CCNA - Learning from home?

thanks guys your replies have been very encouraging.

What sort of equipment should I be looking for from the bay that would be helpful?

andr3w1984 - I would love to give those routers a new home but just got a new baby and money is extremely tight - this is why I am trying to do this from home.

We have cisco kit here at work and I am sure that some of the guys could give me a few pointers if i begged enough
 
andr3w1984 said:
ah I wasnt implying a sale of the routers :P thats not allowed unless its in the MM lol.

Aww congrats on the new baby and if you do choose to do the course be prepared because it aint no easy course especially to self study.

I recommend 2 books to you though, which will help (CCNA Companion Guide Revised Third 1/2 3/4 Edition).
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How much did your setup cost?

Ive checked online and its looking like £300 to £500 for a lab. Is there a cheaper way.

Ill have a read of those books, thanks!
 
andr3w1984 said:
Well I have 4 routers at present. 1x 2514, 2 x 2610, 1 x 2620

Set me back around £400 for books, cables and routers e.t.c. I even increased it by buying an ADSL wic just to mess about with the adsl side (which isnt needed in CCNA), which cost me about 110 for the WIC alone.
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What would be the cheapest equipment that I could still learn from? Any makes or models to watch out for?
 
Super Tigers said:
I have just spent the last 7 months taking the CCNA course with the Open University. It has cost me just over £500 and that has included home study, training days at Sunderland college, exams and plenty of tutur support. The open University have just changed over to the new curriculum which includes wireless and security options, course is now over 10minths and you can pay in instalments at a very low interest rate. Head over to the Open University site at www.open.ac.uk and search for cisco ccna in the courses. I can heartliy recommend it and they have study days in various centres over the UK .

Rob H

And you get access to real routers during the study and access to online simulators and other resources.
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Thanks. That sounds within my budget, I will give them a try. :D

Would it be this one that I need to apply:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01T216
 
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Super Tigers said:
That's the one. This is the new course with added options of wireless networking and security, both very useful in the workplace now. Also they lose a few of the older routing protocols such as IGRP and ISDN is featured far less and DSL is included.
The open university will give you a personal tutor and you can pick which study centres to go for (a tip for you, as soon as the day school day dates become available to book, get your booking in and get the best days and locations for you.) My study centre was Sunderland College and the lecturer/tutor was David Evans, he was excellent, good teaching style and a fountain of knowledge.
The OU will give you a timetable of what to study and when to, easy to follow and the course assignments will enhance your learning and keep you well motivated. The course is now 10months long and so is easier paced, you will probably be able to pay over 9 payments with an Open University student account (rule of thumb , number of payments is usually one less than the course length).
You will have full access to the Cisco online Academy, library of resources and simulators such as packet tracer 4.1 which enables you to build some damn complex networks using all the latest routers and catalyst switches. You can access the Cisco forums, get invited to special job days where IT companies are recruiting new CCNAs and CCNPs. You also have access to a course online forum as well, which is great for help and advice.

Also from October 2008 Open University will be offering the full CCNP as well:D
I will be there for that!!

If I can help you anymore send me an email and I will hopefully help.

Rob H
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Thank you have been really helpful
 
Dist said:
just so you know, the OU course does NOT give you the CCNA certification. Once you compleat the CCNA course you will have all the knowledge needed to go out and find a place to take the actual tests to get the certification, which will cost more money. This may make the course sound less worthwhile, but its still a great course for people like me as i plan on using it as one of the optional level 2 courses to go towards my ICT degree.
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How much is the exam at the end?
 
bigredshark said:
Just to add my thoughts, I've got to CCNP / CCDP level without ever doing a course. True I have all the equipment I need to play with at work but I think courses are overated and tend to be targeted at people who have no idea what a network is. I'd say if you read the books, and take it in, the CCNA is easily doable without ever touching a router. (I freely admit I'm biased though, the material in the CCNA course looks very basic to me but if you haven't worked iwth it day in day out then you'll likely think different.)

