I have computed the ASVAB requirement for CTN and I lacked 10 pts to get qualified for conversion. Is there a waiver for that? I am so desperate to get into CTN rate and I thought I could just jump simply into it but rather have to wait two more years in my current rate before I could do my cross rate package. Is there a way to make the two years short? I have many years of IT experience before I joined the Navy and I just don't want to get stock on my current job that I don't love to do...thanks!

There is a CTN info page located on NKO. According to that page there are "NO WAIVERS TO ASVAB REQUIREMENT" and it is in uppercase and highlighted in red, as if they really mean it.

You can take the ASVAB test again to improve your scores. The minimum score is AR + 2*MK + GS 222. Find out which of those 3 areas, AR, MK and GS, you can improve on and study up on those areas.

The best thing I've found to make time go by fast in the Navy is to not count my days/weeks/months left and to just focus on whatever needs to get done each day. Time goes by alot faster for me if I'm working than if I am skating or thinking about what I would rather be doing or what I would be doing if I was still a civilian.

Thanks for your reply. Are you a CTN? Do you know good websites that I could go so I can start exploring more on Network and Security? Again, I appreciate your reply...

I am in a similar situation as yourself, but further down the line. I just got approved for a Direct Conversion to CTN a few weeks ago and am awaiting orders to C school. I am converting from a rate that has nothing, nothing at all, to do with the CTN rate, so it is possible to convert from whatever rate you are in (unless your rate is undermanned of course, then you don't have a good chance at all and your packet may not even be looked at).

There are a few threads on this board that have great information on what to study to prepare yourself. Read all of the message topics that have CTN in the title. This is taken directly from one of those posts:
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DIRSUP_KORLING
Packet Sniffer

Posted Tue 03 April 2007 06:47 PM Hide Post
Go to http://www.wireshark.org/ now and download/install Wireshark/WinPcap. Get to know your packets, get to know them very, very intimately. It would be nice if you know how to pick apart IP and TCP/UDP headers in a raw hex dump.

Study up on ARP, RIP, and BGP.

Be able to explain how this post gets sent from the application layer (your browser) and encapsulated for transport at the data layer to the military.com host, and then how the encapsulation layers(IP/TCP) get stripped off and passed to the application layer at the destination (the database backend for this forum).

Go to www.dnsstuff.com and learn how to use and understand every tool on there.

Try to learn some Perl, C, and maybe some PHP also. At least enough to pick apart the code. If you can learn how to do network socket programming that would be better.

Learn what server side exploits are (i.e. the animated cursor exploit that M$ just patched today).

Start working on your Network+ and Security+ certifications.

Go to http://www.vte.cert.org/, set-up an account, and work your way through as many of their CBTs as you can before BDNA.

Learn Linux - go to a thrift store and buy an old box and load Slackware or BackTrack on it (not that noob Ubuntu ****). Learn how to grep/awk/sed/etc.

Start building a personal library if you haven't already. I sink about $50 to $75 a month into books right now; everything from Javascript to protocol analysis.

You might want to consider building a personal lab - take that Linux box from above and figure out how to share files between it and your Windows box. Get an old Cisco router off of Ebay and put it between your cable modem and your regular Internet box. Then start playing with the ACLs (you might want to learn how to configure ACLs before exposing it directly to the internet...bad things happen to routers, and the networks behind them, with poorly written ACLs).

Start sniffing around here and get a feel for computer security. Try to soak up as much as you can.

Once you get a handle on all of that you might do ok as a CTN...it should get your through BDNA at least.

Seriously though, it would be good to have a solid handle on networking before BDNA, preferably at the Network+ level. All of the above will help you get a lot more out of BDNA (and will make you a better CTN), but prob aren't necessary. You will cover a lot of the above material in BDNA, but it will be at a break-neck pace with little chance to actually apply any of it.

As far as duty stations - I've heard lots of bad things about Pensacola. Lot of people have bad things to say about Ft Meade also. Everyone seems to be trying for the billets in Hawaii. Lot of wierd DIRSUP type billets being stood-up on both coasts that people are avoiding since they may actually have to go to sea or the sandbox (in-theatre forensics of blood-spattered hard-drives anyone?) - you might get shoehorned into one.

Welcome to the meat grinder...

Good luck,
CTN1 Mario D.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DIRSUP_KORLING, Sun 08 April 2007 06:12 PM
Posts: 864 | Registered: Sun 09 December 2001
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Thats alot of things to get your mind around. Learn as much about the TCP/IP protocol suite as you can. A great book for that imo would be one of the study books for the Microsoft Exam "Internetworking with TCP/IP on Windows NT 4.0". That test was retired a while ago but you may be able to find a used book for cheap (I used the official Microsft published book). I learned the foundations of networking really well getting ready for that exam. Other people not as crusty as me may have better recommendation. And study up try to get Network+ and Security+ qualified. Having that, as well as any experience or education in the IT and networking fields will help your conversion packet greatly.

Thanks again for your reply and Congratulations on your conversion to CTN. I hope we meet each other in the time ahead so we can discuss a lot of things about Network and Security information. Again, thanks and good luck on your "C" school.