Ccent/ccna icnd1

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Morning Everyone from snowy Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Just looking for some general advice.

Background

I currently work in IT as a 1st/2nd line IT Support .
I have full access to profile resets, AD account creation, software installs, password resets, exchange advanced etc, so I would say its more 2nd line than anything.

I am 27 years old, and I have been giving the CCENT book from one of our network guys.
Recently got the CBT Nugget access and I have the videos for this certification.

I plan on reading a chapter and then video, make relevant notes and then progress.

I have a couple of questions

I am interested in starting my own lab from home, as advised on previous posts by member craigie and others, is this reccomended?

In terms of career advancement, is there much demand for ccent qualified guys?

How much does the exam cost?

any other advice would be ideal, getting started this morning when I'm off on holiday from work until thursday.

thanks again, great forum.

graham

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi Graham,

Good to see you here, and wanting to take on a new challenge!

First of all the big question I suppose, does this certification get you anywhere and is it in demand? The answer ofcorse is yes.

I would say the main question is, are you wanting to pursue a career in networking? If so then I would continue studying the CCENT, otherwise since your mainly a server admin guy, and you are just looking for some valuable networking skills I would advise looking at the N+ certification.

1. Home lab - is a must if you ask me, you can learn the material from the book and videos. More important than that is can you implement the skills on the live kit? You can pick up a starter lab from ebay for around £100, or use a Cisco router / switching emulator such as packet tracer or GNS3.

2. Demand for network engineers is high, more so I would say than server admins imo.

3. Exam cost, I think its about £120. I took mine about a year ago can't quite remember you can get the price by looking at pearsonvue.com

Other advice; looks like a great way of studying book then videos then lab.

Good luck, if you need any help with labs etc... I'm happy to help.

 

Hi thanks for your reply

Yeah I'm looking to pursue a career in networking.

When I look over job specs online, there doesnt appear to be as many candidates applying for the networking type jobs, however I am really enjoying at the moment, learning about the OSI model currently on the CBT, which is also fairly straight forward, will probably starting getting tricky when we go into tcp/Ip a bit further and subnets which I know alot of people dread.

My father has some cisco kit at home, hes going to dig these out for me, and I've looked on ebay so fingers crossed.

I looked on the website and it was showing as £85.00 for the exam, but im just hoping I was clicking on the right option.
It says

Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 1 640-822?

thanks guys..

 

Hi .

Looking at the skills/job you are doing as described I would think of most of the jobs as being 1st line. Moving to networks you are effectively switching to first line network or moving towards an all round IT guy. That's absolutely fine if that's what you want to do, just so you know it goes towards what Braderz was saying about career choice. What do you want to be doing in 5 yrs?

In terms of learning I can't recommend CBT nuggets enough, especially the networking ones with Jeremy they are great and you will learn alot and the official books are decent as well. GNS3 is not really required at CCNA, I do recommend getting hold of packet tracer though and playing with some real kit, some 2950 switches (max 2) and some 2600 routers (max 3) but any real kit experience is great and they are generally dirt cheap on ebay.

Good IT people are always in demand, server side, client side or network side.

 

Yeah they are Brilliant.

I've just finished the TCP Ip section, learning about different classes of IP a.b.c, private and Public addresses etc. Learning so much. Its becoming a little addictive because I had planned to study 1 chapter/video per day, but I've been bored today, so done 3 videos, and a couple of chapters, going to slow down.

The exam is booked in for june.

My only concern is creating the labs etc, do the CBT nuggets have walkthoughs about implementing a small home based network? os it is purely theory?

I'm sure theres some books on setting up a home lab.

enjoying it though.

 

On Amazon look for Paul Browning's book titled 101 Labs for the Cisco CCNA Exam, it's for the Kindle but amazon offers free PC reader as well as a free app for the iPhone/iPad.

For a home lab if you have access to Cisco Packet Tracer you can use that, but for a physical lab a couple routers and a couple switches will do it for you, just search around on Google for something written in the last year or two for what routers/switches that is recommended but it all depends on your budget. But get some labbing in before you take the exam otherwise you will have some problems when you hit the simulation questions on the exam.

GW

 

Thanks mate
I have currently

The CBT nuggets ISDN1
The ISDN 1 Book
planning on getting the bosot network similar.

To give a little more background.

I have vmware, installed XP on macbook pro and plan on buying the network simulator and run this from there, would this be ok?

I have a few questions though.

1- Will running a windows xp virtual machinen be ok?
2- Is there anythinge else I could do to help me along the way?

thanks again guys, brilliant advice. Im currently using my 1 hour lunch for 45 minute of studying.

-----------------------
thanks again.

 

hi mate, did you get my message a few days ago?
I'm also from Newcastle and im studying the CompTIA Network + exam and i seem to be at the same kind of stage as you in the learning steps, OSI model etc.

Msg me if you wanna share pointers etc.

Ta mate

 

I'm from Newcastle too!!

I just passed the Net+ a couple of weeks ago - had to drive all the way down to Stockton to do the test!

Im doing the A+ at the mo and then intend to enrol on the Open University CCNA course (starts October). Figure that gives me plenty of time to rattle a few harder bits off before the start of the course. Decided to go for the OU course as I feel I will really benefit from the structure and get a bit more out of it.

Did the Net+ and doing the A+ just with self study.

Good luck to you both!

 

Wey!!! How many toon lads!!
Would love to hear from you about how you found the exam!
I dont the A+ at the end of 2011 and really need to get the Network + exam done soon.

Why did you have to do the test in Stockton? there are test centers up here too, one in washington. I done my A+ at QA at central station but you cant do prometric exams there anymore.

Anyway, give me a message or email if you wanna chat about exams etc.