hello folks

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Hey everyone, my name's Ben. I poked around here for a while before I decided to join; found a lot of great discussion and useful info. So in that regard cheers to you!

What brings me here is this: I took some very thorough CCNA classes through a free technical division of the public school system over here in the US, right at the end of my high school. I did real well and strongly enjoyed it, but never actually tested for my cert and became distracted with some...other...things directly after school.

At any rate, I've had my fun and when the dust settled, I realized I was still drawn to that material and line of employment. I've got some IT experience now, and I would like to re-learn all this. I'm not at all interested in a boot camp-style course, and I also don't know that I'd like to go through a full year+ of school for information I'll probably re-absorb quickly.

To get to the point (finally), I am seriously considering self-study. I got a lot of information (mostly from here) about what would comprise a solid home lab for the most accurate practice environment. I've also decided tentatively on the first book I'll study; I'm leaning towards the CCNA Preparation Library, 7th Edition, from Cisco Press.

What I am most interested in now, and have not been able to find easily, is where I can find a really complete and high-quality collection of lab scenarios. To clarify, I'm hoping to find lab setups on paper/pdf that have scripted scenarios that I would then need to physically set-up and configure. If I absolutely have to come up with my own scenarios and fictional set-ups, I will...but something tells me this stuff is out there already somewhere.

I haven't had any trouble looking into simulations and e-labs; what I'm talking about is actual scripted ideas using my home lab effectively. I really welcome any discussion and opinions about anything I've brought up; thanks a ton for listening and sorry I'm so long-winded!

--Ben

 

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Hi and welcome to CF!

There are plenty of people here who know their stuff on Cisco and I'm sure they'll come by soon.

Are you actualy working in a networking environment at the moment? Because if you are then discussion with your co-workers would help here along with the home-study.

Harry.

 

Hi there and welcome

 

Hi & welcome to CF

NB

 

Welcome to the forums! What are your current responsibilities in IT? Do you have any real-world experience with Cisco devices?

I don't generally use this forum to advertise... but Boson offers lab scenarios in our NetSim for CCNA 7.0 product, which simulates a Cisco network. I realize you're not looking for a simulator, but it's certainly something to consider.

Other than the labs that are found in study guides, I don't really know of any good-quality lab scenarios out there.

 

Agreed, some good labs are probably in the official study guides . I know some (maybe all) the CCNP modules have lab portfolios, but I haven't seen the same for the CCNA. Another place, in addition to the regulars like Transcender, and Boson's CCNA netsim which includes specific labs, is The Bryant Advantage (no idea of quality).

Welcome to the forums...

 

wussup,

Welcome to CF

 

Hi Welcome

 

To my knowledge, Transcender does not have a Cisco simulator or CCNA lab package.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, and all the information given so far. I really like this place already.

A further question--

So this clearly implies that I can find what I'm looking for directly through Cisco; that's exactly what I was hoping. I think part of the problem is I've become a bit overwhelmed with the sheer volume of what's available on Cisco's site, and I'm struggling a bit to make sense of it. In the book Cisco Press I was interested in CCNA Preparation Library, 7th Edition, will I find lab scenarios to try out on my equipment at home?

I couldn't find mention of a lab manual or anything like that. Likewise I didn't find one in the CCNA section of Cisco Press either. What am I missing?

Thanks everyone!

 

I think we covered this before
Well, the other 2 I mentioned are still valid

 

Well... I wasn't gonna mention that... but since you brought it up...

 

If you like the community, the best thing you can do is to continue to post. Thus, you become part of that community.

To be honest, I don't have that book, so I don't know what lab scenarios it has, if any. There are a few scenarios in the Cisco Press Exam Certification Guides.

 

Thanks for the info folks. I wonder, would it be a good idea to post these questions in the Cisco forums as well...? I'd probably get a bigger audience there, yeah? The issue I'm running into is that this book is BRAND new. The table of contents is empty at Cisco Press, and no reviews really exist yet either.

I'm just hoping to find out if labs typically come with this particular curriculum. Sorry, not trying to beat a dead horse.

As far as my IT experience--I'm just the lead PC technician at a major electronics retailer over in the U.S. I'm way underpaid, and only challenged in the regard of having too much work and not enough time to do it. Its good to be getting paid to work with PCs, I'm happy about that. It'd just be nice to get the training wheels off so to speak and get myself into a position with a company where I can really feel useful, rather than just feeling like I'm here to salvage the profit margin of a failing retail organization.

Know what I'm saying? At any rate, its been nice meeting you all! I'm sure I'll learn a lot here!

 

It's probably just like the previous edition of the book, with a few old concepts stripped out and a few new concepts thrown in. I'm sure someone will be able to answer your question. If you want, you can post it in the Cisco forum, but I'm sure that most of the regulars will see your question here as well.

Well, the problem is... the CCNA is designed for techs who already have a bit of experience administering networks and are starting to dabble with Cisco device administration... merely getting the certification won't help you get you make the jump to that level.

Have you considered the A+ and Network+ to start out with? Considering your PC tech experience, those should be a breeze, and will be great to validate the experience you've already got. Next, the MCDST can help you to move up to a desktop support job, where you might even be able to start assisting the server admins. In this way, you take one step at a time towards your goal of doing network administration work.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for all the help folks!! I really appreciate the advice.

 

Welcome to CF!