The CCNA/Cisco Certifications Thread

kalvindeane · 17 Oct 2013 at 21:29

Indeed.

As I said previously, if you find GNS3 is limiting you too much then you can access my lab when the time comes.

edgedemon · 17 Oct 2013 at 21:29

Can we not ask a mod to move this to the networks forum and make it a sticky.
I remember seeing this a while back and it took me a while to find it as the S&E thread was the last place to look for it.
Too useful a resource for people to miss it...

kalvindeane · 17 Oct 2013 at 21:32

It's up to you guys really.

Cisco are a vendor used in large enterprises and not in home environments. Hence I thought it'd be best in here. I'd rather it be in the forum where it'll be most helpful, whatever forum it is. Perhaps we could even have this thread in the networks forum and then have a sticky link in S&E to the thread?

DJMK4 · 17 Oct 2013 at 21:35

Probably be best under the networking section and see if we can get it as a sticky

kalvindeane · 17 Oct 2013 at 21:36

I'll ask one of the mods then

V-Spec · 17 Oct 2013 at 23:57

kalvindeane said:
In response to V-Spec's comment on RIPv2 in ICND1, they've removed RIP and introduced OSPF.

Didn't know that! but it makes it more interesting,

When I deliver training sessions on stuff to do with IGPs I normally build scenarios based on the "fish topology" to help people better understand how metrics and path selection work, and the sort of things that happen when everything isn't totally perfect.

oli356 · 18 Oct 2013 at 07:47

DJMK4 said:
I am trying to work out a good base topology to get me going, does this look ok so far? obviously there is no links yet. I want to create a few clusters of host machines in different VLAN's.

Can anyone tell me if I am missing anything or needs adjusting, I will be creating a few different topologies based on what I run in to, but wanted to get something set-up.

There is no links yet

Personally I'd use routers as client computers, I've fever quite understood those things in gns3. With a router just do:
no ip routing
Ip default-gateway x.x.x.x

At least then you can ping and trace route easily.

Xez · 18 Oct 2013 at 08:13

V-Spec said:
Didn't know that! but it makes it more interesting,

When I deliver training sessions on stuff to do with IGPs I normally build scenarios based on the "fish topology" to help people better understand how metrics and path selection work, and the sort of things that happen when everything isn't totally perfect.

RIP is still in the course but yes as OSPFv3 is out that is what is introduced in the ICND1 and explained more in 2. I'm doing OSPF this morning along with IPV6

Deception · 18 Oct 2013 at 08:20

Just noticed this thread, nice idea! Currently have my CCNA: Security and looking at tackling the CCNP next, although I may start with route because of the ability to use GNS3 to help with it.

hamesy · 18 Oct 2013 at 09:11

I still haven't got round to doing my Cisco certs

It's on my list of things to do, so seeing this thread might give me the kick I need.

What books do you guys recommend? I've got a couple of the official CCNA/CCENT cert guides but find them difficult to read.

Also I agree about getting this as a sticky.

Xez · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:09

hamesy said:
I still haven't got round to doing my Cisco certs

It's on my list of things to do, so seeing this thread might give me the kick I need.

What books do you guys recommend? I've got a couple of the official CCNA/CCENT cert guides but find them difficult to read.

Also I agree about getting this as a sticky.

I find it very hard to read, I find the CBT Nuggets series (videos) very good to watch though. With the course material I have four books just for the ICND1 and then a fast lane lab book.

kalvindeane · 18 Oct 2013 at 14:45

Xez said:
RIP is still in the course

Is this a Netacademy course? If so then I don't think it reflects on the actual exam, since RIP isn't in the exam objectives:

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/exams/list/icnd1b.html#~Topics

Personally I find Wendell Odom's books to be brilliant. A lot of Cisco documentation goes in to great detail and can be very dry, just like the official Cisco Press books.
If you want something that's written in plain English, Tod Lammle has books on the CCNA. I don't know if he's revised them for the new exams though.

CBT Nuggets are great. Personally I find that INE go in to more depth though. Plus the INE CCNA videos are free, unlike CBT Nuggets which requires a sub.

oli356 said:
Personally I'd use routers as client computers, I've fever quite understood those things in gns3. With a router just do:
no ip routing
Ip default-gateway x.x.x.x

At least then you can ping and trace route easily.

