Thinking of studying towards ccna, advice on resources?

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 all,

I've not been on here recently but since my last visit i've started a new job which mainly focuses on the SBS 2003 side of things (just started to test sbs 2008 )

A couple of our customers use Cisco kit which i have a general interest in, however im not currently allowed to touch any of it as no-one in the company has enough experience and time to completely re-configure the set up if things somehow go wrong.

With this in mind i'm thinking of studying or working towards the CCNA accreditation (or at least gain some of the knowledge towards it)

I was wondering if anyone has any advice on study materials for this besides books

Are there any videos out there or bits of software that mimic specific kit etc?

Also, has anyone here either got the accreditation or has in depth experience with setting up cisco based networks? Just so i can generally pester and ask random questions to lol

Any help much appreciated

Cheers

Ryan

 

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.

Good on you and well done on your new job. On the Cisco CCNA side of things the book written by Wendy Odell if that's the right name is the main book to go for printed by Cisco press.

You would also want to start looking at Ebay for switches and routers, the 2950 switch and the 16xx series router would do you fine for this cert.

I know a colleague of mind at work recently got a CCNA kit from Ebay which he was quite happy with for under £160.

This would help you in the practical hands on side of things, also heard good things about the Boson NetSim's.

However, Cisco also have a simulation given to their students when they attend a training course called Packet tracer. Best wishes and lets know how you proceed

 

I studied the CCNA using sybex materials(Todd Lammle) and CCNA videos here, though i have not taken the exam. For lab practises using CCNA network Visualiser here

 

I would say that for online training I have found www.e-careers.co.uk to be a good system that is very cheap comapred to many with individual courses at about £200.
One of the best colleges I have come accorss in my travels is www.justit.co.uk, based in Liverpool Street, who offer excellent facillities (£100,000 worth of cisco kit to play with last time I was there 8 years apx) and IT recuitment after.
I have also been advised (through cert forums), that Transcender have good materials also but you need to fast as they sell in dollars and they are strenghtening against the pound (especially when rates drop again today).

 

Thanks, Onoski. I'm glad someone mentioned us so I didn't look like a salesman!

Another good thing about the NetSim is that you KNOW where you can find a Boson employee's ear to grab should you need any help!

Also know that Boson creates practice exams that you can use to determine if you're ready for the "real thing". And actually, that's my line of expertise - I create them.

 

When I started studying for the CCNA it was all self taught to begin with. The open university is registered with the Cisco Net academy and you can get a copy of the latest packet tracer 5 when you are an academy user. Packet tracer IOS is accurate up to a certain point. For my CCNP Im noticing it doesnt support some of the more advanced configurations. So my best advice is to go online, get onto e-bay, look up a user called irp70 and see what he has to offer. Ive bought tonnes of router switches modules firewalls ect and they havent had any faults with them what so ever. Nothing beats the latest cirriculum, hand on experiance and when test time comes get a book like CCNA study guide 640-802 by Richard deal. It comes packed with a CD full of Boson test questions. Worth the money big time.

 

Actually, it comes packed with a CD full of Cisco Press test questions powered by the Boson Exam Engine. If you want Boson's questions, they can only be purchased on Boson's Web site.

 

That e careers site is just plain nasty looking.

 

Thanks for the replys guys, to be honest im not looking to attend a course or anything like that

more trying to learn with a hands on approach, i have access to books for referance, but to be honest reading a book never seems to work for me

is there any kit in particular that i will deffo need to have a play around with?

 

going through it I would recommend -

cisco press books as a reference
exam cram2 /or/ sybex book
Boson exam sim was actually the best i've used. Self test is what we ahd here, but I used the one out the back of the book and it highlighted some of me weaknesses.

Get that, and a router sim or test lab (prefer).

oh, for the test lab - at least 2 routers, (i used 2811's on 12.4(5b)), and 2 switches. I used 2960's:

Cisco IOS Software, C2960 Software (C2960-LANBASE-M), Version 12.2(25)SEE3, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)

That config!

 

got to agree, they jam in alot of info onto one page!
the other big players have much easier on the eye sites but they do charge 10x more and realy offer no information, just contact form for the local salesman to grab!
I was not recommending their website for an award, just for cheap courses!
I like cheap and dirty, that's why I get my "designer handbags" from the market

 

The training providers which The_Dark_Side recomended are completely not worth to looking at(e-careers.co.uk as well justit and Transcender ). In my point of few of course. They just mess to much about what are you gonna study, the cost etc.It is just stink to me. I have contacted JustIT before and their course looks impossible to finish on time and the cost is just HUGE £4500 around

I personaly recomend http://www.globalknowledge.co.uk/co...arning/cisco_self-paced_e-learning/icnd1.aspx
The Global Knowledge is site I know. I did the A+ exams on their site. That was in Wakefield.When I was there I have talk to some students who were undertaking courses there. They were happy about the quality.
Global Knowledge do not talk how much you will earn after the course and do not promise you job too. Cause they know that is depend on you mostly. I am going to take some courses with them in near future.
I have not taken any course with them yet but the company looks good to me.