of assuming a configuration change succeeded.

  • Monitored service status, system health, storage, and network behavior.
  • Recorded configuration information before and after changes.
  • Used repeatable verification steps to support troubleshooting and recovery.

Portfolio & Documentation

Headley Lab Website

Built and deployed this technical portfolio using GitHub Pages and a custom domain.

  • Configured DNS records, HTTPS, navigation, and responsive page layouts.
  • Used Git and GitHub for version control and deployment.
  • Organized project evidence around skills employers can evaluate.

Technical Documentation & Lessons Learned

Documented projects with explanations, screenshots, commands, troubleshooting evidence, and final verification.

  • Recorded successful configurations and unresolved problems.
  • Explained technical decisions and lessons in plain language.
  • Used screenshots, logs, and packet captures to support project claims.

Next Projects

Planned work is kept separate so completed projects remain the focus.

Continue Exploring

Troubleshooting results and technical takeaways are documented on the Lessons Learned page. Photos and screenshots are available in the project gallery.

View Lessons Learned View Project Pictures