Which CCNA Course?

Discussion in 'General Cisco Certifications' started by alfa145, Oct 22, 2007.

  1. alfa145

    alfa145 Bit Poster

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    Background:
    I work for a small, recently started IT company supporting small - medium businesses. Our services are outsourced ranging from acting as an IT management service through to desktop support and everything in between.

    When the company started I was taken on to front the technical side - I had previous server & project management experience (from NT to W2K with a small element of various flavours of Linux).

    I now have an interest in Cisco kit, which stemmed from me learning firewalling on WatchGuard's offerings years ago. A customer we took on already had a Cisco 501 firewall, it needed to have an IP address changed. From there I got a spare and started playing with it, and we have now implemented some Cisco kit at other customers (mostly 2610's, 501's & now ASA 5505's).

    I have setup site to site VPN, remote user VPN, I have a moderate understanding of ACLs etc - this I have picked up by playing with spare kit, and reading as much as I can, mostly from the net. I had nobody that I knew who could give me any guidance on the Cisco kit.

    I now want to take it to the next level and further my Cisco knowledge and try to move into the Cisco arena more - I doubt this will happen at my current company, so I am looking for a Cisco course and then to subsequently take the CCNA exam.

    My local Uni offers a 40 week course in doing the CCNA (4 parts, 2 evenings a week, 10 weeks each part), for £250 each part = £1000 for the entire course.

    I am lucky in my location that I have london on my doorstep and found BCOC are offering an 8 day bootcamp for £690. (3 hours on a Saturday). One advantage is that I can take the exam there as well.

    Also the OU are offering the CCNA course but the detail is kind of vague, especially as to where the day sessions will be.

    I am a little unsure which course I should go on - a more thorough but longer course or a more crammed bootcamp. I can pick things up quite quickly and I learn best through reading the theory then trying to apply it hands on. 40 weeks is a long time, but will I ensure I cover enough on the bootcamp course?

    Or should I look at the self study route? My fear of doing this is the lack of guidance from a tutor if I'm going wrong!

    Please help me, thanks!
     
  2. alfa145

    alfa145 Bit Poster

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    Is this the correct book for the self study:

    CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Exam Certification Guide Series)
     
  3. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Hi and welcome to CF. To be honest don't waste your money on training or boot camps as these are geared towards those with lots of practical real life work environment experience.

    I'd strongly advise you get the study CCNA book by Cisco press coupled with Boson similator or better still some second hand router and switches from ebay. You'd almost spend less than you're currently contemplating for boot camps or training centres.

    Trust me you can't go wrong with self study as long as you have the determination coupled with hard work as you'd learn a lot this way. Lastly, with the little experience you currently have you can only but build up on it. Cheerio and let's know what you decide on, hopefully it would be the self study route:biggrin
     
    Certifications: MCSE: 2003, MCSA: 2003 Messaging, MCP, HNC BIT, ITIL Fdn V3, SDI Fdn, VCP 4 & VCP 5
    WIP: MCTS:70-236, PowerShell
  4. alfa145

    alfa145 Bit Poster

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  5. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    The price of the small lab seems reasonable for the price and should be suffice for the CCNA course and self study route. I would also get the 2950 series of switch from ebay as well with a 12 port, its just that it's more current but similar terminology either way.

    I would check on Cisco's web site under training and education to get precise and accurate course info including recommended training and study materials. Cheerio as I hope this helps.
     
    Certifications: MCSE: 2003, MCSA: 2003 Messaging, MCP, HNC BIT, ITIL Fdn V3, SDI Fdn, VCP 4 & VCP 5
    WIP: MCTS:70-236, PowerShell
  6. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Another vote for self-study. You need books and materials that relate to the 640-802 CCNA exam, 640-822 ICND1 exam, and/or the 640-816 ICND2 exam (the ICND1 and ICND2 exams together are basically the same as the single CCNA exam).
     
    Certifications: CISSP, MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCSE: Messaging, MCDST, MCDBA, MCTS, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
    WIP: Just about everything!
  7. alfa145

    alfa145 Bit Poster

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    Thanks chaps, I've ordered the cisco book CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Exam Certification Guide Series) as it is the recommended book for the CCNA for the new 802 exam on the Cisco site.

    I'll get some lab kit off ebay and then we can get playing :) I mean studying...
     

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