Cisco CCENT/CCNA

I bought a Serial>USB adapter for £2 off the bay. Worked just fine once I found the driver for it (works out of the box in Linux). Also bought a quad Serial>USB adapter from the rainforest, around £20 for that - handy though.

Got the CCNA a month or two ago, using the official press books and some vids/a lab. Starting to study for the CCNP, hope to get it by Christmas. Then the CCIE.

The CCNA is as good a place as any to start if you want to head into networking, but remember that the cert will not get you a job by itself. There is a lot of competition out there and you have to stand out from the crowd in order to get noticed.

You can cover a lot of the exam objectives using GNS3. It's a lot better than Packet Tracer in terms of routing, but has almost no switching support. Personally I'm combining GNS3 with some real switches for my own lab and it works very well. Packet Tracer will get you through the exam, but hands-on time with real kit is beneficial, you need to be comfortable with real equipment if you want employers to let you manage their devices. :p

I've got Lammle's book as well as Odom's, Odom's goes into more detail, and is a Cisco Press book. Personally I'd recommend Cisco Press over Lammle's offering, which wasn't very good imo.

CBT Nuggets videos are pretty good. INE also do Cisco training videos, their CCNA series is free if you sign up on their website (no payment required). INE go into more depth than CBT Nuggets. They are also used by most people studying their CCIE.



Given the amount of people replying to this thread, perhaps we should create a thread somewhere (here or the Servers and Enterprise Solutions section) specifically for Cisco certifications. Anybody interested?
 
I have been using a combination of

CBT Nugget Videos (I have the videos for ICND1 and ICND2) although at the moment I am only studying ICND1 obviously.

The official CCENT ICND1 Cisco Third Edition book

Packet Tracer Software

And Ranet packet tracer labs for ICND1 which has about 19 labs covering pretty much the area's for the first exam
 
I have started studying for the ICND1 using cbt nuggets videos and exam prep ICND1 640-822 from the rainforest place.

I am aware that the exam changes at the end of this month so will have to splash out for the new nuggets.

I am enjoying it so far, good to see other oc/uk'ers doing it too!
 
I'm 100% sure that I will be studying this next year. Hope it is interesting. :) :p
 
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kalvindeane said:
You can buy the official books from Cisco Press, or get them off Amazon.
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Amazon/Ebay

There are e-books on the web aswel of the official guides (in pdf form) if you hunt round, only thing is you wont get the official disk with practise labs and the exam prep (simulated exam practise)
 
It's nice to see people going for this. I'm always happy to help or give some guidance. If anybody has any queries drop me a trust or see my sig for [pimp] my blog [/pimp] details (and e-mail). If it's a good enough topic I might post up about it for people to read and do a lab etc. on PT or GNS3

- GP
 
GhostlyPea said:
It's nice to see people going for this. I'm always happy to help or give some guidance. If anybody has any queries drop me a trust or see my sig for [pimp] my blog [/pimp] details (and e-mail). If it's a good enough topic I might post up about it for people to read and do a lab etc. on PT or GNS3

- GP
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What lab's? Do you make your own lab scenario's?

At the moment I am using Ranet packet tracer labs for ICND1

I also want to build myself a lab in GNS3 but not sure what sort of topology to use to get me started (I guess it depends what you are trying to achieve and test)
 
Yeah I can, and have, made my own lab scenarios. Anything from a small test scenario with EIGRP redistribution up to (recently for work) a lab involving MPLS (and MPLS VPN but lacked an image for pseudowires :() with multi-VRF, MPBGP route redistribution with EIGRP, OSPF etc. and loads of other funky bits. That's in GNS3 obviously. Really depends what people would want etc. etc. but I love helping and teaching, so doing something around this would be enjoyable. Even smaller things from the CCNA can be satisfying getting others to think about how and why something works, not just how to configure it.

