5 Must-Have Items for Your Geek Bag

Enter the #GeekBag Photo Contest! What's your favorite, most useful, or most unusual geek bag item? Submit your photo on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #GeekBag, or email us at social@cbtnuggets.com/.

Batman has his utility belt. Thor has his hammer. You have your geek bag. And you're no less of a superhero because of it. Seriously, to your endusers, your skills are akin to magic. Outfit yourself properly with the right physical tools. Skip the cape though.

Whether you're the only IT guy in the 20-person office, or supporting hundreds of endusers, you likely have a set of tools that you use regularly. Depending on your job it might be a laptop bag with a few dongles and an external hard drive. Or it might be a full-out toolbox with precision tools for fixing the latest hardware mishap. (Seriously, how did you get ice cream inside the optical drive?)

CBT Nuggets has a rockstar IT team that deals with a bevy of issues at the main office, our datacenter, and on the cloud.

Let's take a look at the probably the best geek bag in the entire world: The one owned by CBT Nuggets IT pro Tyler.

Here are Tyler's most-used items in his geek bag:

The Ultimate Dongle Box

Tyler's motto is "Make sure you have the right dongle." And rightfully so. He supports Macs, PCs, and an assortment of mobile devices. For that reason, he has a ton of dongles and adapters.

"As new technologies emerge," he said, "you have to account for legacy devices. As time goes on, you simply acquire more dongles."

Technology marches forward, making life easier is some ways, but always onto the next dongle. If you still have VGA-to-DVI, or USB-to-P/S2 adapters floating around the office, you know what we mean. It's more challenging now that we're in USB-C and Gigabit territory, plus we have a lot of Macs. (Enough said.)

Bonus Points: He keeps the microSD adapters in a Gameboy cartridge case. Well played, Tyler. Well played.

Microbit set & Screwdrivers

Whether you're upgrading components, replacing parts (seriously, how did you get ice cream in there), or Frankensteining computers or servers, you'll want your trusty precision screwdriver set. You can save your company and yourself hundreds of dollars by just buying parts. While you sometimes might want a hammer, it's better to just reach for your trusty screwdriver set instead.

Bonus: If you zoom into the full Geek Bag array photo above, you will see that he carries several pristine tool kits.

Zip ties / Cable ties

Cleanly managed cables are happy cables. You remember the section of Net+ and CCNA about proper cable management? No? Well, you can learn a thing or two from Tyler. He's never far away from a handful of cable ties.

Bonus: Each time we get new equipment, Tyler keeps the silica packets and the reusable ties. For the same reason you probably have six bundles of coax cable and another half dozen 3-foot CAT5 cables in your cord box at home, he has a box of the silica packets. You just never know.

Gloves

This one might be specific to CBT Nuggets, but it's Tyler's list, okay? Tyler needs gloves. You might not know this, but CBT Nuggets has a small datacenter that's always changing. He's moving racks and unloading new servers pretty regularly. It's a cool project. So, if you're doing a lot of heavy lifting, you might consider a good set of work gloves.

Various and Assorted Adhesives

Adhesives are an essential item for any geek bag. Take your pick: super glue, JB Weld, maybe a glue stick. Why? That's the thing. You won't even know until you're glad you have it.

One thing: Super glue responsibly, people. This video might save your life.

Honorable mention: Water Bottle

Gotta stay hydrated!

Show us your favorite #GeekBag item!

Here's the fun part. What's your favorite, most useful, or most unusual geek bag item? For the next week, send us pictures of your geek bag for daily CBT Nuggets prizes!

Submit your photo on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #GeekBag, or email us at social@cbtnuggets.com/.