CCNA books?

kalvindeane · 6 Dec 2011 at 15:37

I'm currently enrolled on a CCNA course in a local college, using the Cisco Netacad to do it over 2 years. I'd like to have a book or two to help me with the course, I prefer them than reading off of a monitor. Recommendations are most welcome, there are so many different CCNA books around that I don't know which to choose!

ChrisD. · 6 Dec 2011 at 16:06

Two years? You can crack in two weeks if you work hard and are IT savvy, exams included. If not then a Month or so shouldn't be too hard for someone with basic IT knowledge.

There's plenty of books/CDs to chose from. Depends on your style of learning I guess?

Dist · 6 Dec 2011 at 16:08

I used this set of 2 books http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1587054647
They are Cisco authorized self-study guides, they contain everything you need for the CCNA and if your college provides access to cisco packet tracer (which it should) then that will be all you need.

kalvindeane · 7 Dec 2011 at 16:07

MilanoChris said:
Two years? You can crack in two weeks if you work hard and are IT savvy, exams included. If not then a Month or so shouldn't be too hard for someone with basic IT knowledge.

There's plenty of books/CDs to chose from. Depends on your style of learning I guess?

I took the 2 year course as it's only 1 night a week, for 3.5 hours. I'm also doing a full time course in the day and have a part-time job working 15-25 hours a week. I thought I'd struggle with it but am I'm finding all of them pretty easy.

Thank you for the link Dist.

I'm not sure what to make of the CCNA. The only people I know who have it/have heard of it work in the college, so I cant get an unbiased opinion of it from anyone. The course itself is very interesting, and I think that I'd love to be in networking. Though I can't imagine the CCNA holding a whole lot of value when looking for my first job in IT when it consists of only two books. Opinions anybody?

DJMK4 · 7 Dec 2011 at 16:13

The only book I have purchased so far is more practise questions and scenarios based for ICND1 and ICND2

This is written by the same guys that done the CBTNugget Videos and is highly rated

CCNA Practice Questions (Exam 640-802): Exam Cram by Jeremy Cioara and Chris Ward, you can pick it up from the rainforrest for about £12

wesley · 7 Dec 2011 at 22:52

2 years? i have done CCNA at local college (liverpool community college), 36 weeks 2 hrs once a week

Deception · 8 Dec 2011 at 07:27

wesley said:
2 years? i have done CCNA at local college (liverpool community college), 36 weeks 2 hrs once a week

Mine was around the same (used NCN). Just make sure you get lots of labs going too, as this is where you will learn most of your stuff if you ever want to do more than the CCNA in the future.. lab lab and lab

Deception · 8 Dec 2011 at 09:30

Might want to pick up Packet Tracer too, as you should be enrolled on to the NetAcad site. Great piece of software for labbing up at home without any kit.

kalvindeane · 9 Dec 2011 at 16:21

It's around 70 weeks total, the lessons are meant to be 3.5 hours a week, but sometimes they're more like 2hours. We do indeed use packet tracer and are enrolled on the netacad. I've asked about a lab as we were meant to be having one set up in one of the unused rooms, but nothing has been done so far.