CCIE for me in a couple of months though!
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What about a combination of the two. I could ask my company if I could get some hands on experience and just read about the course on my own?

Money is tight so I dont want to waste £750 on a course that I dont really need. The money is a big issue.
 
bigredshark said:
The best thing you could do is get some course notes (if your lucky somebody at work will have them) and the run through it with some kit so you have some hands on experience.

To be honest the actual config in the CCNA is so basic (when I did it at least) that mastering the theory side and understanding subnetting is by far the hardest part.

I'd run through the course notes and play with some kit, try and get them to give you some stuff to take home if you can, you really need to get some practice configuring it for real world situation rather than abstract labs. In that respect I've been lucky as I was always provisioning client solutions when I was doing my exams.

I don't think anybody with a basic knowledge of the command line and some grasp of subnetting should need to do the course to be honest.

EDIT: I may have missed you sayign earlier but will work not pay for you to do it, I claimed all my exams as expenses, the only limitation was they'd only pay for one resit, after that you were on your own. They'd pay for course too but I never felt the need to do them.
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They are quite mean with training anyone over the age of 24. I am not sure why. We are a huge international company yet they wont pay for training.

I am having a word with my manager and trying to get some hands of experience. Maybe work the odd day or so with our guys. I'd even do it in my own time if needed.
 
jimjamuk said:
Just bought the official CCNA certification book myself - read and re read 4 or 5 times. Picked out the core subjects to know inside out i.e subnetting etc and took a couple of test exams. When I finally went for the exam it was much easier than I thought it would be. I wouldnt bother with the courses unless you know nothing about networking and then its only going to introduce you to the subjects - the reading starts after that

done the same for the CCNP and also the CCIE Sec written. Have finally bought some kit for the CCIE Lab as you need to know the kit inside out.
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Is that the actual name of the book? "Offical CCNA certification book" ?
 
jimjamuk said:
hi

yeah - do a search on amazon (or other reputable booksites) for CCNA and look for the Cisco press books with "Official Exam Certification Guide" in the title - there maybe more than one now the CCNA was split.

I was told once that all the answers to the exam had to be in that book - so if you know that book(s) inside out you will be fine.

Its not really until you get higher CCNP/CCIE when you need to cover a number of sources for info

btw - as I have pointed out in other posts check out gns-3 (google it) - an app that runs on your machine that simulates routers (GUI setup). Gives you full IOS command set not the cut down ones you find in sims

jimjamuk
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Just a quick question. Is it worth getting this qualification? Would it help me advance in my career if networking is something im interested in?

Thanks
 
jimjamuk said:
yes - a CCNA should get you a foot in the door - 1st line stuff I'm guessing. Then if you want to move into Networking at an engineering level then I guess you need to choose form the various mid level qualifications and pass those exams.

Overall though I have to admit that experience will always count higher than a qualification so if you get some hands on then the better chances will be
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I am currently doing 1.5 on a helpdesk. I think I can get on job training here if I ask nicely. Just want to make sure I am going down the correct path. thanks
 
jimjamuk said:
hi bloodline76,

yes this is how I started out - bit of helpdesk to start with - studied in my own time on the CCNA and also voluteered to come in and follow the 2nd line guys around. Passed the CCNA and had a bit of hands on - as soon as a 2nd line engineer position came up I got my oppotunity and haven't looked back
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That is just what I wanted to hear. You are my new role model lol

I would gladly go out in my own time to get some experience under my belt.
 
ci_newman said:
+1 Thinking about getting myself some Certifications. I work for a pretty small company at the moment and they aren't able to offer training courses etc but I'm very interested in Networking and Infrastructure so this is probably a good way to start!
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Not that this has anything to do with the subject but I am orginally from Basingstoke :D

We have our head office Basingstoke as well. CSC.
 
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