Official - started CCNA.

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.

OK, so here's the deal. Even tho' I am YEA close to completing the MCSA (only had half of the 218 left to complete), I have taken a major decision.

Since I have not touched the 218 since the New Year (new job just didn't give me the time) I would have had to start all over again. But now, I have received the CCNA book through my previous course provider, and that has jolted me back into gear. So now I've decided to go for it with CCNA.

My work has a fair bit of Cisco kit, so that should give me a bit of hands-on experience when needed. I am fairly daunted by the thought of going for it, so any advice and encouragement will be more than gratefully received - thanks in advance.

I'm sure I must be mad ..............

 

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.

Your going with what you think is the right thing to do.
I my book I have total for that.

Good on U and good look.

So what's CCNA alla bout then.Is it lik setting up routers and that.Never really looked into what all this Cisco stuff is about.

 

Thanks for the support, Flex - I appreciate that. Yeah, Cisco is the nuts and bolts, ect, of putting networks together, from LANs to Enterprises.

I know I'm throwing myself into the Lions Den on this, but I reckon it's now or never. At least I got a couple of hours reading the book at work tonight (thank goodness the world's internet connections seemed OK - wouldn't have had a chance otherwise)

 

Yes, you probably are. Good luck, Gav.

 

If your mainly using cisco kit then your a few paced ahead of where I started for the CCNA. Needless to say, know everything that is in the books/"on the courses". I used the Cisco Press kit books (ISBN 1-58720-095-3) which had the Intro and ICND books in it. I also had the Sybex book for the 607 exam and much of the material in there is still relivent, but can't be used by its self as some stuff like IPX has been dropped and other stuff like OSPF has been added. I would also recommned using something like Boson questions to gauge your readyness for the exam and not use them to try and "pre" empt the questions.

About the exam The Router sims are relaistic and you don't need to save the config to get the points (see blog page for details) Unless you feel you need to break the material down I'd just go the 801 route, rather than the 821 and 811 route (pun intended) as it covers everying anyway and your going to get less questions on ISDN, NAT/PAT and some of the other fringe elements of material. Notice I said LESS, not none

Also as I say on the blog page, the passing score is 78.6% and not 85% as it first appears, which in the first instance makes things seem a little easier :-o

The sites I mentioned on the blog are both FREE, those being r1r2.com and free-labs.com. They were invaluable for me (and many many others) as they allow you to setup and config the various options needed for the exam (and real life).

R1R2.com is sometimes busy and several of the routers are down (6 pairs of 2500 routers, running IOS 12), but its a good site, and once on its yours till you've finished. good for getting to know the IOS and how the various routing protocols work.

Free-Labs.com is much more geared towards what you need to be looking for when you've got a good grip of the IOS and have done most of th reading and want to put it all to practice. I would however recommend booking WELL inadvance as its usually booked up for 6-8 weeks ahead. Sometimes you can get on tomorrow, becuase someone has not confirmed their time slot, but you've got to be QUICK or someone else will take the slot. You can get to use frame-relay configs and see how they work. (Config you get to use for the time slot is 1 2950 switch, 3 pairs of routers and another one setup for a frame-relay hub), which is more than you need to pass the test.

To finish the exam is a fair test of the material you'll learn, its not easy, but its not imposilbe to pass either.

 

Thanks for that Japes - I appreciate the advice

No more thinking about it for tonight - I'll investigate all those resources over the course of the next week, and plan my strategy from there.

Hope you all don't mind me asking some dumb questions in the meantime ......

 

Good Luck with it Gav

http://www.celticrover.com/tig/ccna/ccnareviews.asp

Is really, really good and some good music on it too

Righty, I am off to write up my next bit of work for my OU course.

 

Great link - thanks Sandy

EDIT:Superb link !!!!

 

Good luck with the CCNA Gav!

Do a bit here, a bit there and it will all mount up. The fact you have some hands on with Cisco kit will really help, and if you have a spare router you could plug in and use as a test box this would be ideal.

Again good luck and feel free to ask any questions.....

(That is if i can remeber much from the course as it was 2 years ago!!)

:roll:

 

Good luck with it GAV.


I managed to get through the CCNA on my second attempt - but unlike you, I don't work in the industry.

Nobody in this forum can break our disclosure agreements, so specific help becomes akward. All I will say is that do the single exam, not the two exam route. The two exam route involved more questions on the peripherals of the syllabus. Make sure you can subnet in your head. (The Todd Lammle book is brilliant for this.) Also, make sure you are comfortable with router configuration tasks. (Again, Lammle - Deluxe Edn has one). Don't even think about registering for your exam unless you can do both of these.

Good luck & keep us posted (sorry about the pun) on your progress.

 

Well, firstly, Hi ScoobyDoo and Thanks for the kind words of encouragement, BUT ....


I have to 'fess up to being a let-down here, as that post was a LONG time ago, and I have since updated my profile to say basically I am too busy to find the time to fully commit to CCNA (Yup, that's right, folks - "Hiatus" ain't some exotic Carribean resort)

For what it's worth, I'm now contemplating finishing my MCSA, but we'll see ....

 

tut tut gav. well, for a (smallish) fee i could sit those exams for ya! although, being that i know nothing about them, you might be taking a risk but hey - you may walk away with a cert! lol

Fergal

 

lol Thanks for the kind offer, Fergal


However, I'd rather just be honest and say I aint doing what I said I'd do, than mislead you all

 

for a large fee i will sit those exams for you
and i already have em ;)

seems like a better deal than fergals if you ask me
LOL

 

Jak, re subnetting. I am pretty sure I posted an article on subnetting, but cannot seem to find it now. If it is not in the archives, then let me know and I will post it. Nothing special about it expect it is in plain english, uses examples and other forums I have posted to have got a lot of positive feedback.

Let me know and I will dig it out and get it posted for all.

just read the whole post. Hey Ho! if anyone else thinks it will be useful then no probs

 

Dreec,
I wouldn't mind having a look at the article if you get chance to post it. Need to get my head round subnetting so any help would be great

Ta
J