Hi...

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Hey guys, came across this on another forum when it popped up as a good resource for all popular qualifications. I'm here for the Cisco stuff myself, thinking of starting studying for the CCNA sometime soon, and I'm just after some general info on which books etc people used.

Currently I'm working as a general IT support bod in a UK university, but I'm after something to push myself hence considering the CCNA (which I'm interested in even if I never actually put it to use). At the moment I'm a bit of a "jack of all trades", with experience of Windows/Unix/Linux/Netware/Cisco/3Com and plenty of other stuff, but networking (and network security) are one of the things that interests me the most.

Before I end this post, hi Mr^B and Dom/DeadMode

 

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Welcome to CF!

You'll find any help you're looking for here.

For CCNA books give Cisco Press ago.

 

Greetings

 

Hey Gavin,

If you go to the Routing & Switching forum there's a pinned thread with recommended material for the CCNA.

I used the following:-

Sybex CCNA Jumpstart (Excellent as a pre-study guide, if you're new to all this - like me!)
Todd Lammle's Sybex CCNA Study Guide (Easiest to understand)
McGraw Hill Osbourne CCNA Study Guide (More in-depth detail)
Testout CBT Labs, Course and Exam Simulation (The best all round in my opinion)
A home lab in my loft to play around with connection and configuration (Great way to learn)
www.mindtechcom.com (A useful cisco kit rack rental website for configuration and troubleshooting practice - only 50p/hour!)

Good luck!

Cactus

 

Welcome to CF!

going to have to go with simon.. cisco certs need cisco books!! well another source would be good too.. oh and dont forget google!

 

Excellent, cheers! I've been looking through the General forum, I figured any recommendations would be in there but I'll check out your thread, thanks!

I've got an ebook copy of the Todd Lammle Sybex CCNA book, which I'm probably going to purchase a dead tree version of (never realised quite how nasty reading PDFs was till I opened that 700+ page monster!), and looking at the official Cisco one as a possible alternative/complement. I'm not a complete newcomer to networking, although this will be covering new depths that I've never had to concern myself with before.

A home lab will be the next thing, I think once I've had a glance through the books I'll probably be posting here again to see what kind of kit is recommended. I've had a look on ebay, and people seem to be listing just about anything as being CCNA suitable, from 1700 series right through to 4000 series. I'm guessing that anything running IOS will probably do? Also, can you upgrade older devices (some of the 1700's come with version 10.x or 11.x IOS) to the current 12.4?

 

Lo Gav.

 

Gavin,

I used 2500 Routers and 2950 Switches in my home lab - not sure what ios version they were but in the mid 11s and 12s.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you need at least version 11.2 (I think) for things like named access lists. Ios can be upgraded (see the cisco.com site for the manuals etc.)

The CCNA course requires config knowledge of the 1900 and 2950 switch which have some different commands.

The Todd Lammle book is on Amazon.co.uk and is only 16 quid odd.

Cheers!

Cactus

 

Greetings, Gavin. Welcome to CF.

 

OK then, so I'm looking at maybe 2 x 2500 + 1900 + 2950 to cover almost everything? I think I may be able to borrow a 2950 from work, so hopefully I won't have to lay out for that particular model.

The new features in new IOS versions is precisely the reason I was asking about upgrading, I wasn't sure whether some of the really old stuff still running on 10.x would take a 12.x image, or whether they were too end of line similar to the way hardware manufacturers will eventually just drop driver support for certain models and talk you into upgrading.

I've got a couple of CCNA books on my Amazon wishlist now, just want to get opinions on them (ie what they cover, writing style) from people who may have used them previously.

 

I've never met a Gavin who prefers it to Gav, so welcome Gav - hope we can help

 

G'day Gav

 

Welcome to the forum Gav.

 

Hello