Are Cisco Fair to Candidates

I have nothing against Cisco, they seem to publish a lot of information about configs etc on the web which is freely available to anyone who wishes to access them.

However, as a CCNA Sec candidate I find my hands tied regarding access to the software they mention in their approved literature.

I have CCP, but this was not obtained via Cisco. I cannot access ACS or other high-end security software nor can I get IPS signatures to load into GNS via their site without creating a CCO account.

My current employer does not deal with Cisco; we are small operation and use non-Cisco equipment so therefore do not have a Cisco representative to schmooze and allow us to have an account with download capabilities.

Even the supposed bad guys of the IT world, MS, make time limited evaluation copies of the OS for potential candiates to use/break, why can't Cisco do the same?

On the plus side I enjoy the Cisco studies, but feel the aspects of the learning are a bit fraudulent in that you are cramming instead of getting to try it out for yourself.

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Comments

theodoxa

CCP is available through cisco.com. That said, I agree with you. Cisco makes it impossible to obtain a lot of their software through "proper" channels. This is because they focused their policies on business customers. These policies work well when you're dealing with companies, but they fail hard when people want to learn the technologies. Microsoft has come around (Express Versions, Dreamspark, MSDN AA/Dreamspark Premium), but that is more recent. When I was in College, I had to buy all my MS software, because that was before Dreamspark and Express Versions. Hopefully, Cisco will see the light as MS did and offer Express (limited) Versions of their software and/or create a system for candidates to obtain the software legitimately.

azaghul

Cisco don't always make it easy, but I don't think it is that bad...

CCP, CNA, CCA software (and much more) are available free free, L2 switch IOS (and some L3 IOS) are available for free via Cisco/Support/Downloads...yes you need to setup a CCO account, but a guest account will do

ACS, vNAM, Cisco Prime software (and more) are available in time limited form (60 or 90 days) via the Cisco Marketplace site, again the same CCO guest account will do

Its been a while since I registered for a guest account, but it is little different to having to fill in your details on some sites to download a trial copy...MS allows download without registering now, but once your CCO account is registered you are right to go...it may not be as convenient as we'd like, but its also not as bad as it could be...no, not everything is available for download/trial from Cisco, but as said above...Cisco's main focus is medium/large business and their partner network, not the individual/candidates

PS: and no I'm not a Cisco employee banging the Cisco corporate drum (i do have access to our corporate CCO account, which doesn't always let me download what I'd like

)

bamahonky

I agree with you. Cisco does make it somewhat difficult to obtain software for labs. My suggestion would expand on Packet Tracer. Maybe give it all the features that would be required to test for any associate level exam. For example CCP within Packet Tracer. I have noticed that they have expanded it lately and may be moving in that direction. I read somewhere that the latest edition of PT includes an ASA but with only CLI access though. Its a step in the right direction though.

theodoxa

bamahonky wrote: »

I agree with you. Cisco does make it somewhat difficult to obtain software for labs. My suggestion would expand on Packet Tracer. Maybe give it all the features that would be required to test for any associate level exam. For example CCP within Packet Tracer. I have noticed that they have expanded it lately and may be moving in that direction. I read somewhere that the latest edition of PT includes an ASA but with only CLI access though. Its a step in the right direction though.

I would love to see CCNP (at least R&S) supporting PT. As it stands, there's no Layer 3 Etherchannel, no PVLAN support, no iBGP, and their implementation of HSRP didn't work correctly when I tried it (I configured the exact same commands on real switches and it worked perfectly, so it was a PT problem)

networker050184

I think Cisco's aim is to have professionals working on their gear certified. Not people sitting at home never touching the equipment. They have certainly done a lot to ensure people without access in their professional life have resources, but it's probably not their main objective. It's companies paying good money to send their employees to training classes.

MTciscoguy

One of their main objectives is getting their business customers employees trained to work on their equipment that the company has purchased or leased, they, like many big companies are not really worried about the lone home study guy banging away trying to get certified. That is why there is so many aftermarket guys that offer training. I have seen large companies in the past, completely block any access to their stuff unless you worked for a business partner and the business partner wanted you to be trained on their protocols. IBM used to do this all of the time as did many of the other big time players before the internet became so prevalent.