I like to use VMs in VirtualBox for clients. Then you can set up a couple of servers for things like 802.1x, syslog, snmp, ntp etc.

DJMK4 · 18 Oct 2013 at 15:01

I have just configured VPCS in GNS3, to act as virtual PC's, these give you a cmd prompt style box which allows you to run pings/traceroutes, saves having to use additional routers to simulate end hosts (and take up more CPU load/memory)

Guide can be found here..

http://www.gns3.net/documentation/gns3/adding-hosts-to-your-topologies

If you are running the latest version of GNS3, you dont need to download any files for VPCS, as it comes installed (if you install the full package), you will just need to configure it

Xez · 18 Oct 2013 at 16:27

kalvindeane said:
Is this a Netacademy course? If so then I don't think it reflects on the actual exam, since RIP isn't in the exam objectives:

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/exams/list/icnd1b.html#~Topics

Personally I find Wendell Odom's books to be brilliant. A lot of Cisco documentation goes in to great detail and can be very dry, just like the official Cisco Press books.
If you want something that's written in plain English, Tod Lammle has books on the CCNA. I don't know if he's revised them for the new exams though.

CBT Nuggets are great. Personally I find that INE go in to more depth though. Plus the INE CCNA videos are free, unlike CBT Nuggets which requires a sub.

I like to use VMs in VirtualBox for clients. Then you can set up a couple of servers for things like 802.1x, syslog, snmp, ntp etc.

Nope, still learnt a bit about RIP though but it's mainly EIGRP and OSPF and only a short introduction and that comes in the ICND2. Wendell has been mentioned quite a bit as being probably the best and most relevant.

GhostlyPea · 18 Oct 2013 at 17:22

RIP is usually included from a legacy aspect, although realistically you would never use it, it is however handy seeing it to understand the security flaws and operation mode (as its still a Distance Vector)

- GP

oli356 · 18 Oct 2013 at 18:36

kalvindeane said:
I like to use VMs in VirtualBox for clients. Then you can set up a couple of servers for things like 802.1x, syslog, snmp, ntp etc.

Hmm, for a lab environment at least a study lab I don't quite see the need for any of them! Mind you.. I have yet to use SNMP and I'm currently trying to get it to work on a ASR 9010, just testing the code (4.2.3) and one of the test cases is to make sure I can send SNMP traps, the other is an SNMP poll. Think my main confusion is the software!

NTP should be run from an IOS device anyway, Windows is rubbish for this

Our lab has a GPS clock for our time source and then we use 1841s (7200s sometimes) as NTP servers for testing.

kalvindeane · 18 Oct 2013 at 22:49

I don't use Windows VMs.

I use them for other things too, so I integrate them into the lab.

kalvindeane · 23 Oct 2013 at 23:36

Think I'll reschedule my SWITCH exam because I don't feel 100% confident that I'll pass it.

What's new with you guys?

martin5454 · 24 Oct 2013 at 13:42

Awesome thread! just what i was looking for. After quite sometime I finally found someone selling used Cisco devices in Thailand today. I ordered 2 x 2621xm and a 3550, still looking for a 2950. Cant wait to play!

Been trying to get the CCNA for a while now, I keep burning out while preparing for the final exam. The basic concepts sink in quickly enough but I think get myself in trouble with exam dumps. In the past I have ended up spending more time trying to memorize questions then actually understanding the subject.

V-Spec · 24 Oct 2013 at 14:20

martin5454 said:
The basic concepts sink in quickly enough but I think get myself in trouble with exam dumps. In the past I have ended up spending more time trying to memorize questions then actually understanding the subject.

It always ends in tears.

On Monday I interviewed a guy who had 13 years experience and the following certifications:

CCNP
CCIP
CCDP
CCNA
And his IE written

The position was for a senior design engineer for one of our biggest SP clients so you'd have thought he'd know a thing or two.. He didn't know anything, couldn't explain anything - even the simple concepts, he sort of knew a few very basic bits but it was a total waste of time.

Every other person I interview seems to be like this now, there seems to be a big group of people going around getting interviews, in the hope they'll one day manage to blag their way through lol..