About

What’s in this realm?

If the website didn’t already give it away my name is Ryan, and this website might have been a spur of moment type of thing, I was originally looking at ways I can bring up a webpage for CCIE studies. While doing my research I picked up on the word realm and it kind of stuck from there. It was also pretty cool that this domain was also available for purchase…so a few quick clicks and voila! A website is born!

The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word realm is fantasy, like fictional worlds and kingdoms! The word realm can also mean pillars of knowledge or an area of expertise. In technology the word realm is a space of a defined area within a network or system. Like Microsoft active directory, or an autonomous systems, OSPF areas or even demarcation points. For this place its about my experiences in technology the knowledge I currently have and the knowledge of what I will learn and happy to share it with you.

The blog section of this site is general stories of my life, technology, projects around the home, and the people around me. Meanwhile the CCIE section of this space is just what it sounds like, its going to be a place for me to focus on studying for the CCIE certification.

Welcome to Ryan’s Realm! 👋

My history (short version)

Growing up when the internet started in the mid-1990s was a special time for kids in that timeframe. I remember as a kid with my dad’s help I would email my uncle at the time, I would scramble the words up within the email, thinking if it was really my uncle he would be able unscramble them. This type of deciphering was my type of thinking as a child, but being able to check e-mail and see my unscramble message along with him saying hello, was something that got me hooked.

From that point on computers, like Windows 98, Windows XP, Vista, and Windows Seven were all in my kid/teenage years. I remember when we got DSL for the first time and that 1.5Mbps speed was quick! We had game consoles like the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live service so being able to reach people across the world and play online games was a special time back then.

So with all of this cool communication I would find myself on technology forums mainly to help people with Windows problems, and that’s how I learned a lot about the Microsoft operating system. Network communications like WiFi and sharing printers at home was also pretty cool to learn. That’s also how I knew that it would be really cool if I can figure out how to work with this technology day in, day out.

So while in college, I was part of the a college program that wanted to put together an internet forum. So we used the open source project Simple Machines Forum and I was learning all about PHP, MySQL and ImageMagick. All of these components are separate things but in the end work together to make something awesome. The other amazing thing was getting it online and being able to browse to it. At first it was just an IP address but I spent the extra couple bucks and put a domain name on it. It lasted a year or so but in the end like with most technology it ages out.

From that point on I put together my own site in 2011 with the help of Wordpress.com (actually pretty simple) and the rest is written history. Check out the archive of ciscoskills to get a decade of content that I wrote when I was learning about Cisco Certifications (Some of it’s useful😉)

Closing

So what’s next, well besides me been working my day job in the network space for 15 years, I love to go outside and if you also did’nt notice, really like hiking in the mountains. It brings me peace when I’m out and about and enjoying nature, being in that moment without any technology is awesome. Although I like technology I do think its a double-edge sword in today’s age, which is why its so important to find an escape, life is too short to be stuck behind a keyboard/computer or phone screen.

As I finish this up, come along in this realm to learn something, enjoy the company and get inspired!…But also enjoy being disconnected and appreciate what you have with your family and friends around you.✨

-Ryan