PT labs are fine and a good start, official or otherwise - at the end of the day it's just practice and that's what you need. It's also good to have a target from what you want. I did have a massive "uberlab" once in GNS3 but it just diluted what I was focusing on. Sometimes smaller labs are better if you're learning or testing one thing

- GP
 
GhostlyPea said:
Yeah I can, and have, made my own lab scenarios. Anything from a small test scenario with EIGRP redistribution up to (recently for work) a lab involving MPLS (and MPLS VPN but lacked an image for pseudowires :() with multi-VRF, MPBGP route redistribution with EIGRP, OSPF etc. and loads of other funky bits. That's in GNS3 obviously. Really depends what people would want etc. etc. but I love helping and teaching, so doing something around this would be enjoyable. Even smaller things from the CCNA can be satisfying getting others to think about how and why something works, not just how to configure it.

PT labs are fine and a good start, official or otherwise - at the end of the day it's just practice and that's what you need. It's also good to have a target from what you want. I did have a massive "uberlab" once in GNS3 but it just diluted what I was focusing on. Sometimes smaller labs are better if you're learning or testing one thing

- GP
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Ahh nice :) yeah I am going to start creating some labs in GNS3 to use and start practicing some more, also using the Ranet ones.


Andy - I didn't realize they had a newer book out, mine is the CCENT/CCNA ICND1 640-822 Official Cert Guide Third Edition. Yours seems to have been released this year.
 
At the end of November I will be doing a course for CCENT (ICND1) and then CCNA (ICND2) in Jan/Feb. I've got a subscription to CBT Nuggets through my company to get a head start and also want to pick up some books.

I was looking to get this book http://www.informit.com/store/cisco-ccna-routing-and-switching-200-120-official-cert-9781587144875 which covers both exams and gives practice exams. Is this the best one to go for, or one of the other Official Cisco books, there are so many to choose from?
 
I think a good question would be what does the CCNA translate into in real world job potential? I see a lot of jobs advertise junior engineers/support only needing CCNA only if they feel they're right for the job, but are there testimonials where people have got their CCNA and then got a job out of it without needing further network qualifications? ( No matter how easy or hard)
 
AStaley - Grab both the official books from Cisco Press, that with CBT should be all the "dry" material you need. I think there are some combined lab books from Cisco too, they would be handy. if there's anything you're unsure of just post here and we can go over it

AssaTM - That's a pretty open ended question really. The CCNA as a qualification is fairly unique in that although it is Cisco based for the tech, it teaches a lot of theory that is vendor neutral. As such having it opens many pathways into a lot of jobs. You will always have the issue whereby experience is sought too. it does however depend on what type of job you're looking for. If you'e going "internal" for a job at a company then they probably have it down for a buzz-word for areas that you know. If you're going for a job that specialises in Networks then it will be more relevant. It does depend that on what the job entails.

As such, moving to a specialist role would normally require other vendor certs, be they Cisco, Juniper or other - but like everything, it's the experience that's valuable here. I know people who have no certs to their name but work in very technical roles. By the same token, certs demonstrate technical knowledge in areas that not normally dealt with. I know things because of those that I don't deal with on a day-to-day basis.

These days employers can be very picky, you have more chance getting a job with 5 years experience and numerous certs under your belt than 5 years without. Not to mention certs give companies partner statuses along with personal satisfaction and demonstration of ability and that's where they stand out. by the time I change company I'll be far more valuable to a prospective employer (and a better technician myself) with the certs than if I hadn't done any

- GP
 
I've got the CCNA and I've been searching for any type of networking role within Wales.

Even the most basic of roles are asking for 2-3 years of experience, plus exposure to Juniper/Checkpoint equipment. Most are also asking for knowledge and experience with various server technologies. The only jobs I've seen that are looking for Cisco certified individuals without exposure to other vendors equipment that I've come across are for specialist positions i.e. VOIP transitions, Firewall/IPS installations, large wireless projects.
 
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